Thursday, February 8, 2018

Cedar 12k Race Report

This year I am excited for life! After having a rough go last year I am determined to make 2018 awesome!
I started the year off right by setting attainable goals and intentions:

- Be present
- Race for the love of it
- Don't worry about numbers
- Always show up
- Enjoy the process

I am excited to say I think things are going in the right direction. Last weekend I had an absolute blast at the Cedar 12km race that was a part of the Vancouver Island Race Series.
I think this photo says it all.


I went in to this race with 0 expectations. I had been away on a ski vacation and just got home the night before after 2 solid of driving.

Leslie and I are faithful run buddies. We train together weekly and we had devised a plan to work this race into our marathon training. We set out early to Cedar so that we could get our race numbers and do the early start. I wasn't keen to do early start because I knew even with my marathon pace I would probable be at or near the front for the race. We checked in with Raceday Timing to make sure we could do it and was advised as long as we would be over 50 minutes it would be fine. 
So we headed out for an easy 8km and made sure we were back for the early start.


We got back to the start and I had a TORQ gel to get me ready for my 12km 


With only a few minutes before go time Leslie and I went over our pacing. I was aiming for a 5:16 pace and she was looking for 5:20-5:25


We took off at a nice easy pace. I felt great. I had a few laughs with Leslie, high fived a few of my Ceevacs teammates and found my grove.

There was a last minute course change morning of and boy was it a great change. We ended up running an out and back on the most beautiful country road. It was lovely.

So I  ended up leading the early start and had no idea where I was going. I probably ended up running further than what the course actually was but apparently that didn't affect my overall time much.
I anticipated with the 30minute head start that the top men would catch me around the 10km mark.
By the 10km mark I was still running solo with Leslie not too far behind me. 
I started to panic a bit because I never actually thought I would be the first runner in. I only had 2 km's to go and it was obvious at that point I was definitely going to be the first one. So feeling slightly embarrassed that I was coming across before the actual winners I put on a smile for the camera and owed it. 




I felt great. After crossing I went back to cheer Leslie in and get going back out to finish our run.
We added on a few more km's and made it back just as everyone was finishing. It worked out perfect. Would I recommend doing early start? Nope, it served a purpose for us today but I think I prefer running with the majority.

After changing we checked in to the race results and were both pleasantly surprised by our performances. Leslie placed 6th in our age group and I place 3rd. Not too bad for racing at marathon pace.


I really enjoyed my day at Cedar 12k. This was the first time for me to race it and the course was perfect. 

Big shout out to my awesome On Running Shoes. Man these shoes are amazing. I'm pretty sure they helped. 


*Big shout out to Ken and Lois DeEll for they great photography. They captured a ton of amazing shots at the race.


My races for this year are:
Vancouver Island Race series
BMO Vancouver Marathon
Bermuda swim around the Sound (10km)
Cowichan Challenge
Whistler 70.3