A chilly one to finish off the decade - Philly Marathon RR

The Philadelphia marathon certainly attracts some serious talent near the end of November when everyone is ready and available to tackle on one more qualifying time for the next big race in 2020. 

New for 2019, the race organizers separated the events over the weekend allowing some reduction in bottlenecks. The half marathon was on Saturday. The marathon was on Sunday.

Travel in Philly is easily manageable without the car. We were able to hop on the next bus from New York. The bus and train terminals and convention centre race expo and start and finish all within walking distance of each other. In addition a Trader's Joe grocery store even popped up only a month before this race and near the convention centre. 

Celebrities were also on hand. It was the Meb and Des show. 

Des said to Jen, "I remember you!" 
Funny it must had been from seeing her in San Antonio last year.

Security gestured 1 minute to hold up the crowds as Meb and Jen briefly exchanged some kinds words while I failed to look into the camera.

The route is a giant single clockwise loop similar to Berlin, with the start and finish close to a landmark feature (i.e. the Rocky steps). There is an out and back latter half section in the scenic Fairmount Park just behind the Rocky Steps. The stretch between 8 to 12 kilometres is my favourite section running straight through the downtown core on Chestnut Street with lively cheers.

I was able to settle in with the large packs to shelter from the cold, wind and rain. Every time I made an attempt to grab drinks at the aid stations, I could feel the weather elements, but shortly afterwards I was able to tuck right back in the groups. I was actually running the same pace and working together with others, unlike Berlin where there was a lot of congestion pace shuffling. The sub 3-hour pace group did a perfect job. This was the race to nail a good time even despite the harsh conditions. 

To give you a sense of size and depth of the marathon field, this race is basically a third of Berlin Marathon.

• For Berlin, I finished in 3:03 at roughly 2,900 out of 44,800 marathon finishers with an official time. 
• For Philly, I finished in 3:05 at roughly 520 out of 13,000 marathon finishers with an official time.
• Also earlier in the 2019 year for DC, I finished in 3:03 at roughly 50 out of 1,500 marathon finishers with an official time.

Welp at least one positive is all three 2019 marathons had 1:29 half split. Consistency is my constant.

The wheels came off around 30km. It's too bad my hips and calves died, but given my recovery post Berlin and lack of build up, I'm not surprised. I was ready to burst into tears at the finish. Soul crushing.

What surprised me was my age group rank at 117th was already broken down by gender and 5-year rankings. I didn't even crack top 100!! I can see why Philly is advertised as one of the top 10 races in the US.

Lucky for me the finish was not at the top of these Rocky steps.

Yes, the Liberty Bell rings too.

As published by marathon investigations, hundreds of cheaters were removed from the results page. Despite this, it is was too bad that my rank still didn't improve...haha! Also in regards to the incorrect corrals starts, I did struggled but eventually did find my proper corral in the dark and wet morning. Race organizers should note that letters would had been better.  

Start Map

Pre Race

Post Race - Philly Cheesesteak with American cheese was a must!!

Post-Post Race - New Haven food trucking...amazing!

Jen decided taking selfies wasn't her in plans but running it was - the Rocky Steps. 

We had time to check out the Christmas markets and gondola in New York! Well correction: Jen really wanted to squeeze in a swim workout in between actually! We went to the local pool on Roosevelt Island.

Thanks for reading. Happy new year!

"Finally" a race to remember - Berlin Marathon RR

Similar to the conditions seen at Kona World Champs, the Berlin Marathon conditions for this year was ever so slightly harder than the nearly perfect conditions seen last year. Needless to say, this made overall winner Bekele winning performance slightly more impressive. Bekele finished only 2 seconds off from the world record set last year in the same course by Kipchoge, famously nicknamed the GOAT on social media.

For the over 40,000 rest of us non Berlin Legends, the marathon distance is still a grueling task just to reach the finish line on race day.

Can you find me?

The 42.195K course (I like the German precision already):

From what I gathered, the Germans are efficient and flawless in operations. Recycleable environmental plastic cups were introduced as pilot project to reduce environmental footprint. I couldn't help but noticed a lot less potties at the start unlike Chicago and Boston (perhaps I'm accustomed to NA wasteful resource standards). Unlike other years, this year's medals was a nice tribute and honoured a long time organization employee and past technical race director, Lutz Derkow, who unfortunately passed away this summer. 

The clockwise loop around the city starts and finishes in Tiergarten park, where the centre of the financial and political districts meet in Berlin.
The giant projector screens allowed for the start to pass by relatively quick with inspiring videos of everyday runners before they marched off the various groups. It felt like a outdoor movie theatre. They have very friendly spectable guides with many wi-fi hotspots to catch the action, including the AR adidas Runners and Red Bull arches between kilometre 36 and 37.

Personal reflection:

Following a busy triathlon season, I was going to attempt to break 3 hours for the first time (finally) with assistance on the world's fastest marathon course. Since July this year, my Coach Jen keeps me in check with every long run focused for the 3-month marathon build to this event. I say "finally" because I've been stuck at 3:01 since 6 years ago and have ran multiple 3:01s in progressively harder conditions. I think people in the running community is wondering why I haven't got this virtual monkey off my back yet. This virtual monkey is annoyingly good I must say. I am however very grateful to be fortunate enough to get in through the lottery, also finally! I've been rejected a minimum of 2 times in each of the missing 4 majors until I got in Berlin, drastically improving my odds to 1 in 9.

Too early to celebrate yet. :)

In order for sub 3, it's not difficult to presume with favourable temperature and humidity conditions, lack of hills, and better run specific training should all contribute to a time quicker than 3:03 established earlier in the year in DC. This engineering approach seemed reasonable like breaking 2 project, but of course not all variables can be controlled. 

Vapourflys 4% and next % were everywhere

Well, I found out on race day the hard way that my cold with a running nose was no match for sub 3 hours virtual monkey. Despite running a 3:01 in Chicago 2013 hacking away a lung or two and running a 3:03 earlier in the year on a course built with hills in Washington DC. Perhaps my arrogance had caught up to give me a bit of reality check. Trying to run a marathon averaging a higher heart rate by 15 bpm was a game changer. 

Up to the start line, I didn't want to believe that at only kilometre 3 shortly leaving the beautiful Tiergarten park, my effort already felt harder than it should be.   

I had a bit of optimism during the week because I thought I can replicate the Chicago 2013 performance. 

Here comes the bags of excuses. It seems like my body actually needed an offseason, but my mind wasn't willing since I've made so many commitments for travel and visiting friends.

I held my typical 1:29 half split as I normally do, but was hoping for a slightly better result. Now to think of it, my aerobic base was gone since adopting more runs and less bikes and swims over the summer. My expectations had to be readjusted by 10km and hoped I made the right call at the time to back off the pace early to mitigate the risk of not finishing. Quitting wasn't an option for me.

The second half of the marathon was still steady up to the start of the final 7 kilometres when the rain hit. My pace dropped about 10 to 20 seconds per km after holding 4:20s. My high heart rate could no longer battle the rain. 

Kilometre 39 was tough, seeing the Canada banner in Potsdamer Platz meant that I was running away from the finish at Tiergarten.

The Brandenburger Gate seem to wipe off all that rain-mixed sweat and tears off my face, and I was able to finally enjoy the race a little bit after a long conservative effort.

Climax of the race under the historic Brandenburg Gate!

The virtual monkey won this time as the time ticked 3:03, but I was happy with my race day execution and overall experience. What an epic race in a city riched with history and stories from the cold war. 

I'm optimistic I'll have a better crack at it next time with improved wellness at another marathon.   

I started walking towards the warm tea and alcohol-free & free beer. The plastic tarp felt like my Harry Potter's invisible cape as I felt pretty crappy at this point and started questioning my life's decision to run marathons. Funny enough the beer made this go away instantly.

I know I need to freshen up and go back to what I was familiar with to get aerobic base. I was never meant to be high mileage low intensity athlete. More of a lower mileage, medium intensity kind of athlete.

Thank you for reading and following my journey.

Fantastic crew Kat, Eric, me and Merick.

Offseason regular visit to the land of poutine and bagels - Montreal RNR 5K RR

In BC, our summer abruptly changes to the rainy season once September rolls in. The last race of season in Curtis Lake is a good reminder of that! 

For the third consecutive year, Montreal has become one of our favourite destinations to visit. The perfect late September conditions provide a smooth transition into the off-season! As I'm still in denial of the weather back at home. Montreal is also a fantastic hub for meeting up with friends.

So cool to have Brendan and Lawrence make the trip from Ottawa to meet up!

Not too far from race expo, Chinatown has an amazing food scene for evening treats, popular for young people.    

I couldn't resist trying the mostly all hype Brown sugar latte as it was half the price it is at home!

The Saturday 5K race was pretty much one out and one back and hot off the gun. It was meant to be a chill fun race for me. One abnormal supinator was annoyingly fast. We were yo-yoing but he ended having stronger legs. Jen and I was always within 10-20m. She caught me at the 4km mark and I tried to hang on to her for the last bit finishing about 6 seconds back and taking a second or two to celebrate clap for her. 

Jen shared the podium with two amazing 14 year olds!

One hand with bling. The other timmies. Apparently there isn't many Tim Hortons in the states.

We jumped on a cheap rental car and found two Berlins on route to New Haven! Vermont and Connecticut have their own German town version of Berlins dating back to early settlements.

Lunch time at Yale Hospital is amazing. I thought we missed a few food trucks across the road since Jen was leading past them, only to make a 90 degrees turn and see over 40 more line up along the road. 

A greenway in New Haven.

 I was curious where one end would end up and it looks like the dungeon for a dragon. Otherwise, it looks like an old railway corridor was converted to a pedestrian/cyclist path. 

A nice looking bowstring truss bridge.

 Time for Times Square and beyond. Small detour to get to Berlin.

Excited for Berlin (the actual German one).

Another Rainy Day to cap Tri Season Finale - Cultus Sprint Tri RR

It's hard to imagine getting more soaked than last year. This year at Cultus Lake Tri marked another year with awesome weather to end the tri season.

The course is unchanged from last year with exception for slight re-routed transitions with longer transition legs.

 There was a long narrow carpet laid for entering the T2, which required a little skill. The rain came at us since beginning and running through the transitions felt like a warm feet mud bath.

Joe's BBQ saved the day!! We were all making friends at the ATC Abby Tri tent today.





Byran and I admiring the standard and half iron'ers.

This year was one of my slowest years by 1-3 minutes. 1:14. Also the fact that I was trying to see through the rain in my sunglasses didn't help. I was lucky to stay on the bike course as it was a challenge following a straight line. In terms of conditions, I guess this can be ranked is one of the rougher ones.

I was lucky enough to catch up with a few friends after the race as we got dumped with loads of rain, which made the trip worth it to Cultus Lake.

Kevin Heinz - the friendly voice behind Fitspeek! He had a great race in these conditions.

Have a listen if you haven't already. Here's a two part series on me going babbly babbly on a local community and informative podcast Fitspeek!

http://www.fitspeek.com/2019/09/14/zen-the-art-of-tri-winston-guo-fitspeek-78/

http://www.fitspeek.com/2019/09/27/going-short-to-get-faster-fitspeek-79-with-winston-guo/

Up and rising in the triathlon ranks, Joshua volunteered at the medical tent. Classy wetsuit wardrobe. As they say no such thing as bad weather, just poorly dressed people.

Race Director Angie and Allen who raced also enjoying the rain outside.



An unexpected surprise and celebrating 40 years anniversary in retro theme fashion - Elk Lake RR

I must had caught the photographer sleeping on the wheel. Here's an arm candy pic of myself instead.
Photo Credit: Reuben Butterfield

Well you know the result, but here’s the back story.

My look of shock as there was still a whole bunch load of people ahead of me. 
Photo Credit: Reuben Butterfield

My supportive girlfriend and tough-love coach Jen thought I was a silly goof after my joyful and raceless (but very fruitful saskatoon berries…it was a good season) trip to Edmonton. Her father is a man of few words. He asked me how I did in Edmonton, and then with the short reply of three words 

"What a disappointment". 

His home cooked pasta meal and apple apricot were amazing the day before Edmonton. Disappointing the meal was for no show. 

Heading into Elk Lake, it was good to pre-run and pre-drive the run and bike race routes respectively again. I think the body knows how to push through pain when it knows precisely how much pavement/trail is left on course.

I was well rested. Motivation was high especially after Jen's dad words. Lessons were learnt the hard way last year being out sprinted in the finish line. Race conditions was hot and tough. You definitely need to embrace a bit of grittiness, which are my favourite type of racing. 

Me a little nervous and hiding in the back.
Photo Credit: Reuben Butterfield

---~~~~---

The swim. No wetsuit in fresh water. Not ideal. One clockwise loop with blinding sun on last length. New this year, we started in carrel groups and chip time as we funneled into the lake. 

Swim sighting was bad! :/

The bike. Single out and back, but a lot of punchiness mini up and downs left and rights, also watching out for not mainly live cars in the residential area, but more concerning other cyclists heading in opposite direction on the back stretch as there was no yellow line delineator at times. Not necessary fast, but a lot of fingers near brakes to ride the twists and turn action.

Race map 

The run. Also single out and back on the trail with a little hill at the turnaround. We saw the biker placed the cone for the turnaround point on the day before. The same biker was also doing a bike escort for the leader on race day, so cool!

---~~~---

Me on far right being all signed up and race ready.
Photo Credit: Reuben Butterfield

A first 1st for me!! That's in the overall category (baby!). I have previously finished pretty much everything inside top 10 i.e. 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th. But never 1st! Lose. Lose. And I lose. 

If you're looking for a little inspiration and close to WiFi and/or can tether off a friend, this speech from Deshauna Barbara is definitely worth a watch if you haven’t seen this already!! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BRrvPQzTwE  

I had my very own Deshauna moment. "...the person we are now is not the person we need to be when we cross the finish line in our dreams..." Powerful.

I'm learning now to embrace my fail forwardness. If you've ever reached rock bottom or what certainly feels like it, take that as an opportunity to bounce back higher than ever before! I'm stealing this line from a clever friend, Brendan, who had previously shared his Monday motivators with an insightful quote along those lines. He also happens to be a very good triathlete because I've seen him fail forward first hand behind all his successes. 

I had 26th fastest swim, 3rd fastest bike, came into T2 in 4th place, and 1st fastest run splits, finishing 1st. 

When one spectator said top 3 was close on the 1km mark of the run course, I knew the front two guys were coming backwards towards me. My racing instincts kicked in, and it was my race to lose at that point. I had passed the leader just as we hit the turnaround point with the start of the bike escort. 

This was the short, but very intense and anything-can-happen derby style Sprint distance format. Losing mere seconds can come back to haunt you no matter what places you are battling for. My transitions times improved 11s from last year. 

Last year I lost to a unsuspecting teammate by 1 second and lost to the age group winner by 10 seconds in this same exact race. The slimmest of margins and it hurt more than the legs. You knew I wasn't looking back, easing off the gas pedal, nor celebrating early this year regardless of the situation. 

I'm sad to report, since mid July 2019, Coach Jen has formally shutdown any high end intensity workouts on the bike and swim for preparation for the marathon in Berlin in late September. But I am starting to enjoy the running workout blocks as the stimulus is working and yet still keeping me race fit for multisport.

We will see in Cultus lake sprint tri, grande finale race of the multisport season! No bike/swim intensity training. Just running. We will see. 

Thanks for reading!!

Oldies from UBC tri club - Theresa and Naiely and her friend Karen
Thanks to Theresa for hosting us!!

This was Lindsey's first win in the ladies category in the same distance as well.
UBC Tri Club oldies FTWs!!

Post run cool down lap and caught being fashionably cool.
Photo Credit: Joel Rushworth

I'm a man who's car is an accessory for the bike.
A fellow athlete seems to follow suit and (motor) bike is also an accessory for the bike. 

A trick I learned with the glasses after watching world champion, Mario Mola!

Super fashionable swag shirts as many were seen wearing them.
Angie, race director, has out did herself again. Great work!