It's been another fun weekend, and whilst our next camping trip isn't until next weekend, I've still managed to get outdoors and do some if the things I love to do. We also celebrated a fellow Youtuber's 40th birthday, and it was great to finally meet them and put faces to names we only ever hear in a video.
It started with a lovely walk with the pups at the Terwilliger dog park. This area is great for walking the dogs, with tons of trails and wide open spaces, and a couple of doggy beaches alongside the river which is certainly the main attraction for Wilson, Tillie and April.
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| Dog park fun ... Wilson and Tillie :) |
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| Dog park fun with April! Beautiful autumn colours :) |
I took them for another good walk later that afternoon as we were heading out to a birthday party about an hour's drive from home, so we wanted to be sure they were fed and walked and ready to sleep whilst we left them alone for the evening.
The birthday party celebrations were for Steve who has a very successful YouTube channel. We've been subscribing for the past 4 or 5 years, and with being a fellow Albertan, it was a no-brainer that we would go to his birthday celebrations when he put out an open invite to his 500,000+ subscribers!
The event was held at a pub out in a place called Onoway, and we had a great night mixing with all the other fans, and getting to chat to Steve and "Beautiful Wife", "Crazy Neighbour" and Mike, who had helped to design and build the boat for the project they're working on.
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| Crazy Neighbour and Mike, alongside the infamous boat :) |
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| The entire "Camping with Steve" gang with yours truly :) |
Getting to see the old converted school bus and the boat in person rather than through a TV screen was pretty impressive, and we sure had lots to talk about with them.
We didn't get home until close to midnight, and I was doing a 50km event the next day which was due to start at 7am. I'd promised a friend I would be there and I wouldn't dream of letting anybody down, but I was a little concerned about how sleepy I would feel having hit my bed at almost 1am and knowing I had to get up at 6am!
My alarm did wake me up at 6am, but I just didn't want to get up. It was still dark and it sounded like it was raining, and my eyes still felt sore and heavy. I sent a quick message to say I would be there to start an hour after everybody else - it was an informal race with no real set rules, and that extra hour snuggled up with the pups made a huge difference.
I grabbed some porridge for breakfast, made up some Tailwind for the run, and by 8am, I was starting off on my first loop of the local lake.
The event had been arranged by some friends, and thanks to their generosity and that of the event sponsors, we had pizza ordered for afterwards and a pretty cool and great quality event shirt.
The event had been dubbed "The Telford 50 - the Neverending Loop", simply because the loop around the lake is 10k, and we would have to do 5 laps to the finish.
Everybody else had already completed their first loop when I arrived, so I was running solo and basically trying to catch them so they didn't have to wait too long for me at the finish.
The weather was cloudy and cool but otherwise great for running, and I settled into a pace of around 8.30 miling. I didn't expect to maintain that kind of pace, and was just hoping to finish in around 4.45.
The first lap whizzed by and I was feeling fantastic, and as I came to the end of the lap, I caught the other runners finishing their second lap. They were still 10k ahead of me, so rather than run with the group, I said a quick hello to everybody, explained I didn't want to have them waiting too long for me at the finish, then put my foot down and ran lap 2 at a slightly faster pace.
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| Start of lap 2 and feeling good :) |
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| A coyote decided to heckle me on lap 2! :) |
The remaining 3 laps went by in pretty much the same vein, although partway around lap 3, the wind picked up and the heavens opened, and we had a deluge of rain that last for a good hour. My feet were soaking wet and I thought I could feel a blister forming but given it was "only" 50k, I didn't bother attending to it and just carried on putting one foot in front of the other.
I was surprised at how consistent my pacing was, and I was still hovering around the 8.30 minute miling mark. Having gone through half way in 2 hours 16 minutes, I would have been happy finishing in around 4.40 to 4.45 as I figured I would no doubt slow down in the closing miles. And yet my consistent pace kept me on schedule for a sub 4 hours 30 minute finish, so I readjusted my goal and tried to keep things going.
I'd been drinking Tailwind for the entire time and it tasted so good which told me that my body definitely needed the salts, and I had taken a couple of gels at the end of each lap just to keep those energy levels going. Other than that, I didn't really bother with anything else, and it seemed to be working perfectly. I was feeling quite warm despite the rain and cooling breeze, so I was sure to keep drinking when I could, taking a short walk break every couple of miles to make sure I was able to get something inside of me.
Coming into the final lap, I had 55 minutes to complete the 10k to get under the 4.30. I was still running well, but that 8.30 pacing was starting to get a little more difficult, and as I approached the boardwalk just a mile or so from the finish, I did have 8 minutes remaining. I tried to pick up the pace, pushed hard and was so, so close, but the final hill meant that I missed it by just 15 seconds. I was still very happy, and I have to say that a finish time of 4.30.15 in those conditions on an undulating course gave me the confidence I needed with the Grizzly 50k being just 4 weeks away.
The organisers of the event had arranged for pizza to be delivered afterwards, so I hung around for a while munching and chatting away with everybody else whilst waiting for a friend to finish the 50k. This was his very first ultra and despite being plagued by injury leading into it, he did absolutely amazing and finished in a shade over 6 hours - a performance he can certainly be proud of given the circumstances.
I was surprised how good I felt after the run. I was expecting my legs to feel tired if not achy, but having done a 1-hour time trial this evening with the aim being to run as far as possible within the hour, I was very happy and very surprised to have ran over 13km or 8.14 miles for an average pace of 7.22 minute miling. The legs felt strong and I felt relaxed, and my Garmin told me that I had improved my lactate threshold on tonight's run. It was a good feeling, and I must say that it did give me another boost of confidence that I am starting to get back some fitness and consistency with my running again.
The Grizzly 50k is just one month away now, and I do have a couple of longer runs planned between now and then, including another 50k. I was going to do this solo, but the scheduled date is the same as the Rivers Edge Ultra, so I decided I would do the run with some company and registered for the race. This will be my third time doing the 50k at REU and I'm looking forward to hitting those trails once again, and enjoying the colours of autumn. It will be a training run and I certainly shan't be racing flat out, but I'm still hoping for a good one so that I truly do feel prepared for the Grizzly a couple of weeks later. And it is very likely that this year we will camp out there on race weekend, and will be sharing a video of how things go.
Next weekend we are off camping again at Long Lake so watch out for that video too! We have lots more fun adventures planned over the coming weeks, and we will be sharing videos on my YouTube channel, so please do keep checking back to see when they are available, or even better, subscribe to the channel!
Until next time, happy trails folks!
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