Sheila Poole 10k

I’ve only ever met two people who have admitted to being from Yarmouth – neither of them had many positive things to say about the place. I guess that’s to be expected from folks who prefer a larger urban experience and assume that I do as well. But Yarmouth seemed pretty cool to me for the 16 or so hours we were there. The evening before the race, the streets seemed quite lively – perhaps that was just the fact that there was a festival going on this weekend. Even so, there are some beautiful old homes in town and the main drag is populated mostly with independent businesses, so it’s got a nice feel.

We stayed at a hotel right across from the now-closed CAT Ferry terminal. Until last season, the ferry ran from Bar Harbor to Yarmouth. It was sad to see everything all fenced in and gated and abandoned – losing that ferry hurt the town deeply. And the fact that everything was shrouded in fog made the scene somewhat melancholy.

One neat thing, though – about 10k outside of town on the drive in, we saw a black bear lumber across the highway and disappear into the bush. It was the first bear I’ve ever seen outside of captivity! Pretty cool. It’s strange I’ve never seen one in the wild – I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the woods (for a city guy, that is).

I’d been warned before this year’s Sheila Poole 10k that the course is a challenging one. There’s one very steep but fairly short hill after the 4k mark and a bunch of rolling hills from there. However, there’s a long, straight, flat finish along the waterfront. I was happy for the warning – it’s nice to know what’s coming – but this kind of course is exactly what I love. I do all my easy and long runs on a rolling course, so I find that my legs are most at home with the continuous up and down. I also find that other runners tend not to do as well on rolling courses – and this race was no exception.

My game plan for this one was to go out comfortably and to stay comfortable for at least 5k. The reason I was looking to be less aggressive was because my training has not gone well over the past three weeks, and it’s shot my confidence to hell. I’ve been working hard, but I just haven’t been hitting the paces I should be. I’m wondering if I’ve let myself over train a bit. In any case, when the gun went off, I let N (my frenemy) do his thing. Instead of matching him, I just hung back and ran with D.

D and I worked together for the first 4k, alternating the lead from time to time to give the other a mental break – it’s much easier to follow than to set the pace. We stayed easy and relaxed, but we didn’t let N and another guy (DH) get too far ahead. In fact, it looked like they were battling with each other a little bit.

At some point after 4k we hit the first (and the steepest) hill. I stayed relaxed, but I found myself pulling away from D. On the downhill, I thought about slowing down to let D catch up so we could work together, but I noticed that I’d gained some real estate on N and DH ahead, so I decided that I would set my sights on them instead. If D wanted back in, she’d have to do the work to catch up. I could hear her not too far back, but it was the last time I saw her in the race.

At 5k, I was still feeling good. I was comfortable and felt like I had a gear or two left. I locked in my pace, focused on keeping my form, and set my sights on the backs of DH and N. Slowly but surely, I was gaining on them. At some point after 6k, DH started pulling away from N and N didn’t respond. That was enough for me to take a chance. A bit before 7k, I caught and passed N. I hate to say it, but it felt great.

N was tough as nails, though. He hung on to me. And as we approached the 8k mark, I made a huge error. Normally in road races, you’re supposed to run on the left side of the road, facing traffic. And this race was no different. For the first 8k, we were running on the left. At about 8k, though, all of a sudden there was a water stop on the right side of the road. Very strange. Not only that, the water stop was on the inside curve of a pretty big turn. DH ran over to get some water, but I didn’t want water, so I stayed left, on the outside of the curve. Meanwhile, N behind me also went over – those two guys were running the inside of the rail and I was left hanging on the outside, running further. When I finally realized that the race had inconceivably switched sides, there were cars coming, which prevented me from getting over and making use of the inside of the curve. As a result, N was in front of me by the time I got to the other side of the road.

I was pretty pissed, but I didn’t let the emotion lead to something stupid like a spurt to regain my lead. Instead, I stayed relaxed and focused and in a few hundred metres, I’d passed N again down the long final stretch. DH, however, had gained too much on me.

Coming down the stretch, I could hear N right behind me. He was labouring a bit, but he was hanging on strong and trying to make moves on me. I held him off and held him off. We’d passed the 9k mark, but I couldn’t tell where the finish was – it was too foggy. Ah, running in Nova Scotia. At some point, though, I could hear the announcer through the mist. It gave me enough heart to step up the pace right into that crazy race finishing pain that makes you want to scream. All I could say over and over in my head was – “give up N, just give up!” – but I could hear him right behind me. At the same time, I could see that I was making up time on DH, but I didn’t know if there was enough real estate left to catch him.

With 200m to go, I gave it everything. Incredibly, I no longer heard N behind me. I ran and ran, trying to reel in DH, but in the end, he crossed the line 4 seconds ahead. It turned out that with about 200m to go, N had tried to match my kick and cramped up so badly that he doubled over with the pain. He was able to hobble in ahead of D, but he wasn’t able to get me this time.

My finishing time (35:54) wasn’t great, and my finishing place (4th) was a bit heartbreaking, but I picked up lots of Timex points, so it looks like I’ve secured my spot on the team going to the national Timex race in T.O. at the end of September. Yay!

The other great thing is that I won the cheesy shirt back! I’ll post a pic soon.

No matter what people say of poor old Yarmouth, my first time there was great.