After the New Balance Fall Classic, I hadn't planned on doing any racing until the new year. I was targeting the First Half half-marathon in February. The signup for the First Half is in the late fall, but I misread the website and missed the signup date. Now normally this is not a problem because most races have signup periods that last for months, but not this one. For the 2009 offering, it sold out in less than 5 hours! Oh well. Maybe next year.
My training into the winter of 2008/2009 carried on into my Christmas vacation, which for this year was a full 3 weeks (!) because I had only taken 1 week of vacation earlier in the year. During the Christmas break, I had the opportunity to work in some innovative cross training. Despite living in a condo apartment in downtown Vancouver, I volunteered to do some shovelling for our property manager who is well into his 70's and just not used to shovelling heavy wet snow. Yes, there are parts of Canada that find it unusual to get large accumulations of snow during winter, but not many. I had two "sessions" of shoveling of about 4 hours each and I have to say it was a great core workout.
To capitalize on this intense training and to try something new, I decided to sign up for the Running Room's Resolution Run for Jan. 1. It is held in Stanley Park every year so it wouldn't be a problem for me to get up in the morning after New Year's Eve to get to the start line.
When I went to pick up the race package and the resolution run jacket, I learned that this was a fun run, not a timed run, which was somewhat disappointing but given the recent weather and snow accumulation in Vancouver, I figured that a relaxed hoof would be a much better option for these running conditions than a competitive timed run.
I woke up on Jan. 1 with just a tiny bit of alcohol still in my system. A brisk -1 degree Celsius temperature helped me wake up as I made my way down to the race start near the Brockton Oval at the park. It was really muddy and sloppy at the park and I regretted not wearing my trail running shoes for this event, but it was too late to go back and change them. At the start line, there were a few hundred people, some looking a bit groggy from the evening's festivities. After some last minute organization the race got underway. Just like a real trail run, there was a huge muddy puddle 25 metres into the race. Lots of different strategies were employed to handle this obstacle, I chose to run around it and get a bit muddy. It was clear to me as we ran out onto the seawall that this run was not going to be speedy for me as there was still some black ice and very slippery slush along the route. I eased into a relaxed pace and assumed a trail running mode in which I was focused on a few metres in front of me to anticipate the slippery bits. Even though we were running on the seawall, it was early enough in the morning that we did not have to pass by or avoid to many walkers or other joggers. I am sure those that were out and about thought we were a bit crazy!
I came to the halfway point at Lumberman's arch and turned around for the second half of the run. Lots of runners were behind me, looking just as cautious as I was about the route. By this time I was glad that I dressed lightly as there was little wind to cool me down, but I was wondering what the walk home would be like, kinda chilly perhaps?
As I approached the finish line I saw that the giant mud puddle was even more of a mess than at the start so I just blasted through it across the finish figuring I had lots of time to clean up my shoes later. I completed the course in just over 30 minutes, which reflects the caution I took in managing the slippery bits.
Not sure if I would do this race next year. The jacket sure is nice, with zip out sleeves and well placed pockets, but from what I understand it is the same jacket design every year.
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