Tuesday 30 October 2012

One foot in front of the other.

The Beginning

September 2011. Lazy. Tired. Grumpy. Weight 250lbs. Ate like crap, felt like crap. Life was crap. If it didn't come easy I didn't do it. I was a poor example for the most important people in my life; my wife and kids. Something had to change. I did a lot of finger pointing before this day, how other people should be, how they should act, what they should do. One particular day it hit me. I was the proverbial pot calling the kettle black. I had to change. I needed to be the catalyst. My oldest son had decided to start running; seeing that he may need some encouragement I decided to start running too. 

I knew that my friend Mike what I should do, how I should do it, what kind of shoes I should wear, etc. etc. He directed me towards websites for running, nutrition, and training. From there I Googled everything and anything about running. I found more than enough information about what to do, how to do it, what I should do before, during, after, in between, while resting, while sleeping...I think you get the point, and if you are reading this you've probably done the same. I followed all sorts of suggestions, rules, and guidelines; many conflicting with one another. I figured out what I was going to do from the plethora of knowledge I had been dealt and applied that knowledge to a running routine signed up for a half-marathon, selected a training program from the runforlife.ca website and got on my way.

My first few months of runs were the hardest. I remember telling myself "just keep moving, don't stop to walk, you can do this". I would come home and lay on the floor huffing and puffing, completely beet red and unable to move after a short run around the block. I didn't know how far I had gone, or for how long. Then I bought my Garmin (I love my Garmin, that's another Blog in itself) I was running 3 and 4k runs at about a 9min/k pace. Day after day I felt stronger, I pushed harder and harder. I was speeding up, short distances were becoming easier to run, I was becoming more confident. My old clothes no longer fit. I had lost 40 lbs. by Christmas. My lovely wife bought running gear for Christmas, I was no longer running in old t-shirts and track pants. I was official looking now.

Let the games begin

I had a run with Mike in December of 2011; he suggested that if I wanted to sign up for a race he would pace me. I decided to sign up for the Mississauga half-marathon. It was time to get serious. In the New Year I began a 16 week beginner half-marathon program. The program had me doing 3 runs per week: one each of speed and tempo runs, and a long run on the weekend. I remember printing the program out and seeing that it wanted me to warm up for 1.5k do intervals or tempo for an amount of time or distance and then a cool down for 1k. I remember poo-pooing the idea altogether for one day. That day was horrible. I felt worse than I had before I'd ever had before I began running. The next day I started the routine. 

Mike and I had a practice run a couple of weeks before the race, he told me not to wear my Garmin (I felt totally naked). We ran 18km that day, my final long run before the race. I was pumped! It was taper time...

Race Day

Fast forward to May 6, 2012. I weighed 195lbs. I had completed my training, ate right, and was ready. I had three goals: 

  1. Finish the race
  2. Finish the race in under 2 hours
  3. Finish in 1:55
Up to that time my tempo runs had been at about a 6min/k pace. Something I was oblivious to was how fast I would have to run to get my #3 goal. I thought it was impossible, really I did. That was the day I stopped believing what my mind wanted me to believe. 

PLACE: 918 TIME:1:57:43.4 CHIP: 1:55:02.7 PACE:5:28 
CATEGORY: M40-49 CAT. PLACE: 183/345 GENDER PLACE: 613/1238

I was hooked. This was the new me. Everything had changed, just by putting one foot in front of the other.


Sunday 28 October 2012

Pumpkin Summit 2012

This was a special day; Sandy and I were running the same race, her first "official" race ever. My first trail race. We had been practising trail running at the local conservation area every weekend for the past few weeks. Good thing we did, however nothing could prepare us for what we were to face. 

Cool morning started this day off...what to wear?  Layers...tights and track pants, winter running shirt and coat, gloves, and the under armour hat sandy calls "the penis head"...it's a skullcap...jeesh! I agreed to leave the cap off until I got out of sight...turned out I didn't need it. 

Car drive...forgot how to get there... went back to the house and Googled..."oh ya now I remember". Sandy was not as happy about doing this as I was. She was looking to get out. I was doing my best to be supportive, and explain how I sometimes feel like "why the heck would I pay to do stuff like this" and "it's worth it when you cross the finish line". I decided to shush after I saw the way she was looking at me. Silence, then she grabbed my hand and said "let's do this"

We made it to the Kelso main chalet by about 8:15am, chatted with a few other runners for a bit and had a cup of coffee. Shortly after I spotted Roxane and she joined us for pre-race small talk. J. Pierre and his wife Cindy walked in about 15 minutes before the race and joined in the conversation. JP and I had discussed that Cindy and Sandy could run together being the same(ish) speed. They hit it off right away. Someone called into the Chalet that it was 5 minutes before the race was starting; I gobbled up half a double chocolate donut that I had been eyeing since we got there and out we went; pleasantly surprised that it still wasn't raining.

Start to 5km - onward and upward

We lined up with about 50(ish) other runners of all ages, a quick countdown and off we went. I remember them saying watch out for the mud-puddles; I headed right through them, passed a bunch of people and shouted "I think we are getting dirty today!" after the mud puddles came the hill...an 85 meter climb at about 500 meters of length...I made it to the top of this hill and looked back, many had started walking, some were still running, the elites were gone well ahead of me (although still in sight), I had found a pack of 3 men, a teenager, and a tween. The teenager (green sweatshirt) was right on my tail, the tween (backwards cap) directly in front of me, one man behind the teenager (energy belt guy) two men in front of teenager (shorts and tights guy and black skullcap guy) . Catching my breath and getting my heart back I pushed on with the group.  Then just about 1km in we hit the stopper, a 60m long by 30m high, branches whipping, gravelly treading, winding trail, frigging nightmare that I loved very much...everyone had slowed to a walk to climb this one. We had caught the elites, at least for the moment. Reaching the peak we started off single file again; very rocky, lots of ankle breaking crevasses and cracks, many roots and fallen branches. I managed to find a fallen branch with my foot and able to show off my skills with a spinning-windmill-arm recovery. Hadn't lost ground, hadn't gained any either. Suddenly the pathway opened up wider allowing enough room to pass...energy belt guy started passing, first the teenager, then me, then tween; i followed suit and soon we were leading the pack - he then me. We passed the 4k sign and I caught up with energy belt guy, I said "it's gotta be downhill from here right" he responded "I hope so". ahead of us was 6'-6" gazelle man, we were catching the back end of the elites, or so it seemed...I asked energy belt guy if he was ready to catch up to the gazelle, he said he had been trying to catch him for 2km. Sounded like a challenge to me. I looked at my Garmin 6:02 min/k..."pffft" I thought...I said to energy belt guy "let's go get him" , he grunted a ya ok; I poured it on, he followed suit on my tail for the next 500m, then he slowed at the next climb and rocky patch. I slowly but surely was catching gazelle, and leaving my pack behind.

5k to finish - which way do I go?

Just after the 5k mark I was on the gazelles ass; I felt empowered and light, my footsteps were sure. Mud, rock, and roots were no longer threats; I was running on high speed...looked at my Garmin 5:07min/km..."passing left" I called, the gazelle moved over, I passed and pushed harder, he stuck with me. I could hear the finish line announcements, we were getting close. I am leading, noone to follow (the elites were crossing the finish line), this is when I realized how badly marked this area was...some little yellow flags, a few arrows, couple of signs...I was calling out directions and asking for direction as we ran.  7k marker! The new pack consisted of  myself, gazelle, a lady, according to gazelle she was the 3rd place woman, and another guy; I was leading, I felt blind! I hoped I wouldn't lead them astray. Then we ran out of the woods onto the top of a ski hill...it didn't look right, it wasn't. I had led them astray. "Back into the woods!" after several four letter words running through my mind we were back on the trail, we had lost at least a minute, and now I was following them, and several others that were behind us...WTF! No need to get upset...time to try and finish strong. This was a steep downhill called snakes and ladders, anything goes it appeared. There were people all over the place! I took the quickest way I could find, there did not appear to be a path, I just picked out bridges and trampled leaves. I was at the bottom, I could see the road that would take me to the finish. I bee-lined it for the road, passed a couple of people and hit the ditch before the road, and fell, flipped over and got the wind knocked out of me...a girl stopped and asked if I was ok, "nothing I hadn't done before" - pride was talking, that did me in. I got up and forced a sprint to the finish, 5:50 min/k uuugh where are my lungs...oh ya on the road back there... 
Approaching the line and the announcer said he needed to see my number, it was under my jacket...I opened it up and  ran across the line, he commented "here is 302 showing off his chest hair, we just wanted to see his number". I had to laugh. Clock time 50:03, Garmin time 48:33. Got my medal and my bag of goodies. 

Aftermath

I approached the runners I had led astray and apologized, each said it was not me, it was the lack of signage; that made me feel better. Nice bunch. J.Pierre crossed the line and we shared stories of the race. I checked my phone to see if sandy had called or texted, it was dead...i was hoping I hadn't killed it when I flipped. J.P offered a charger from his car however it was the wrong one (phone is fine BTW).  JP snapped a picture of me with his camera and I snapped one of him. He said he had promised Cindy to head back in if they seemed to be taking a while to finish...off he went.  I chatted with another gentleman for a short time when Roxane came in. "Shit that was hard" she said when I hi-fived her at the line.  It was difficult. We shared war stories for a bit. A few others crossed the line. Then Sandy and Cindy crossed the line...Sandy was smiling she had a great time, we had a hug and entered the chalet for prize time. Sandy's number got drawn right away, she chose a nice tech winter jacket, Cindy got a gift basket, I got a Poweraid giftbag with some socks, a bottle and energy bars, Roxane got a years supply of tech soap! 

I had a great time. I would recommend this race to anyone that enjoys running trails and enjoys a challenge.

See ya at the next race!