I seldom get nervous about races these days and yet at 4am Sunday morning, I awoke from my deep slumber desperately needing the bathroom and my first thought on waking was, "yikes, I'm racing today!"
I crawled back under the covers for another couple of hours snuggled up next to Wilson and Tillie, and drifted off into a troubled sleep as I thought about my race in just a few hours.
Anybody would think that I was about to race some crazy ultra or compete in some major international event, but no, I was getting in a tizzy about running the MEC 15km road race in Edmonton. Crazy eh?!
As you know, I tend to do more ultras these days, and both my training and racing is generally focused on longer sustained runs rather than relying on a good v02 max and running at or above lactate threshold. My last road race was months ago, whilst rep sessions have only just reappeared in my schedule after an absence of a good 3 or 4 years. The thought of racing for just over 9 miles at a higher intensity had my stomach churning like a goodness knows what.
The thing is, training has been going well. Unfortunately my old coach Adam recently relocated to Japan, and having worked with him for 3 years, I was sad to break ties with him in terms of my running. Thankfully I already had another coach in mind that was local to Edmonton, and having reached out to Paul and finally got round to meeting him to discuss my goals, I certainly felt that we would work well together as athlete and coach. It also helped that Paul is English - he would clearly understand my cravings for squidgy Malt Loaf and Jaffa Cakes :)
I started my new training plan at the beginning of April which meant I now had speed work and rep sessions to complete. I was lacking confidence in myself when it came to pushing the pace, but after just a couple of weeks, I'm.already feeling far more comfortable getting uncomfortable again with speed, and I even managed a 6.22 mile last week. However, heading into the MEC 15k, I was nervous about setting off too fast, about not knowing how to pace myself and then looking an idiot when I faded down the field as the race progressed.
The other problem was that earlier in the week, I'd come down with a terrible sore throat and I could barely eat anything - even mashed potatoes soaked in gravy caused considerable pain, and I honestly thought that I was going to get a horrendous cold. By Friday morning, the sore throat had gone but I noticed spots and little blisters appearing on my hands and a couple on my feet. They were quite sore and I seemed to remember reading something about a human version of foot and mouth disease - HFMD - which is more common in infants but can affect adults too. It's actually a virus, and whilst adults can catch it, they don't necessarily have all of the symptoms. A quick scan of Google all but confirmed that I'd somehow picked up this virus - it starts with a sore throat, and the small spots I was getting looked very similar to the photos online.
So now I was nervous about racing when I had a virus. My resting heart rate was slightly elevated so I knew I wasn't 100% and yet I didn't feel Ill. I wanted to race but didn't know if I should, and I was worried about overdoing things and making things worse.
As we headed up to Hawrelak Park in Edmonton on race day, I decided to just run by feel and not aim for a time. Originally I'd wanted between 65 and 68 minutes, but that seemed fast - I've only done a couple of 15k races and my PR is only around 63 minutes - so I figured I'd just go with the flow and play it by ear.
The race was very well attended and there was something like 150 registered for the 15k alone. I positioned myself a few rows back at the start as I didn't want to get sucked into going off too fast which worked perfectly and I didn't feel crowded at all.
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| Start of the MEC 15km Road Race |
I started pretty well and within the first mile I had taken the lead in the ladies race, hitting 6.47 splits for the first two miles.
The morning had started quite cool with a brisk wind, and whilst I soon warmed up and disposed of my gloves later in the race, the wind was hard work and left me breathless. I've always hated windy weather and find it really saps the energy, but today I didn't fight the wind - I concentrated on maintaining the effort rather than pace and it seemed to work as I gradually increased my lead.
I stopped at a couple of aid stations during the race to grab a drink - my throat was getting dry and sore again and I didn't want to take any chances - and there was a good climb at around 5km which I tackled with greater ease than I would likely have done in the past. As things stood, things were going well. I was feeling extremely strong, I felt in the zone, and whilst my lungs were complaining at the faster pace, I was managing to keep it going.
At the turnaround point at around 6 miles, I finally got to see how much of a lead I had over the other ladies. I likely had a minute at most, but I was still feeling strong and fairly confident that I could maintain things. I also knew that having ran up that hill, I could now enjoy running back down it, and with me favouring downhill running, I really hit the gas as I dodged the 10k runners that were by now sharing the course with us.
As we reentered Hawrelak Park, there was just over a mile to go. It was the first time I looked at my watch and I saw that I was around 57 minutes. I was gobsmacked - that 65 minute finish was within my reach! Trying to stay relaxed and focused, I pushed on.
The last mile was tough. My legs were starting to tighten from the effort and I could see the finish area but knew I still had to run up the road to the parking lot, before making that final turn for a a short downhill stretch to the finish. Mentally I tried to block out everything around me, focusing purely on the right turn arrow some 400m ahead, and as soon as I hit that point, I gave one final push to finish strongly as first lady in 65 minutes 10 seconds.
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| Just focusing on that finish line! |
It was a great race and I'm so happy with both my time and of course the win. I did feel that it had taken more out of me than I would have liked, but a coffee, burger and a donut soon had me feeling better and I even managed a nice and easy recovery run later in the day.
I really couldn't have asked for a better race. I was harbouring a virus which no doubt had some effect on my performance, and yet I still managed to hit my target which makes me wonder if I could perhaps have been even quicker, had I been 100%. I don't know - probably not - but one thing is certain, this race has given me some confidence that maybe I can run a little quicker again, that maybe I can run a little faster even in my ultras.
Of course, it's always great to see friends at these races doing so well, and all of them had outstanding runs in my opinion, so great job everybody! But more importantly for me, it was awesome to have Andy there supporting me and of course the dogs waiting for snuggles in the car. It can be hard being on your own for weeks at a time, trying to keep yourself motivated to perform at your best, having nobody to talk to or pamper you when you get back from a long run, to cook for you and let you put your feet up. Thankfully though Andy and the pups are always there when it matters, and that for me is the icing on the cake :)