Day 23: Rum Runners Relay 2011 Preview

Racing the traditional road race distances is great – 5k, 5mi, 6mi, 10k, half marathon, marathon. I love the history of them, love fighting for PBs, love gauging my progress against past races of the same distance. But sometimes it’s nice to change it up – to race a unique distance. Like 17.1k or 10.9k or some other random distance. That way I can race clean, without the burden of personal history, without worry over PBs and whether or not I’ve peaked and all that neurotic stuff I pile onto runs. Road relays provide just such an opportunity to forget about the past... as long as you haven’t, over the years, run all the legs of a particular relay!

The Gonzos created this race -- Thank you Gonzos!

This Saturday is the 27^th running of the Rum Runner’s Relay, which winds its way along old highway 3 from Halifax to Lunenburg, dividing the 110k into 10 legs. It’s not like a traditional continuous relay, where a baton is passed and the winning team crosses the finish line first. Instead, all team runners for a particular leg start at the same time once runners of the previous leg have finished. That way, you get 10 exciting races instead of one long, boring, decided-after-leg-1 race (which is what it would be). It also helps to build a kind of community spirit among participants. Everyone moves along from leg starts to leg finishes/starts as a herd. And the whole carnival blows through in a day, from 6:00am to 7:00pm.

The Course

I’m running for Leah’s team again this year – the Outliers. I ran leg 6 in 2009 (Hubbards to East River) and leg 8 in 2010 (Chester to Western Shore). This year, I requested leg 4 – the longest leg. It starts at the fire hall in Head of the Bay and scoots along the shore to Queensland Beach, 17.1k in total. Because it’s the longest leg, teams will often use their strongest runner, so it should be a very interesting race. 

A neat photo of Queensland Beach from Flickr

I was lucky enough to win my two previous legs, but I’m not sure what the chances are that I’ll keep that streak alive. Rami usually runs leg 4 for the Halifax Running Club team (who always wins by a long shot), but there is some talk that he’s given the leg up due to an ongoing hamstring issue. Now, I don’t wish injury upon Rami – he’s the pride of men’s marathoning in Nova Scotia and a friend. But, nor do I wish to race him – because I’ll lose – by a lot. So if he chooses to be cautious and run a shorter leg, that would be just fine by me.

It may be that Ray M. will be taking leg 4 in his place. Ray may not be Rami, but he’s a fearsome competitor – and rumour has it that he’s very fit. Nevertheless, with Ray, I’ll have a shot – we are pretty well matched these days, although his PBs are much stronger than mine. It could be quite exciting. Harry N. has also run this leg in the past – he’s an extremely strong runner as well (his PBs put mine to shame) and would certainly challenge for the win if he runs it (and is fit). There are other guys whose names I don’t recognize who have run fast times in the past two years (well behind Rami, but fast nonetheless). All those 2^nd and 3^rd place guys ran around what I hope to run... which means there could be a few guys in the hunt.

Mass start = more fun

Although the weather for Sat doesn’t look great, I’m pumped for the RRR. I’ve had a good few weeks of training, and my hip is very close to being pain free. We’ll see how much that 5 weeks of missed workouts has set me back...

Go Outliers!

Day 19: A Dartmouth Superhero

So I was out on my long run this afternoon – 22k easy. As I was about to cross the 111 on ramp around MicMac Mall, a van stopped for me. I crossed, but then it laid on the horn. I was in the process of turning and giving the old finger salute when I noticed that it was Denise driving, all smiles. She rolled down her window and shouted to me, “I’m coming back! I did a 28k run!”

What great news! She’s been struggling for a year with blood clots in her lungs, slowly but surely overcoming every obstacle and setback. I can still picture her in the hospital last fall, barely able to sit up – and now she’s back to cranking out the miles. I’m sure there’s a long road ahead of her still – but Denise thrives on long roads – thrives on them like nobody I know. She's a superhero.

Denise in running attire. Such determination!

I was beaming as traffic started piling up behind her. She quickly told me that she’s running a leg in the Rum Runner’s Relay, so I told her I’d see her there. I can’t wait to find out how the rest of her training has been going and when she thinks she’ll be race ready again. I knew she’d been doing runs with Nick, but I didn’t know how far and how intense.

After seeing Denise, I was practically floating on air as I ran. All us Antiques have felt her absence keenly – she’s such an inspiring runner. I’ve learned so much from running and racing with her – so much about digging deep, never giving up.

Fortunately, another thing Denise (and Cliff, of course) taught me was to run smart, so I didn’t let that bit of good news increase my pace too much. I kept it steady today – running easy 4:40s at the start and finishing between 4:00-4:15. I like starting slow and letting my body warm up to the effort – then I just let my legs and lungs fall into whatever comfortable rhythm they want and roll along.

As I’m writing this, J-A is walking out the door for her long run. She’s planning on going further than she’s ever run before – 11k. I’m so proud of what she’s doing; she doesn’t love running, but she loves the fitness it gives her, so she’s being tenacious. She’s setting goals and knocking them down. And she’s making great strides (a pun... oh my!) – just last week, we went out for a 5k run, and she ended up setting a 5k PB... on a training run! Amazing.

I feel like my own week of running was a good one. I was able to get in over 80k, and although my Wed threshold was a flop, I repeated the workout yesterday much more successfully. I kept the effort reasonable over the first 4k (3:45, 3:54, 3:53, 3:45) and then was able to increase the pace over the second 4k naturally, without strain (3:41, 3:39, 3:35, 3:40). And when I finished, I felt like I could keep going – on Wed, I had to stop and recover before cooling down.

I think there’s a bit of wisdom to be gained in comparing my two thresholds, which were the same distance and on the same route: my body works best when it starts conservatively. Once I settle into a run, then I can start playing with the pace – but if I don’t show restraint over the first few k, I’ll blow up. Ka-boom!! (Actually, it’s more of a whimper than a bang).

Happy trails!