3 Races, 3 weeks, 3 pb's...well sorta.

Three weeks ago we, (me and my sticks) ran The Sooke River 10k in 38:14., a new course personal best.

Sooke is a hilly course, on par with ass-burning hell, wherever that is. Well sorta, and like the title of the post indicates, two of the three personal bests are sorta personal bests, they are 'course' personal bests.

The actual real personal best was accomplished at the Sun Run 10k last Sunrunday in Vancouver, where I razed my 4 year old 37:31 with a 37:12 chip time or 37:16 gun time. Today I ran the TC 10k in a new course personal best of 37:42., Hellya!

TC is not a hilly 'n hard course like Sooke and not a ballz-out ripper like the Sun Run. Perhaps this span of races indicate a fair measure of where I am at, take your pick.

I also ran a 1/2 marathon personal best at the Comox Valley Half Marathon in 83:51. Well I also ran a couple of 5k personal bests earlier, one on New Years Eve at the Run Through Time 5k with an 18:11, then another 5k personal best at Bazan Bay 5k in 18:10.

OH! I also set an 8k personal best at the Pioneer 8k in 30:14, which I was disappointed with, thinking I should crack 30:00. Well today I hit 30:00 bang on, at the 8k marker of the TC 10k. How about that?

Last week in the Vancouver Sun Run, I hit the 8k marker in 29:45. So that was an ass-cracking, and flaming and prone, blazer. I think I may have run right around my 5k personal best as I hit the 4 and 6k markers with times that indicate that I MAY have personal bested again in the 5k during the Sun Run...unfortunately I missed the 5k split marker.

I was too busy having my derierre carved up into tiny peices, served up raw and eaten by Nancy Tinari, an 80 pound elf who in her late 40s, makes a mockery of the age grading....or of the open race with her age-grade A, plucked-chicken, carcass.

Today, I hit the 5k marker in 18:23, until the aforementioned Run Through Time on New Year's Eve a few months ago, THAT would have been my 5k pb half way through the TC 10k, no less.

It's interesting to note that I was hitting the pbs before I started my speed work and once through the speed work and onto sharpening, I was only slightly faster.

I am not any lighter in weight. It is said (by who I dunno) that you lose 2 seconds per pound, per mile when you are over optimum race weight. So if I lose the 10 extra pounds I carry, that would mean I could run about 35:00 at the Sun Run.

My age-grading for the TC reads, 35:59 equivalencyso that would be like 35:30 at the Sun Run.

I think once I ride this peak and slip down the other side, I am going to work on losing the extra 10 pounds, get hollow-cheeked and sunken-eyed and see if I can get to a 34:49 next year.

Meanwhile in two weeks I will likely try the Lochside 10k, which is a fast course and following that, the Ottawa Marathon weekend 10k - THAT should pretty much drop my carcass over the peak and slide it into the dank crevasse of the flaming abyss.

Then it's back to base conditioning phase, where I run for transportation and at the drop of a hat. I run at lunch and go anywhere, with no racing and no speed work...gawd! I love the obsessive mileage count of base conditioning phase...the death marches...the sleep runs, the general and non-specific metronomic meanders.

This is where the legs turn into metronomes and the heart is a bobcat, snagged and trapped in a cage of ribs.

I like the almighty death march, meandering aimlessly, exploring the cityscape, circumnavigating it all, solving world problems and instead of trying to run out of energy, I try to run the mind out of things to think about.

So far there is no end, as exploring to the thoughtless horizon is what makes me tick, sometimes.
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See the streaming video, what a great race, great chace pack and a great women's finish!!
Here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!