Freezing the Sweet 30th Anniversary - First Half RR

Morning of race day experienced record cold temperatures (around minus 3-4 degrees) and luckily the snow held off just in time for the morning. Had the race started a mere two hours later, the whole city was covered by winter wonderland.

I'm thankful the gun went off and no repeat of 2017 when the race was cancelled due to a combination of factors including snow and falling debris from above bridges.

Here's my splits from the previous years. 2018 and 2019 are similar due to similar work stress conditions. 2016, I was training full time and didn't had the stress of full time work.
Maybe 2020, is the year I finally break 1:21...with alignment of good training and favourable race conditions, along with a bit of luck for race execution. :)

I overdressed and was glad I even survived the race. I think I prefer the summer hot stuff! :P

River Walk, Fiesta Dancers, and Tex-Mex Food - RNR San Antonio RR

There is a lot of history in San Antonio with the Alamo taking place in 1836, and the city celebrating it's tricentennial.  Jen and I had visited New Orleans for their tricentennial in March, so it seemed fitting to complete the 2018 race season with another milestone.  San Antonio is an under-rated Texan city.  They have a strong Mexican influence (best tacos I ever had!) and certainly take their Christmas festivities to a whole new level.  Jen and I learned that San Antonio starts in Septermber to put out Christmas lights along the urban riverfront known as The River Walk (El Paseo del Rio). During this time of the season the 35 minute boat tours are popular must dos and they extend tours to during the night as well to see all the christmas lights. Jen and I got a sweet look of the city's skyline from a different perspective both on the road and in the canal which was very neat to see.

With Jen, hours pass by quickly at the expo.  I thought that 1 hour would be plenty to pick up our bibs and check out a few vendors.  Wrong.  Jen needed almost 3 hours!  As I was running back to the car to add more time to the parking meter, Jen met Meb and Desi Linden and got selfies with both.  When I finally returned, there was an announcement that Kathrine Switzer was doing a meet and greet at one of the booths (they were both handing out medals at the 5K/10K races Sat, and Meb paced the 1:45 group in the half).  Jen excitingly ran over to get a picture with one of her idols.  We learned that Kathrine and her husband, Roger, enjoy traveling to Vancouver.  Kathrine introduced us to Roger, who signed a copy of his book for the two of us and Jen's coach.

We also learned that San Antonio knows how to put on a marathon! We start on Market Street, which is smack centre in downtown near The River Walk. The route meanders in a clockwise direction reaching the furthest north point at Brackenridge Park near the Zoo. San Antonio is known as a military base so we ran through the blue mile in Brackenridge park.

Side note: conveniently Jen and I stayed close to this neighbourhood and we weren't that far from the airport as well - very little driving distance required.

The route continues down south on Broadway Street. 

This photo of San Antonio is courtesy of TripAdvisor.  But it gives you an idea of what the on-course entertainment was like.

Underneath the highway and along the river front you could see entertaining musicians and Fiesta Dancers sprinkled along the route to cheer runners on. 

Eventually at the half and full turnoff point, us marathoners continued further south and along the River Walk where the path are wider than its downtown core counterpart.

It was a gentle slope down mid way and then a gentle up slope. The path we ran in the second half crisp crosses each other with scenic little bridges designed for pedestrians and cyclists. This reminds me of the bike-highway system known in Boulder, which gives indication why people are so drawn to live in both those areas. 

We finished on Alamo Street which was nice as both start finish were next to the race expo at the convention centre. 

Finished in 3:09 with a 10 minute positive split. It was a struggle to the finish, luckily only a few runners passed me in the last few km struggle on false flats to the finish. 

Celebrating Dave's 2x50th (bday+marathons) and clockworks pacing with David - Amica Seattle Half Marathon RR

Over the American thanksgiving long weekend, the Seattle Marathon marked a very special and social occasion. A group of 30+ of us from Vancouver, BC toed the line for this race to support our friend Dave Papineau's legendary journey to finishing his 50th marathon on his 50th b-day. The idea of 30+ of us running the marathon together was going to be epic!!

Despite having this race one week before my own marathon in San Antonio, I decided against my better judgement to not be anti-social and shamelessly cash in on this extreme savings by signing up early with Kevin Schwab...and for the marathon distance...dun dun dun. My original plan was to run with the group and then DNF at 15km.

Since all 30+ of us were heading down, it was a high probability of bumping into friends. Dimitri found me on some random streets near the Westin hotel, while I was arm wrestling with the parking meter. I heard rumours that a few runners had already wisely downgraded their distance at no extra cost. And then when I found out one of them was David Tapia, my gut knew 100% I had to run the race with him!! Sorry Dave. David was easing back into the distance, and I needed to not over do it for the following weekend.

2019 version of the course introduced a new route with a familiar start location at 5th and Harrison near the Seattle Centre. It was advertised as a friendlier course with 25% less elevation gain on the half from 1075ft to 807ft.

The route is mainly a counter clockwise loop, starting SE along 5th (mile 1-2), sneaking N onto the I-5 express lanes and Ship Canal Bridge (mile 3-5), hugging the water on Burke Gilman Trail (mile 5-8), climbing the gradual approach to Aurora Bridge, and finally completing the final kicker climb at Aloha Street and stadium finish. The website also has a interactive map: http://www.seattlemarathon.org/amica-seattle-marathon#marathon-course-info-maps      

David and I eased out of the start behind the 1:30 half pace bunny. Going into the tunnel, we pass the 1:30 pace bunny and gradually picked up Kang and Alexis before the Ship Canal Bridge. The sharp downhill to the water on Burke Gilman trail, David and I started picking up the pace since it was more flat. As we pass each of the photographing locations running together, it certainly means we get a 50% discount on our photos.
The final bridge climb at Aurora, David gradually jumped 5m ahead of me. Once crossing the bridge, I was able to push a little harder to keep up with David. The final kicker climb at Aloha St, I struggled slightly again and then managed to pull back on the downhill. David and I crossed the finishing mat together.  

This was one of the few times I was able to run with a friend basically the entire race. It was a fun race with perfect conditions. David and I finished in 1:25:11 in pretty even splits avg about 4:00/km for first half and 4:01/km for second half.  

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.

Friends Reunion in Montreal RNR - Half Marathon RR

The multi-sport season came to an official close after Cultus lake, but that wasn't going to stop me from sniffing out another race.  Next up was the Rock 'n Roll Oasis Montreal marathon.

I think I managed to convince my friends Brendan and Jon to do the race with me.  Both had moved from Vancouver a year ago, so it was fun to have a race-reunion again.

Normally when we do Rock 'n Roll races, Jen will do the half and I run the full.  The roles were reversed in Montreal, with Jen stepping up to the big distance (it's about time!!!!).  Montreal has a goal of being another IAAF labelled race in Canada.  To do this, they must invite athletes from at least five different countries and offer a reasonable prize purse for the winners (identical for men and women).  This made the full marathon a whole lot more competitive.  Jen and another Canadian lady were up against ten athletes from Africa (Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda).  The men's race had more Canadian representation, but was still dominated by African athletes.

The days leading into the race were jammed packed with race meetings, catching up with friends in Montreal, and most importantly supporting the girlfriend with her pre-marathon festivities and overcoming her jitters.  Jen, being in the elite field, was allowed to have her own bottles on course.  She had learned from friends to use pipe cleaners as little handles to make the bottles easier to grab.  It looked like a little arts and crafts project, but clearly made race day a little bit easier. We were busy...

Montreal introduced five new courses this year.  The new course was basically pancake flat, running around the island of La Salle.  After the fireworks and race gun went off, I found Jen and started to run along beside her.  It didn't last long as Jen immediately pointed out a group of men wearing tie-dye shirts and told me to run with them.  Have to listen to coach...  The group was running steady 3:50/Km, which was perfect pacing for the New York standard of sub-1:21. 

The race has a small out and back section near the 12 Km mark.  At this point, I had just lost contact with the group.  Jen saw me running alone and yelled at me to put the head down and focus on the goal ahead.  Again, have to listen to the coach.

I ran as hard as I could and was happy to finish in a seasonal best time of 1:22:19, only 39s off my PB.  I found Brendan, Jon and his girlfriend Erin in the finish line area.  While waiting for Jen, Brendan and I snuck a trip to McDonald's. The McDs had a perfect patio to cheer on the finishers. We caught up with the "generally-good-looking guy" and past UBC triathlon club coach/president, Vince.

Bag check had some monkey wrenches. My bag was somewhere and the poor volunteers had to search for it for 30 minutes for me. I offered to help with my Bluetooth watch to pick up the phone signal but they politely declined. I helplessly watched them struggle while being a piglet munching on all my post race goodies. Now if they were spending this much effort for me, I can't imagine what the remainder 80% of the race participants would had to endure.

Jen had a good race weekend, cruising in for the win of the 5Km Saturday, and finishing 4th overall in the marathon in 2:46:50!  She ran fairly steady splits throughout the entire race, only slowing down twice to retie her shoes (maybe we need to put elastic laces in her run shoes too!).  I captured a little video of her at the finish line.  It's quite amuzing with commentary from Erin and Jen looking like she's out for a Sunday stroll.  Can I run like that too?

Jen's finish

After the race, we went out to celebrate with Montreal's specialties: poutine and smoked meat!

Season-End, BC Champs, Epic Rainfall Warning - Cultus Lake Sprint RR

Cultus sprint distance was the last stop for my tri-season, and it sure was a year that we'll be talking about for many years to come! Both the sprint and long courses were BC championships for this year's event.

It must have been pouring rain the entire race morning except during the swim.

There was a solid representation from local ATC and Fit Club triclubs. We had a good handful representing from our UBCTC as well. 

The route follows the same as last year with a minor change for the bike that allows the bike transition into T2 to go direct instead through the narrow parking lane-way.

Single loop CW swim, a nice out-and-back bike, and beach and pavement run with two out-and-backs.

I wasn't 100% for this race. Of course tapering had its drawbacks when of all things considered, I was baking a cheesecake the day before. Unfortunately when opening the yogurt container and pinching the thick lid with my cold fingers had yielded blood and a dreaded fresh cut.

The swim went okay, but striping out was an issue and had cost me 1-2 very valuable minutes. The wet-suits peelers were looking at me funny as I struggled helplessly with a gimpy finger grip.  

Having some knowledge from last year, I knew this bike course well and relied on my bike handling skills to navigate the wet bike ride. I was soaked and my carbon rims brakes were pretty much in-effective.

The run has really been a strength of mine this year - especially in a wetsuit legal swim. For the sprint distance, I had to chase a few people down including my fellow rival Scott in my age category. He got a little closer to the finish and it wasn't until the second out-and-back I was able to catch him. The fear that he would latch onto me, resulted in  one of the quickest run split for sure!

Next year, I know I'll need to improve the swim to catch the swim-bikers, finishing only a dozen or so seconds behind a couple of them! 

Jen made the trip over and got excited handing out the blingz! Great volunteers braving the rain! Kudos to race directors Angie and Joe for consistently putting on these fabulous events.

What a race, what a year. Now to the off-season. Thanks for reading.

Photo Credit: Matt Lazzarotto

Photo Credit: Matt Lazzarotto

Gut-wrenching intensity - Super League Penticton - Equalizer RR

Super league for triathlon (not the better known rugby) is an exciting new format now open for amateur multi-sport racing. I decided to make a trip to the Okanagan despite the smokey conditions from the wild fires that has taken over the whole province. Jen came to support me despite being a little hesitent as she should have been.  

Photo Credit: Super League Triathlon - Penticton

Day 1 was a friday evening bike solo TT effort just under 15km on Area 27 motorsport race track. 3 painful counter clockwise laps and then a finishing shoot.

I had a blast ripping around on my roadie going about 35.9kph at 225watts. I thinking maybe I could have shaved off another minute or two easily with the TT bike and race wheels. Or even copying Stan's idea to tact on some aerobars for next time.

Day 2 was part 2 of this Equalizer event. The order of sports was known, but the length of each was as clear as mud or the same as smokey skies leading up to the gun start. It seems like this event totally attracts veterans to the sport despite its short and beginner friendly distances. Highly complex tactics came into play and this was also my first taste of draft-legal racing and perhaps more to come.

Finally we were told we do a single loops of each discipline to keep things simple and reduce exposure to the smokey skies. Only moments before lining up at the starting line roughly based from Day 1's order, we were also told we could back out of the event and anytime and still receive post race medals and swag. We giggled a little since the timing was a bit late for that. 

The order was a swim-run-swim-bike-run. For me, I think the race can be broken into 2 phase: aquathon (swim-run-swim) and brick (bike + run).

The swim really favoured the runners as half of it was an aquajog around the buoys. The transitions was key as nearly 10% of the time was spent there. I made the error of putting on socks which costed me 10s for each time putting on & taking off. The swimmers and the runners exchanged leads in pre-bike battle with swim-run-swim. 

Once we all got to the bike, the dynamics of the race changed quite a bit. Peloton groups started to form.

Eventually I lost contact of a big group since different genders are required to not draft off each other. One moment of separation can mean getting dropped by the group. Roy, a super swimmer caught me and also did a lion share of the wind-blocking. I was lucky to stay on his wheel. 

The final run was a sprint. I was going about 3:20 per km pace for the final mile-ish.

Jen and I decided that I should pull out of Day 3 racing since we got our super league experience, she got to see me go back and forth in the 4 transitions. Jen had to almost pause me for a second to decide if this was the final call. The decision was a heavy one for me, something I'm not used to doing.

Unfortunately for the event, we heard the next morning that the sunday event was cancelled, but we knew it was the 100% right call. We drove through most of Kelowna and Merritt the previous night and the smoke was awful, with visibility less than 800m!

Overall a fun event, highly recommended. I wasn't as keen, but Jen actually convinced me to do it again next year because she said it was such fun to watch. Who can blame her? 40-50ish minutes goes by so fast!! :)