Ok, so I actually made it to the Army 10K in Oromocto. I have to admit, until 90 minutes before gun time I thought I was going to be a no-show. At the last minute, my wife told me to go, so who am I to argue? Finding CFB Gagetown was my first challenge. I had only been to the base once before and I wasn't driving at that time. My current knowledge of Oromocto is limited to the SPCA, the vet and the Subway and they're all on the same road. I exited off the TCH and thought I'll just keep driving until I see a tank and then I'll turn in, how hard can it be? Well, it turns out much harder than I had thought. I ended up going in the back entrance to the base and at one point, I was just praying not to be run over by a LAV.
I arrived at the base gym and picked up my very large Army 10K shirt, bottle of water and bottle of sports drink and saw a couple RM Maniacs, so that was cool. I'm very impressed by the facilities that they have on the base.
One of the best parts of this race is that they start it early, none of this 11 a.m. foolishness. Also in this run's favour, Saturday morning was a splendid day for a run because it was overcast and it looked like it was going to rain a few times. (Near the end of the run it started to get a bit humid, but by that time I was having other issues.) I had been warned to load up on bug spray because the critters on the trails could carry me away if I ran too slowly. Unfortunately for me, I left the bug spray at home!
The Run NB circuit is typically a road racing series, although a few races, such as Fredericton, have trail components involved -- or at least that has been my experience. The Army 10K was the closest thing to cross-country running that I've experienced in about a decade. When the gun fired, we all started charging down this 150-metre stretch of roadway by an obstacle course and down a hill. This would be the last time our feet would hit pavement until we returned. The start, as with all starts I guess, was fast, we barrelled around one corner, up a hill and then did a few other tight twists and turns. I was passing people, they were passing me. It was a great start to the run. Within moments, the trail narrowed substantially so if you wanted to pass, you had to go wide and worry about tripping in a rut or stepping in a hole. Gravel lined most of the trail until we got into the woods and then it was dirt and mud. At this point, I was very thankful that it hadn't rained because it could have been one giant mud bog.
Around 2K, the 5K leader was already heading for home. We picked up a little water cup around 2K as well and forged deeper into the Commonwealth's largest training area. Like last week in Dieppe, the hills were constant although none were insurmountable. I kept thinking as I was running up the hills that, at least I got to run down them on the way back. Each time I thought that however, I started running down the opposite side, when my thinking switched to, drat I'm going to have to run back up this on my way back. There were a couple nice people blocking the trail with a jeep at the 5K turn-around, so as the nice drill sergeant guy said at the start there is no way you could get lost on this run.
I was in ninth at the turn around or so I counted. Once we started heading for home, the hills started immediately. We had to charge up a fairly steep, dirt hill and once I crested it, that's when I started seeing the next runners. I knew I had about 500 metres on the next serious challenger, although I had just been passed again by a runner I was playing cat and mouse with all morning.
As 6K and 7K started passing, my knees just started feeling fatigued. I could hold the pace but there was no way I was picking it up to any great degree. I'm not sure if the three runners in front of me were running slower or I was running faster but near the end I was within range of passing one more guy. This is when my lack of legs became truly apparent. By my rough calculations we were probably 10 seconds apart for the last 1.5K and normally I'd have no problem overtaking a person that close or at least making the challenge. But I just did not have that final gear necessary to make a serious challenge. My legs just couldn't pick it up even though I was running far slower than my training runs, albeit training runs that are not on hilly trails. As we powered up the little hill en route to the finishing chute, I looked behind me and saw absolutely no one so I thought there was no need to kill myself to try and catch this guy. He ended up finishing eight seconds in front of me and I'm still kicking myself because he was in my age group and in this point series that decision could come back to haunt me.
According to the Run NB web site:
Time: 42:08
Overall: 10
Age group: 4
As I will likely discuss in a later blog this week, the lack of strength/ability to offer a final kick has got me thinking about altering my training schedule a bit. Since April 30, I've raced a 15K, 10K, Half-Marathon, 10K and 10K, as well I've keep a busy training schedule with lots of speed work and not to mention working long hours. I think my knees are starting to give a bit.
I will upload a Google Earth map of the course later in the week.
