Fredericton 10k race report

First up is a Happy Mother's day to all those wonderful Mom's out there and here are a few flowers to show my appreciation to you.


Up at the normal time today since the race didn't start till 11pm and the drive was only about 90 minutes to Fredericton. After parking the car and on the way to get my race kit we saw this lovely old dog. We just had to take a picture of this old guy. He just lay there wagging his tail when we talked to him as all the crowds and other dogs went back and forth in front of his home. We used to have a Golden and think they are the nicest dogs in the world.The start was kind of crowded with about 250 runners in the 10k. The Fredericton marathon with 92 entrants started about 2hr earlier and the 1/2 with 320 runners had started just 1/2 hr before this race. My warmup for the race was about as structured as all the training I've done for this race with a short jog, walk, run around the block, a few half hearted pickups and then some lame stretches. Sure, now I'm ready to run faster than I've run for months all in one go. (Oh, what fun this is going to be). And we're off like a shot...

Now what happened today? It was a perfect spring day with sunny skies, mild temps and only light winds on a flat fast course run mostly on the dirt and gravel trails in the city of Fredericton.

As I said the start was fast and the race stung out immediately with the under 19 kid in yellow leading from start to end with a time of 33:19. I was back in the pack trying not to go anerobic and went through the 1st kilometer in just over 4:00. My Garmin was a distraction today and after misfiring a couple of buttons I had it so screwed up that I wasn't even sure what time zone I was in. Trouble is that I never raced with it before and by not resetting it after the warmup, the displayed time was a meaningless number. Instead of ditching the watch I just went by breathing and heartrate for most of the race. Also tried to stay with a local runner, Rob who is usually near me in races but backed off whenever the HR got too high and I'd start gasping/wheezing.

At the turnaround point of this out and back course my placing was 21st and about 2 spots back on Rob. Over the next few k, it was just hanging on and trying to keep the legs moving while telling myself, just a few more kilometers. With about 2 to go, Rob stopped and then looked back before taking off again. A bit later I caught up and encouraged him to run in with me and work together to the finish. This only lasted another minute or so before he had to stop again while I moved on alone. All that I can remember of the last kilometer is counting and thinking the last turn would never come and then more counting and trying to keep my breathing under control for the finish line that just seemed to go on forever.

My finish and no it didn't take 2:42:13 to run a 10k, the clock time on this side is for the marathon which had started earlier (really)!
Now maybe if I twist that button, I can turn this into a PB...Results are here for the 10k but as I said there was also a 1/2 and full marathon. The gory details from the Garmin are still being rehashed and replayed but look like this. If you click it you can zoom in on the info. Main features are the heart rate (red line) which was kind of wacho during the warmup but then consistently in the 90% of max for the duration of the race and maxing out at the end in a new max of 171 where the pointer is at on the screen. The blue line or speed in mph seemed to waver a bit but this is likely an artifact of the unit. Overall result was 42:50 for the 10k (4:17/km or about 6:55/mi) for 18/251 and 3/19 in my age group.



For background, my last 10k was run about a year ago in 42:42, the previous a year before that in 42:48. Hmmm, is there a pattern here with this total lack of improvement or should there be more consistent racing? I'm fairly happy with the result from today's effort and can at least call it a PB as a 50 year old , right? Hope everyone else had a good weekend too!