Nanaimo Harbour City 10km Race Report

Okay, here you have it. I'll begin with how I felt the night before. I got home from work at 11:30 and was dead tired. It had been a long day that had started not long after 8am and did not include a whole lot of resting up for the race. At that point, I thought "I so do not feel like racing in the morning." I was in bed and asleep not long after midnight and sleep pretty heavily. The alarm then went off at 6am. Again, "ugh, I so do not want to race today" went through my mind. I dragged myself up and attempted to force down some dry mini wheats. I have an issue with eating before races. I also feel a bit sick to the stomach, whether its the nerves or due to the early hours of the day, I do not know. All I know is I always struggle with getting in some nutrition race morning. Don't bother suggesting "eat a banana" either as I believe I am allergic or at least sensitive to them. They either make me sick or make me feel sick each time I eat them, so now I have learned just to stay away.

I then checked facebook and killed some time before slowly getting ready and heading out the door at about 6:40. I got downtown about 15 minutes later and parked at the local Mall. I park here each year as its only a short walk to the start/finish area and its free. Not to mention the mall doesn't open until later in the morning on Sundays. Others park here too, so I am not the only one. I walked up to the start and had a look around, chatted with a few people I knew and then next thing I knew it was 7:15. The race start time was 8am, so I hit the porta potties then walked back to my car, shed a few layers of clothes and went for my warm up run of about 20' real easy. I finished my warm up back at the car, put on my bib number, tied my car key to my shoe and jogged back up to the start area.

When I got to the start, the crowd was doing their group warm up (aerobics basically) lead by one of the local gyms, so I completed 2 strides and then headed to the start line. I looked around and saw NO fast ladies that I recognized. Alright I thought.... maybe I do have a chance to win this. We started off and my goal was to not go out too fast and to hold my PB km avg pace. My 10km PB was 39:06 from last February at Cobble Hill. I also ran 39:07 at the Times Colonist 10km last April. Both were pretty flat courses. That would make the average km 3:55.

For the first km, I did just that 3:54 when I hit the marker. After the first km, it climbs a hill constantly for the whole km. Then it gets flat and drops a short steep hill before coming flat again until the 3km marker. After that, its another slow climb until the 4km marker. It flattens out, goes slightly downhill then flat to the turn around, which is 5km. Then we head back, so flat, slightly uphill to the 6km marker, then down hill to the 7km, flat and short steep uphill, plus a slow climb to the 8km, downhill to the 9km and then a flat into very slight barely noticeable climb followed by a slight downhill to the finish. Basically, its a freakin hilly course. I felt good for the first km, but then crappy from 2-6km due to all the hills, before feeling better with the downhills on the way back.

After 2km I was left to run on my own. The next guy ahead was over a minute in front. Out of reach. I felt as though I slowed so much on the hills, that I figured I was going to finish closer to 40' rather than my goal of 39'. I did not look at the watch after the 2nd km when I realized how far I slowed between the 1st and 2nd km. I lost my motivation and lost my drive. While I pushed it, I think I kept it too conservative and a bit too comfortable. I didn't hit the pleasantly uncomfortable stage. In any event, I was the lead female from start to finish. The 2nd female finished in over 46 minutes. I finished in 39:05 which is a 1 second PB.

D commented to "shut my face" as I said I was disappointed in the race. I am disappointed because I feel as though I let myself down in the fact that I kept it too comfortable. I should have pushed I harder and I know that I am capable of being much faster. That said, people have pointed out that it was a hard course and my time most likely equaled mid to low 38 minutes on a faster course. I wil think positively and agree. All my training times show I have been running faster than a 39 minute 10km. Yes it was nice to win it as I walked away with flowers, a CD for a local band called Kings Without (they were playing between the finish and the awards) and a $100 gift card to Running Room. I would like all thank all the fastie women on the island and mainland who did not come out to the race! While many think my time is fast and I do agree it is respectable as I tend to finish in the top portion of many local races, there are many women around here much faster than me.

No race photos as of yet; however, here are 2 that my mom took at the awards.

Winners of the 20-29 age category

10km Race Winners- Mark Cryderman (33:59) and myself (39:05)

This race used to bring in more elite athlets; however, ROC (runners of compassion) here in Nanaimo ran it for 3 years before selling it to a company in Vancouver called Try Events. The race in years has gone downhill and I noticed a significant difference from last year to this year in how it was run. I am honestly thinking the race is going downhill and might not survive which is really sad as it is a good event and good prep for Royal Victoria in October. Today many events were scheduled, which probably took away from the event. Just on the island there was the Terry Fox run in many cities, Metchosin 5km in Victoria, Sook Triathlon in Victoria, Paws for a Cause event here in Nanaimo, plus a Cyclocross Event here in Nanimo too. Basically too much going on during one day. Hard to believe I ran this 10km in 2007 and finished in just over 46 minutes. Then again, it was my first year back after having surgery on my feet the year before.

Anyways, it's been forever since I have posted a race report..... did I miss anything? I could probably go into more detail about the down points of the race, but maybe its better to leave that part out.