A TT Effort for Ten and Half Laps - Mission Half Marathon RR

The Mission Raceway is quite the happening place for Friday nights during the summer. The locals would hear all the exciting noise down the river and head on over to the track to check out the racing action.

In contrast, on this particular early quiet morning in a late October however it was a human-powered foot race. The thought of a series of cars running us down did crossed my mine. 

Ten laps of the raceway in the same clockwise direction as cars and finishing on the drag strip (a touch slower than the 260 mph course record)!! Pancake flat and super cool! Sometimes the cycling groups will train here in the opposite direction.

For me it was pretty good excuse to meet up with some ATC tri friends Kevin and Mikey and also post race brunch. 

For Jen, being the runner in the relationship, it was rare to get her to support me in a running spectacle. Good news for her, she doesn't even need to move to see us at least 10 times. To keep her entertained from complete boredomville, Jen got her strength workout in. I.e. She brought along her 10 lbs slam ball to cheer us on/ send out her military coaching orders. I think each 10 times running passed her cheer spot got me scared that she would turn HULK on us and start slamming the ball at me!! I was entertained each time watching her slam it up.

Back to the start of the race! It was a solo effort for myself. Two runners ahead. And a battle behind with Kevin and Mikey's group. I felt like neutral service pace car making sure the gap remained behind and the front two didn't lap me! It was close, another lap and I'm pretty sure Drew and Russ would had completed the lap-a-roo. 

I was hovering around 4 minute pace per km all day, a touch slower than my fitness showed in Montreal a few weeks earlier. I was struggling with a large blister on my right foot. 

The race was a nice change in place, a quiet morning and some gently fallen leaves to negotiate to keep things a little interesting. I cut the course as aggressively as I could but still ended up with around 400m distance more on the Garmin GPS.