Pick Your Poison 50K

On Saturday I ran the Pick Your Poison 50K, which was the first race in the Ontario Ultra Series. Held at the Heights of Horseshoe Ski & Country Club, the race featured some challenging ski hills, picturesque single track and fast country side roads. Adam Hill, the race director, and his team of volunteers did a fantastic job at organizing the event, including ensuring that the course was well marked. Racers each received a T-shirt with the race logo and a jar of delicious honey produced in Orillia. All finishers received a pair of socks emblazoned with the race logo.

While I certainly looked forward to PYP, this wasn’t a focus race for me. So, I didn’t taper or rest before the event, but went into the race with tired legs. According to my coach, the race would provide a good opportunity to practice race nutrition and execution in a supported event. It would also be useful to see all is on track and gain confidence with a strong performance without any significant race preparation/taper. Basically, I ran over 60K in the four days preceeding the race, including a strong quality workout on Wednesday, so not a typical pre-race schedule. As the race consisted of four 12.5K loops, the plan was for me to run comfortable and relaxed for the first 25K, focusing on fueling and hydration. Then, for the third loop, I would pick up the pace a bit before running at a faster race pace for the final loop.

The good news is that I didn’t get caught up with the typical fast start, which meant that I got to pass a number of people over the next 30 minutes. While I’m pleased that I kept to an easy pace, I probably ran a bit slower than I should have. My Suunto watch indicated that I was running much faster than I was supposed to be going, so I kept pulling back on the pace. It turns out that my foot pod had gone all wacky, which became more obvious on my third loop when it suggested that I was running two-minute kilometres. (At the end of the race, my watch indicated that I had run 64.20K, which is an extra 14K than the actual course.) This was a good learning experience to not rely too much on technology.

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A New Season

“Do anything, but let it produce joy”—Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

I get to run this evening. And tomorrow as well. Since incurring an injury last summer, I’ve been grateful for every opportunity to run unhindered by pain or discomfort. While I’ve been healthy for nearly six months now, the novelty hasn’t worn off. I think it stems from a greater awareness of how beneficial running is for me.

I’ve been a runner for the past nine years. Over this time, I’ve run a number of ultramarathons in both Canada and southern Africa. This has involved long hours of training so that my body could handle races spanning distances of 50 kilometres to 100 miles. While I’ve managed to train adequately to finish these events, I’ve lacked the focused training required to race them to the best of my ability. This year I’m not interested in just finishing, I want to run faster and smarter.

In January, I decided to find a coach who could help me improve as a runner. After doing a bit of research, I contacted Jon Brown to see if he would accept me as a client. Thankfully, Jon agreed to work with me and has been guiding my training since February. While it’s been less than two months, I already feel stronger and more confident as a runner, so I’m positive that I will continue to benefit from this relationship.

Now that winter has retreated, it’s almost time for the Ontario Ultra Series to begin. While I had hoped to participate in the Knee Knacker race, which follows the Baden Powell trail along Vancouver’s North Shore mountains, my name wasn’t selected in the lottery, so all my races this season will be in Ontario. With 12 events hosted by the OUS, plus many more trail races directed by 5 Peaks and independently, there is no shortage of races happening in the province. At this point, I’ve chosen five races for the coming year:

Pick Your Poison 50K
April 28 in Orillia, Ont.

Sulphur Springs 50M
May 26 in Ancaster, Ont.

The Limberlost Challenge 56K
July 14 in Huntsville, Ont.

Haliburton Forest 100M
September 8 in West Guilford, Ont.

Run for the Toad 50K
September 29 in Paris, Ont.

I’m looking forward to the opportunity to challenge myself at these races and connect with other runners.

A Month Today…

Our little guy is a month old today. We’re enjoying having Baby Brennan in our family (even though he seems to intentionally pee on his Daddy) and look forward to watching him grow and develop.

Brennan’s middle names are David and Ian. While his brother has a Shona middle name (he was conceived while we were living in Zimbabwe), we didn’t formally give Brennan a Shona name, as we wanted to honour our fathers this time. However, we did choose a Shona name for Brennan in memory of a little boy who was our neighbour in Harare. Tawanda was about four when we moved there, and was a frequent visitor to our home over the next few years. He was a quiet and gentle soul who always seemed to have a smile on his face. He passed away quite suddenly three years ago, and we miss him greatly. Tawanda means “We are many,” so it is also an appropriate name for Brennan, as we are now a family of four (not including the fish). Continue reading →

Winter Wonderland

It’s been a mild winter so far (at least in my area of the woods), so I haven’t had the opportunity to do any snowshoe running. Next week I’m registered for a snowshoe race in Frontenac Park, so hopefully eastern Ontario will receive some sweet snow in the next few days. I did manage to run on some snow over the holidays, but certainly not enough to warrant snowshoes or even Microspikes.

Here are a few iPhone pics from one of my runs at Frontenac Park over the Christmas break.

The beavers are still active


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November Reflections

Great shot of Frontenac Park by RichardCleaver.com

After showing up to my 2011 races out of shape (spring), sick and feverish (summer) and injured (fall), I’m finally feeling fit and healthy and ready to race. Of course, the race season is now over, so I’ll just have to wait for next year.

Running is a simple activity, but an easy one to complicate. In past winters, I’ve often set new training goals and decided on future races. This winter, however, I’m focusing on simplifying things. Continue reading →