AR Season Closer – Bark Lake

Howdy to all and happy holidays! For the first time in a while I finally have a story that I’m happy to share with everyone. Yes, as you can see by the picture, and maybe guess from the title of the post, I’ve finally gotten back onto the racing scene by propelling myself with only my legs 🙂 Yup, for the first time since September of 2007, I’ve RAN in a race. Not only did I run though, I ran hard. I ran to the point that I could barely breathe anymore. That’s how hard I ran. And it felt great! Mind you, I wouldn’t say that I’m at 100% yet, but it was nice to really open up the tap and see what I could do. Of course, this wasn’t just any running race. No siree, this was the first Mad Trapper snowshoe race of the 2008-2009 season, of which there are 4 races, all of which I’m pre-registered for. Feel free to head over to flickr and check out the pictures that I took from the event. None from the race course sadly, but I was a little pre-occupied. In case you have ADD and don’t feel like reading my entire post, I came in a very respectable 5th place overall with a time of 1hr12mins. for the 10km course. As a comparison, the last time I ran this same course (in the snow), I had a time of 1hr32mins, and was in 14th! Yup, shaved off 20 minutes!! For the full story, please read on.

Hello all out there! Well, as the title and the picture to the left implies, I recently participated in, and successfully completed, my third marathon! As usual, it was Ottawa’s own ING National Capital Marathon that I ran. Apparently, this has become the largest marathon in Canada. Can you imagine that? Thousands upon thousands of flailing legs attempting to transport their owners over a distance of 42,200 meters. This is both quite a sight to see, as well as be a part of. Each year, I swear it will be my last marathon, as I don’t purport to be all that fond of running. However, each year, as the fall drags on, I get the post-racing season blues. My final racing events are usually in September or October, then I start worrying that I’ll stagnate, so I get it in my head that it would be a good idea to sign up for the marathon for the next year, thereby forcing myself to start actual training sometime in January. Well, this past year was no different, and I found myself starting the long journey to the start line in the cold, windy days of winter. Of course, I don’t have ready access to a treadmill, so virtually all my training runs are outdoors. This year, I bumped myself up to an ‘Intermediate II’ level in Hal Higdons’ marathon training programs. This meant a bump up in the distances as well as intensity that I ran. In the end, I ran 5 days a week for 18 weeks, and also sprinkled in some winter races, swim training, and spinning classes. This of course was all to aid my on-going quest to become a stronger adventure racer, but also to help me get my goal in this year’s marathon. 3 hours and 20 minutes (yes, I spoke of 3h 15min., but that was my ‘unofficial’ goal). As a result of my dedication to the program, I pulled off a 3 hr, 18min, 15 second run. This was of course a personal best for me. My first two results being 3:47 and 3:30 respectively. I certainly can’t say that I was disapointed with that 🙂 !