A marathoner is you!

Well, eventually.

That’s right, 2012 will be the year of the marathon for me. After having marathons on the brain for all of my collegiate years, watching tons of online streams of the marathon majors and getting fired up every time, and experiencing constant frustration with ridiculously short races (1500m, I’m looking at you!), it’s time. Now, I’m not planning on running one until the fall, so thankfully you won’t need to hear completely unrealistic garbage from me about “taking a shot at qualifying for the Olympics” or endure endless tweets with “#london2012!!!” in them.

Why the marathon? As a self-proclaimed distance donkey, I’ve felt that I tend to perform better at longer distances. And, more importantly, I will finally get some respect in the running community! I’ve suffered through years of having to tell people “I’m a runner! You should think I’m awesome!” only to hear something like “have you run a marathon?” And then I have to say no while attempting to hide my shame and mutter something about my 10k time or that I’ve done a lot of 100-mile weeks. Now I get to say, “I’m running a marathon in the fall!” See, I haven’t even run the marathon yet and I already have a better response to the dreaded “have you run a marathon” question!

In the meantime, I’m training for Around the Bay as a trial run this spring. This race has been on my bucket list for a while, and it makes sense to try a 30k in preparation for a fall marathon. I will also be racing the Canadian Half-Marathon Championships in Montreal this year.

And so the grind continues. I’m getting used to doing some longer workouts that seem to go on forever. Seriously, at Tuesday’s workout I finished a tempo and everybody else in the club was gone. And I still had to do my cool down. I don’t have any good stories yet, but I’m sure that over the next few weeks I will have some tales about badass workouts to tell. More interesting stories means more frequent blog updates.

So, friends, follow me in my journey towards the marathon this year. I plan to provide mileage totals, entertaining race reports, and the maybe the occasional rant if something annoys me enough to overcome the marathon-training-induced-apathy I will surely get. It should be fun…right?

Return of the blog

It looks like I haven’t blogged in a while and I have a lot to catch up on. I was going to talk about how I’ve become a hermit and moved up north to train on soft country roads or something cool like that, but my internet history would betray me by revealing that I’ve been spending an awful lot of time on online games and reading Letsrun. I have been doing a lot of running, though. I’m training for the Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon on October 16^th. This is my first true half marathon training block and my first serious attempt at the longer distances.

I started my buildup at the end of July after a short break following track season. I ramped up my mileage pretty quickly, and before I knew it, I was three weeks in and it was time to race. The Acura ten-miler was very early in my buildup, but Acura is an awesome race and I wanted an early-season rust-buster. I ran about 160 km that week because I was building up to 175 km and I didn’t want to lose a week in order to rest up for the race. Running on tired legs in pretty decent humidity, I managed to just run under one hour and finish fourth among the women. I wasn’t terribly happy with my race, but I tried to tell myself that it was simply an early stepping stone in a long process or something like that.

As few weeks later, though, something clicked. I started having some great workouts and I knew that I was in decent shape. Time to race, right? Well, no. There’s this thing called “racing sparingly,” which was a completely alien concept to me as a university student, but I’m doing it this season. It feels odd racing only every four or five weeks, but I know that I am getting in good training and that when I step on the line, I am fired up and anxious to race.

My next race effort was the Springbank Half-Marathon in London. I took more than two minutes off of my personal best in the half marathon, running 1:18:33. Springbank is a rolling course and it was pretty humid, so I was satisfied with the time. After Springbank I got into a nice groove, running three high volume weeks and some solid workouts. I averaged over 180k for that block, which is my highest ever with workouts (I’ve discovered over the past year that running a 220k week of just easy runs and no workouts is insanely easy compared to running 180k with some tough half-marathon workouts in there. As much as it pains me to say it, big numbers aren’t everything. They’re important, but there are other pieces to the puzzle.) The training was tough, but I’m happy to say that during this block, I was able to put my head down and get it done. When one trains at this level, there isn’t much time for soul-searching. It is simply a matter of getting out the door, whether you want to or not, and getting a run in. Most of the time I genuinely enjoyed the training, but there are always a few days when it’s tough and you need to run anyway. I haven’t had very many of those sorts of days lately.

Between the mileage, some great workouts, and my current mental attitude, I’m feeling very confident as I head into the Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon this weekend. I know that I’m in the best shape of my life and I can’t wait for race day. The marathon is going to be a great race and I’m fired up about being a part of such an exciting event. Part of me wishes that I were running the marathon, but I understand that racing a half this weekend is new territory and a stepping stone for me. The plan is to run my first marathon in fall 2012, and having another year’s worth of mileage, consistent training, and experience will make a huge difference. For now I’m content to (only) go halfway.

I feel fit and ready to race. I think I should be able to survive the taper (I just started reading George R. R. Martin’s “A Dance with Dragons,” so I have about 1000 pages to keep me occupied). See you on the start line.

Post-nationals blues

I seem to keep trying to blog, but each time I end up writing a long, rambling post in a mostly depressing tone. And then I end up giving up because no one wants to read that (and Steve will complain that I’m being too negative…Negative? Me?)

 

The trouble is that I haven’t really had anything particularly exciting or inspiring to write about since nationals. I’m in a post-nationals-pre-Ontario Championships state of limbo, and to be honest, it’s not very enjoyable. The Canadian Championships went better than I ever could have expected. I was fit going in, I peaked well, and now…well, I’m not sure what to do with myself. There is still a week to go until the Athletics Ontario Championships, and I seem to be lacking strength and motivation. I’m almost anxious for the season to be over with so that I can get on with training for the Toronto Waterfront Half-Marathon (only 99 days until race day!)

 

I had a rough race last week at the Forest City 5k. I was hoping to go after a fast time in the 5000m. It was a good setup, as some guys from the club were also racing and looking to run around the same time as I was. Unfortunately, about 3k into the race my body said “screw you Leslie, I raced a week ago and I’m still tired.” Then I fell off horribly and barely ran under seven minutes for the final 2k. Ugh. I finished in 16:53.03 (at least it was faster than I ran in Calgary!)

 

Looking back, I can’t really be surprised at how the race turned out. I had a great race in Calgary. I went to the well and left everything out there on the track. Six days later, I took a gamble and raced again because it would be my last opportunity to run a fast 5000m. Obviously, I was still tired from my effort at nationals, and it showed.

So that brings us to the present and there isn’t much more to say. I can’t brag about my awesome training and high mileage because it’s near the end of the season and I’m tapering/maintaining. I promise something more exciting once half-marathon training starts and I have plenty of tales of epic mileage totals, hardcore workouts, and magical runs out on Denfield. The callousing begins on July 24th.

You’ll get it right sometime. You will.

It was a weekend of triumph and defeat. Why defeat? Because I lost perhaps the most important contest of all: the Steve Weiler vs. Leslie Sexton Championship Prediction Contest. This year, before the OUA and CIS championships, Steve and I wrote out our top three picks in each distance event. I lost both. Guess what happened this time around? Strangely enough, the event in which I earned the fewest points was the women’s 5000m. I picked Wright for first, Schaaf for second, and Wodak for third. Unfortunately for my predictions (but fortunately for me when I was actually running the race), the top two seeds did not toe the line. I only earned half a point in the event, because I picked myself as the dark horse. Everything else was wrong. I did a little better in other events on Friday (day one of our prediction contest), taking the lead when we tallied the day’s points. But of course, history had to repeat itself on Saturday as Steve surged into the lead and took the win. I was pretty upset about it. I’m zero-for-three now, and it hurts. I’ll need to redeem myself when Junior Nationals roll around to stitch up this terrible wound. I should note that we have $0 riding on this — I simply have a huge debt in pride.

On a happier note, I won the 5000m. It was definitely an unexpected victory. I knew that when the top two seeds DNSed, I had a shot at a medal. I felt good on race day (my legs had that “itching to go fast” feeling on the warm up, which I know means that I’m ready to go), but the effects of altitude were still unknown to me. I planned to start conservatively and settle in the pack so that I could come on strong in the last 2k of the race and take advantage of other runners’ mistakes (which, I figured, would be even more costly at altitude). The pack went out at what normally would be a reasonable pace for me, hitting 2k in 6:41. I hung on as best as I could, but I definitely noticed that the pace felt harder than it normally would have. The pack put a small gap on me a few times, but I stayed stubborn and was able to grind my way back up to them each time. I passed Ashley Hinther before 3k and latched onto the lead pack as she started to fall off. With five laps to go, the pack was down to four women and I felt increasingly confident. The pace had slowed down a bit and there was only 2k to go, so I was feeling fresh and ready to rock. I told myself to be patient and tucked in on the inside rail at the back of the back. With three laps to go, Tamara Jewett made a huge move that completely broke apart the field. My legs seemed to respond faster than my brain at this point, as I found myself surging ahead of the other two runners to follow Tamara. She looked so strong at that point; it took all I had to keep the gap between us from increasing. I was starting to really feel it there, but my mind quickly went from astonished to be in second, to race mode where I needed to catch Tamara and I wouldn’t be happy with anything less than the win. I told myself, “relax, she went too early, she went too early.” I maintained the gap for another lap and started to move up with about 700m to go. I caught Tamara with 500m to go in the race, started a long kick, and moved right on by her. I ran scared for the final lap. My legs started really burning with 200m to go; it felt like I had to force every single step towards the finish. I tried not to look back. There was nothing more I could have done at that point. I was all out, in pain, and I had no more gears. I crossed the finish line in disbelief, stumbled for a few steps, and then my legs just gave out. I was sprawled out on the track, legs feeling like they were on fire, yet I felt the euphoria of victory.

In the end, after by far the most painful 5000m race I’ve ever run, I walked away with the gold medal and an awesome cowboy hat (yes, the medallists at this race got cowboy hats. Calgary, I’m sorry about all of the mean things I’ve said and will say about you because of your altitude, dryness, and cold weather. You’re awesome.) But most importantly, I got some serious scalps. Getting scalps is important. I got lots of scalps at 1500m night, but they were mostly high school/junior/youth scalps. This time my scalps included people who have made national teams and run times like 16:1X for 5000m and 1:16 for the half marathon. But I still haven’t paid my debt of scalps to Weiler and de Witt. Back to work for me.

I will talk more about the rest of my trip next time. For now, I’m focused on running a fast time at the Forest City 5k (which is actually a 5000m…it’s important to distinguish) in London on Thursday. The championships are done; now it’s about running fast. Scalps are still important, though. I’ll get more scalps.

Cool picture

Article on London Runner

Cowboy hats! (Lindsay made me pose for this one)

Music: Hot Water Music — “Trusty Chords”

(Insert blog title here)

These past two weeks have been frustrating. Between the heat and my ever-persistent allergies, training has been pretty tough. I’ve still been getting some good mileage in, but my workouts have definitely suffered. I actually had to skip a workout last week because my allergies left me practically incapable of functioning properly (so don’t rip on Galen Rupp for DNS-ing the Prefontaine Classic 10,000m due to allergies, kids). Allergies are horrible and disgusting. They turn me into a grumpy and bitter sneezing mess while everyone else gets to enjoy the flowers and wonderful springtime weather.

Then there was the fact that my second 1500m race of the season, at RCLDS #3 on June 5th, went poorly. I felt tight and tired on the very first lap, but I got stubborn and decided to lead 1300m of the race because I didn’t want to screw around by starting slowly and running for the win (because that’s stupid in a twilight meet where the win doesn’t matter). So I ended up running slowly and losing, which I’m not convinced is any better.

But yesterday I managed to cheer up. I was talking to Steve about how my blog was all sad this week and he said, “Hey, remember that time when you ran three PBs in three races in a row on the track, because you are in the best shape of your life? Why don’t you write about that?”

So, about that time when I ran three PBs in three races in a row on the track because I am in the best shape of my life…

As you may have read in my previous blogs, I ran personal bests in my first three track races. I ran a small PB in the 10,000m, followed by a big PB in the 5000m, followed by an absolutely miniscule PB in the 1500m. Today I shall talk about that 1500m race. I raced the Speed River Middle Distance Inferno back on May 28^th. This race also happened to be the most competitive 1500m race of my life. I was seeded 11^th out of 11 women, so I was terrified. But I desperately wanted to run a fast 1500m. I was coming off of a 16:34.51 performance (a personal best and a club record) at the 5000m in London on the Tuesday before. I wanted to make it two PBs and two club records in one week. Yeah, that would look pretty good on facebook and twitter.

To be honest, the race wasn’t quite what I wanted. There was, of course, the normal pain and suffering of a 1500m (meaning that one lap in, my legs felt awful and I thought my lungs were about to explode). I felt a bit flat on race day, the first lap of 70 seconds was a terrible shock, and I somehow managed to fall asleep on the second lap and run a 74, but I closed well over the last 500m to pass a few women. I ended up finishing in 4:33.37 (0.02 faster than my previous PB and 0.03 faster than the previous club record in the 1500m). I was happy to have beaten a few women seeded ahead of me, as I went in seeded 11th and finished 7th. Still, it sucks to get beaten by ten seconds in a 1500m race and have six people finish ahead of me.

Sorry, I went into sad mode again at the end of that. It seems that I can’t describe a race without talking about pain and suffering and disappointment. But this is different. I was genuinely excited about my performance, because I ran well and I knew that there was definitely more in the tank. But then I got some pollen or something up my nose and everything went to hell.

So here’s the plan: I’m going to take another shot at the dreaded three-and-three-quarter lap race on June 18^th, aka. New Balance 1500m night. And then I’m going to rock the Nationals 5000m. And if I’m sad, I’ll just ask myself, “hey self, remember that time when you ran three PBs in three races in a row on the track, because you are in the best shape of your life?”

Famous for nothing, yeah nothing was our world!

Well, I’m pretty fired up right now. On Tuesday I raced the 5,000m at the London Distance Classic and it went very well. So naturally, I’m excited about the rest of the season and I’m ready to give it a go again soon. A few weeks ago, I was feeling pretty tired and run down, so my first track outing (the 10,000m) went poorly. Since then, I have rested up and backed off on the training a bit in order to feel good again and to get my running legs back. I know I usually knock anything less than super-high volume that leaves you living the rest of your life in a zombie-like state, but this “backing off” thing seems to have worked pretty well.

In any case, I was feeling pretty good this week and I felt ready to go for a personal best in the 5,000m. On Monday night (less than 24 hours out from the race), I freaked out a bit when I realized that I would be the fastest seed in my heat. It played out something like this:

Me: (trying to sound all casual when I was actually all worried) I really wish I had asked someone to pace me for the 5000m…

Steve: I’ll go ask someone right now. Let’s see who’s on facebook chat…

(Three minutes later)

Steve: Robbie and Dylan said ok.

Me: What?

Steve: Yeah, they can pace you tomorrow after their 800m races.

Me: OK, cool.

Less than 24 hours later, I was lacing up my spikes for my 5,000m race, while Robbie and Dylan were getting ready to pace me after having run an 800m about a half-hour earlier. The guys did a great job, taking me though 2k in about 6:40 and 3k in 9:58. I was able to stay nice and relaxed for the first 3k of the race. It felt like we were just doing another kilometer repeat workout in Gibbons Park. Robbie stayed in for 3600m, and after he stepped off I felt good enough to keep the pace steady for the rest of the race. I finished in 16:34.51, a personal best by over twelve seconds.

I really owe a lot to Robbie and Dylan for their help on Tuesday. Not only did they run even splits to set me up for a personal best, these guys were willing to help out a teammate on short notice without a second thought. It’s great that these junior athletes in our group understand what we are trying to do with the club. We are building a community with an atmosphere where runners of any age and level can succeed and achieve their goals. Guys like Robbie and Dylan understand that for this to happen, club members need to give back to the group and help out their teammates. It is too easy to simply ask “what can I get out of this training group?” or “how can this club make me better?” and forget that one needs to make contributions of their own. Sure, it’s important that a track club or training group helps you improve (otherwise, why would you join?), but it’s a two-way street. In order to create an atmosphere for success in a training group, athletes must make positive contributions that improve the group. That’s why Robbie and Dylan (among others in the club) are such great teammates – they go above and beyond the simple requirement of coming out to practice and working out two to three times a week.

So again, thanks Robbie and Dylan. You guys are awesome.

Of course, now that I’ve had a few days for everything to sink in, I want to race again and run faster. I want to be more aggressive in the first 3k of the race by going out in, say, 9:45-9:50. My first kilometer was about a 3:22 (while the other four averaged 3:18), so that’s like four free seconds, right there. That being said, I’m glad that I played it a bit safer on Tuesday and negative split the race; it was a great confidence booster.

The race video is up on Runnerspace, in case you have sixteen minutes and thirty-four seconds that you don’t know what to do with. Next up for me is the Speed River Middle Distance Inferno, where I will be racing the 1500m. I am the slowest seed in the fast section, so the plan will be to hang on for dear life in the first two laps, and then take some scalps over the second half of the race. And I want my scalps!

Until next time, get fired up about track season! Dropkick Murphys songs get me fired up, so here’s one.

Famous for Nothing

For your information there’s an inflammation in my tear gland.

Folks, allergy season is definitely upon us. And let me tell you, it has been absolutely awful. If you’re anything like me, the simple act of stepping outside is a terrible experience as all of the pollen, grass, trees and who knows what else assault me. I go into sneezing fits, my eyes itch so badly that I want to claw them out and, new for this year (!) I’ve been getting awesome sinus headaches to go along with this general unpleasantness. So if you see me, no, I’m not sick or really upset. I’m sneezing and stuffed up and have watery eyes because of seasonal allergies. But you can still feel sorry for me and hand me a tissue.

Strangely enough, I’ve had some great workouts on days when my allergies have been pretty bad. I ran well yesterday during our 5000m-pace workout (5 X 1200m at 5k pace), and a week before that I had one of my better speed workouts (it’s a big deal with I can run at 1500m pace in a workout). Yesterday’s workout was a nice confidence-booster, as I felt strong and smooth working at the pace I want to run. Now that I have a good feel for pace, I can (as Curt Bolton would say) “just get dialed in and go click, click, click.”

Speaking of pacing, I had the privilege of seeing some truly awful pacing at some of the local high school races. It’s usually the top kids in the field, too, who do stupid things like run a 72 for the first lap of the 3000m and then go on to win in 10:20 or something. Sure, I had my share of idiotic races in high school, like that time I ran a first lap of 64 in an 800m race when my personal best was 2:18. But I learned my lesson, because it hurts like hell to go 64, 74 in an 800m race. Lately I’ve been seeing the same kids do the same thing week after week. What’s going on? Am I old enough to write this off as “oh those wacky kids! I’ll ever understand the youth?” Should we blame ourselves? Or maybe the Americans? Has Without Limits ruined everyone’s ability to run a smart race? Oh no, it’s a Nike conspiracy!

I think one part of it is that runners, especially those who are winning local races, develop bad habits and end up failing to run smart over and over. If a kid is winning their local age-class events easily, they can run an absurdly fast first lap or first kilometer, fall way off pace, and still win simply because they are better than the rest of the field. And everyone says “wow, awesome race, you were so far ahead! You’re so awesome!” So they continue to race in a similar fashion. As Bowerman says in everyone’s favourite movie… “He may get away with it in high school, but at the international level of competition it’s a disaster.” And since I mentioned that movie, can we maybe stop calling it “awesome” and “gutsy” and whatnot when someone goes out like an idiot and then fades horribly in a race? Yeah, they looked like a hero for the first bit of the race, but it sure wasn’t heroic when they got passed and pathetically stumbled toward the finish.* We need to stop reinforcing stupid behaviour. So here’s my public service announcement for the day. Recognize poor racing and stop giving it cool labels which encourage people to keep racing like teenage idiots. Generally, when you run smart, you will place better and run a better time than if you go out like a maniac and blow up. Come on kids, you should know better. Run smart.

In any case, I’m getting pretty excited about the upcoming 401 Series. I’ll be watching the races in Windsor this weekend instead of racing so that my legs are fresh for the 5000m in London on May 24^th. Then it’s off to Guelph the following weekend, where I will be taking a stab at the 1500m. Windsor should be pretty exciting to watch; the men’s 1500m field is pretty stacked. And I heard that the London Distance Classic will have excellent competition in the 5000m and the 800m, so everyone should come to race or watch that. I suppose I will end on that shameless plug.

*This does not refer to anyone in particular. And I apologize if I sound like I’m grouping all high schoolers together. I realize that some of you must run smart. Good work.

**Hang on, a blog is not complete without a horror punk band’s tribute song to a 1955 science fiction movie! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9WEJXsp-8k

The more you suffer, the more it shows you really care. Right?

About a year ago, I ran the Athletics Ontario 10,000m Championships in 35:17.71 and was very happy with my result. This year, I ran the same race in 35:16.13, and I was very disappointed with how the race had gone. I guess this comparison might offer some insight into my fitness gains over the past year and my changing expectations as a result. It was rather frustrating to suffer through twenty-five laps only to run a personal best by about one-and-a-half seconds. Still, as people keep telling me, a personal best is a personal best.

I can definitely say that I was happy with the first half of the race. The plan was to run the first 5k in 17:20 and negative split the race in order to hit my goal of running 34:30. The secondary goal was to break 35. I knew that this was possible after doing a solid workout of 5 X 2k a few weeks ago on a windy day on the bike path and averaging just under seven minutes (35 flat pace) for each. Anyway, I had a great setup on race day, as my teammate Ian “Raging Bull” Turnbull was pacing me for the entire race. He did an amazing job, taking me through the 5,000m mark in about 17:22. Unfortunately, the first half didn’t feel as good as it should have, and shortly after, things started to crack. I fell way off pace over the second half of the race, feeling awful for most of that 5k stretch. The six kilometer mark was a really bad patch for me. It’s rough passing the lap counter while feeling horrible and seeing that you still have ten laps to go. I had some serious thoughts of dropping out, but I figured that I could still run a personal best if I didn’t run too terribly and of course I wanted my shiny awesome Athletics Ontario medal, so I hung in there. Turnbull was very helpful at this point. He slowed down so as not to drop me, but he ran fast enough that he kept me pushing.

In the end, I ran 35:16.13, taking the silver behind Megan Brown. The time certainly wasn’t what I had hoped for, but I’m glad I took a risk and really went for it. This is the only 10,000m I will run in 2011, so it was worth going out on pace for my top-end goal. The race was also a decent confidence-booster. Two weeks ago, I had a bad race at the Downtown 5k, running 17:34. To be able to run the first half of the 10,000m faster (even though I faded after that point) made me much more confident about my current fitness level.

Of course, these are all attempts at seeing the bright side of an unpleasant race. That is unacceptable. This is a Leslie Sexton blog, where everything is about pain and suffering and sadness. As Steve Boyd wrote on TnFnorth, “Track 10s are just brutally hard, and really easy to bail on when things aren’t going as planned. They’re the most dropped-out-of kind of race next to the marathon.” I certainly learned this on Sunday. But dropping out wasn’t an option. No, as soon as I started running poorly, I forced myself to finish the bloody race, because the only fitting punishment for running slowly would be to suffer through the agony of the last 3-4km of a 10,000m race. Dropping out is easy. Finishing what one starts on a bad day requires some toughness. So I’ll call this a “character-building” race, as it was one of the most difficult mental battles I’ve ever been through while racing.

I would like to end on a happy note, so let’s go with a song that makes me happy. You would think this song might have the opposite effect, but this song always puts me in a better mood. For years, every time I play Self Esteem or I hear it on the radio, I need to sing along at the top of my lungs. One in university I found it on someone’s ipod at a party, so I changed the song right away. After the initial cries of disappointment because I had turned off some awful top-40 dance tune, it turned out that about four other people knew the words, so we all started singing along and playing air guitar, with Walmsley and I leading the way (ie. singing the loudest).  After that fateful night, Self Esteem got played at almost every subsequent party. It never really caught on as an everybody-gets-up-and-sings-along thing like Don’t Stop Believing or the Bohemian Rhapsody, but we kept it going with the efforts of a few key people. I made sure to request it at the XC nationals after-party in Guelph last year, just for old times’ sake. So remember that awesome song you heard that night? Yeah, that was Walmsley and I. You’re welcome.

The Lawn Garbage Tour of London, Ontario

In case you didn’t already know, I am a dedicated road-race-whore. A while back I looked at the Forest City Road Races website and got a bit excited about the half marathon. $250 for the win? A winning time of 1:23 last year? I’m there!

I did the race as a steady run in order to get a workout in but not tire myself out so close to the Ontario 10,000m Championships on May 8^th. So the plan was to run at around 4:00 min/kilometer race, but not to go faster than 3:55 pace. I wasn’t quite as even as I wanted to be with my pacing, but overall I averaged 3:59s for a time of 1:23:43. A few of the initial kilometer markers could have been off (the 5k marker was way off), so I may have messed myself up even more by seeing an inaccurate split and adjusting based on that, who knows. I also may have gotten a little excited over the second half of the race as I picked it up a bit to pass a few of the men in front of me who had gone out a bit quickly. My racing instincts are always there, even when I wasn’t technically racing. In any case, I got in a good workout and took the win and a paycheque.

The highlight of the race was definitely getting to see all of the crap on the lawns of university student homes all over the city. Since the race was on May 1^st, it coincided with move-out weekend for a lot of Western students. The race started downtown and took a winding trip through and around campus, so we got to see an assortment of garbage bags, soiled couches, and other furniture in various states of disrepair on every other front lawn. Nice job, Western students. Your efforts for city beautification were surely appreciated by the hundreds of people that had the privilege of running the lawn garbage tour of London last weekend.

I’m sure I could find some other things to rant about (seriously, I have a file of rants to put in future blogs, but I have enough trouble keeping on top of race reports and training updates to use them), but I promised myself I would keep this short. Besides, I’m tired and I need to rest up for twenty-five laps of pain and suffering on Sunday. And by pain and suffering I mean that the 10,000m is an awesome event and everyone should do it. The good news is that thanks to SSD and Megan Brown, we have a whopping total of four women running the Athletics Ontario 10,000m Championships on May 8^th (see the preview article here). It might sound like I’m being all sarcastic and sad, but four is twice as many as last year’s two competitors. So the numbers are improving, but obviously they could be much, much better. Seriously, ladies, stop being weak little babies afraid of the 10,000m. Yes, the 10,000m is difficult, physically and mentally. But if you didn’t want to do something challenging, you picked the wrong sport. “Man up” and run something longer than 1,500m, already.

Looks like I did do some ranting, after all. You should read Watson’s tongue-in-cheek post on media whoring; he’s spot on (“I hope that OPMW [Operation Media Whore] is a success because being a shitty runner who is good at taking advantage of the naiveness of the general public may be easier and more lucrative than being a kick ass runner who works their balls off for scraps.”) and pretty damn funny. I may be a road race whore, but I like to abide by the “let your running do the talking” mentality. So with that said, I’m going to shut up and run on Sunday.

When life gives you razorblades, you make a baseball bat covered in razorblades!

As I have previously stated, distance running isn’t always about glamour and personal bests and puppies and rainbows and hugs. Sometimes you get your ass kicked real bad. This past weekend’s race wasn’t a complete disaster, but I definitely fell short of what I wanted to do. I ran the McFarland Rowlands Downtown 5k in London on Friday in hopes of kicking off a long string of spring/summer races with a solid performance (in numerical terms, run around 16:45 if conditions were absolutely perfect and break 17 if they weren’t).

From the gun I didn’t feel great. I ran the first kilometer in 3:20, but I felt that I had to push a bit harder than I wanted to in order to do it. Then I ran a 3:28 (not so good). By this point in the race, I had long since been dropped by the group of guys from the club that I was supposed to be running with. By the time I went through the 3k mark in 10:19, I was really starting to fall apart. My legs felt completely flat; I was unable to push them any harder. Then the high-3:30s started to come and there wasn’t very much I could do about it. I finished in 17:34.55, almost 35 seconds off of my conservative goal (not to mention that I hope to split faster than that in a 10k this year).

It turned out that this time was actually a 5k road personal best for me, but that is because I haven’t run very many competitive 5k races on the roads. However, I split a 17:29 at the 5k mark of Harry’s Spring Run-Off. So as one can probably guess, it wasn’t a very good day. I was a bit angry upon finishing the race, but it was hard to be too upset when it was a great day for most of the other runners in our club. I finished second overall among the women, so I got a bit of a payday out of the event. So now all that is left is to figure out what went wrong and adjust for next time. My guess at the moment is that my low week of 115 km left me feeling pretty flat the week of the race. I’ll be racing off of higher volume in the coming weeks (so as to not miss much training for early-season races), so I should have plenty of time to figure out what works and nail my taper for track nationals in June.

For now, I’m using the best post-bad-race therapy known to humankind: running over 100 miles this week. I might be a bit angry about my performance during the Downtown 5k, but being angry isn’t very helpful in a long distance event. Sure, you can run an 800m on pure hate, but doing that in a 10,000m is a recipe for disaster.

Then, why the quote from Hobo with a Shotgun? Well, it sort of fit the theme, and it was one of the more ridiculous parts of the movie. Like Machete, Hobo with a Shotgun is another fake-trailer-turned real movie (though Machete was definitely better). Somehow, the movie ended up being more violent than I expected (for a movie named Hobo with a Shotgun, I expected something very violent, so that’s saying something). I would go into a more thorough movie review, but I don’t want to ruin it. Seriously, it’s a movie called Hobo with a Shotgun. Go see it already.

For now I will simply keep banging out the miles instead of getting angry or upset about my race. What I do on June 24^th is much more important, anyway. In the more immediate future is the Forest City Half-Marathon on May 1^st, the London 10,000m (Athletics Ontario Championships) on May 8^th, and a chance for redemption on the roads of Goderich on May 15^th. Back to work for me.