Fredericton 10K Race Report

This report doesn't start on May 14, 2006, and it doesn't even really start on May 12 or 13, 2006. No, the origins of this report date back to May 8, 2005. It was a cold, windy, rainy day. It was one of those days that have few if any redeeming qualities. The only significance to that day is that is when the Fredericton 10K made me want to turtle and cry like a wee child. I crossed the line in 44:01, which is the slowest I've completed a 10K, well, I'm not sure if I've done one slower since I started keeping track.

As I trained the last few months, I circled May 14 on my calendar, not just because it is my birthday but because I had revenge on my brain. I kept telling myself that my goal race is really the Ottawa half-marathon but in the back of my mind it is really this race. This is the one where I was to seek atonement. On Monday, I was silly and attempted to do a hard speed workout after three hard and/or long runs and I ended up feeling my hamstrings tug. So I decided against running all week, which felt like a prison sentence. My thinking, rightly or wrongly, was that if I pushed during the week I could hurt myself more and put in jeopardy this race and, even worse, Ottawa.

I also had the added bonus this year of having many of my RR clinic friends participate. There were two of the members from my first clinic in January-March and I had a great showing from my current clinic. These people were truly inspirational. Each one was motivated for their own reason and they each demonstrated the heart of a lion as they motored through their first race. I stood at the entry to the finish chute clapping and cheering as each one crossed the line and remembered the first 3K we did together back in March. Ahh the memories. I won't use names because they didn't give me permission to do it, but I was really impressed with both those who were from my first group, one broke an hour, beating her time by almost five minutes and the other muscled her way through the race with a huge knot in her calve muscle. I had three people from my current group break an hour, which is outstanding, but each of them, I believe, shattered the expectations they set for themselves 10 weeks ago. I use exclamation points sparingly but they deserve every "!" imaginable.

Anyway, back to my race report, sorry for the diversion. I have to admit when I arrived at the course this morning I did get myself a little worried. I already knew a guy who wants to compete at the world duathlon championships was going to be racing and then I saw a guy from the local RR who I know routinely breaks 34 minutes. I kept telling myself, forget them, run your own race. But it's hard when you know you will want to try and keep up but you also know trying to keep that pace will ruin you.

It was great seeing so many Running Mania people. I saw some for the first time and others for the second. I wish I had more time to chat but I was starting to get in my zone. I opted to hit a porta-potty before the race, which took 15 minutes out of my warm-up.

Like any runner I came in with a few goals. Obviously, my number one priority was to ease the pain from last year. As for my times, I wanted to beat my 41:05 best time from last year, my overall 10K PB 40:50, but really I wanted to crack 40 minutes. I set my Garmin to beat 40 minutes.

Once I toed the line, everything else didn't matter, who cares about the short warm-up, it's time to see what I'm made of. The little siren went off and it was time for revenge. I did my absolute best to contain myself. There were several people though propelled themselves out front and were clogging up the turning lanes in the early going, which was frustrating.

Each year I bolt out like I'm contending to actually win and then I end up hurting on the way home. This time I tried to hold back and let the others sprint out. I was watching my real-time pace on my Garmin and was doing my best to stick to my 4 min/k pace. There were people sprinting past me and I had to assure myself that I'd catch them later. So I hunkered into my pace and started turning out 4-minute splits. I felt really strong in the early part of the run and wanted to speed up a bit at times. But I kept relaxed and restrained myself.

According to my Garmin, I hit 5K at 19:54 and thought life was good. It wasn't long before I saw the leaders and eventually made the turn for home. I did my best to wave to everyone that I could spot. I was waving to those I spotted from afar and shouted when I could, but I was also trying to stay focused on my own race.

There was never a part of the race where I wanted to slow down or where I felt I couldn't keep up the pace. As I made it to the train bridge I knew I had 40 minutes in my sights but I didn't want to pull anything and ruin my chance in Ottawa. My Garmin told me I was about 70 meters ahead of my desired pace so I didn't want to push much harder. As I looked for the 8K and 9K markers I noticed they were a bit off where they should have been, which was odd considering they were right on for the early part of the race.

As I rounded the corner and had the finish line in my sights I thought I had my first sub-40. But my Garmin went off early and it turns out either the course was off or my Garmin was off … or some other reason that I don't know. The clock said I finished in 40:10, my chip said 40:07, but my Garmin says 39:37. I wasn't the only person who noticed a distance problem, the winner said he was off by an additional 200 meters, mine said it was off by 160 meters. Odd.

I'm happy that I scored a new PB in my first 10K of the racing season. I have to admit, I'm miffed that I didn't break 40 minutes. I had a lot of energy to spare and could have knocked off those final seven seconds if I knew what was hanging in the balance. I felt that I had my goal in the bag and I didn't want to risk injury for Ottawa. Now if this caused me not to BQ, I'd be livid but that wasn't the case, so such is life.

My splits were: 3:50, 4:02 , 4:01, 4:04, 3:57, 3:52, 3:55, 3:55, 4:09, 3:53.

An interesting footnote, last year when I finished in 44:01, I ranked 14^th overall. This year at 40:07, I ranked 13 ^th overall. Had I finished in the same time this year, last year, I would have ranked fourth overall.