How long have I been racing? Lots of years, lots of sports and lots of distances. Lots of mistakes made and lots of lessons learned.
So.
You’d think that I by now I’d have figure out how to seed myself appropriately at the start of a race. Sunday, 30 seconds before the start of the Squamish 23K run, I looked around as I was chatting with Christine and fiddling with my gear and realized not only was I near the very back of the corral, I was behind a girl wearing those shudder-inducing 5 Fingers and another wearing birkenstocks.
Not ideal. If I intend on doing anything that resembles racing at these races, I need to be up front near the bearded dudes who opt to run shirtless and the scary, sinewy women. Alas, it was not to be today and off I went.
I spent the first 10kms faintly bleating “On your left…. On your left… On your left…” And yeah, I got around 5 Fingers and Birky pretty early on.
My terrible planning aside, this run is a must-do for anyone keen to do a hilly, challenging trail run. The course is awesome, tough, hilly, technical and oddly quiet when you end up running the back half alone.
I successfully stayed on my feet, I didn’t deplete myself, won the mental battle when I
started to get chills – there was no way I was putting myself in the hospital again – and finished feeling happy and good. Plus, I got a big, sweaty bear hug from a tired GR. A great way to end my race.
I had the foresight to park about 4 feet from the finish line so I immediately hopped in the truck (which my hips are making me pay for today), drove home and collected various children from various locations. We finished off our Sunday with a bit of Slow Food Cycle and some time at their favourite place, the beer garden.
No seriously, it’s their favourite place.
And now for 1 day of recovery, 4 days of taper and then Challenge Penticton! This ought to be interesting.
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