W/E July 29 - Kamloops Marathon - 1st - 2:35:25

A few months ago while I was still living in Victoria I discovered the Kamloops Marathon was going to be resurrected after lying dormant for 20years and decided, since I would be moving to Cache Creek, that I would definitely run it. As a new race and being a local more or less I wanted to come out an support the race and put in a good effort. And being in Secwépemc territory I wanted to come out and represent as a person of this land. A few weeks ago I got in touch with the race organizers and told them i̓d like to come out and Phil and Karen were super accommodating, literally they put me up at the TRU residences for a couple of nights which was great. They also asked if I would do a talk at the race expo on the saturday before the race and I agreed.  I have only done one other talk before and that was when I lived in Toronto and was asked to talk about my running philosophy and in particular about the relay run took part in to Alaska in ̓06. So, this time around they suggested I talk about training and in the end I just rambled on about running for about half an hour. There were maybe 20-30 people so it wasn't too daunting to public speak. I̓ve been running for so long now and have been a student of the sport for so long its not so hard to just ramble away. I enjoyed it as a more or less first experience and had a lot of positive feedback afterward and today after the race. Thank you those who stuck around to listen, I hope it was useful!

Race day.  Knowing that its Kamloops and it would be hot out the start time for the race was set at 6am. This would normally be very early for me but i̓ve been getting up at 530 most days anyway so it wasnt too bad. 430 was a bit excessive but not unbearable.  As far as the race is concerned, it went really well and was indicative of my fitness. We headed out at a reasonable pace, myself, and eventual second and third place finishers Nick Sunderland and Richard Brewster. Nick and I pulled away from Richard after a couple of kilometers and then I pulled away from Nick somewhere around 9k I guess and then I was on my own.  It turned out there were virtually no Km markers on the course so I just settled into a pace that would hopefully work out the best possible time given my fitness. And thats how it went. I just locked into a good pace and ground it out. I had a rough patch between 30-35km but came out of it and cruised the last 7km at a pretty good clip.  The thing i̓m probably most happy about were my guts. I actually woke up with heartburn, which is rare, and throughout the run it actually improved. Usually the pace of a marathon is a bit too quick to be able to digest gels without some discomfort with acid coming up into my throat but today that was not the case at all.  My plan going in was to practice nutrition the way I would take it in an ultra or long run, start fueling early and have a gel on the half hour. Additionally, due to the heat, I wanted to try taking some S-Caps! electrolyte tablets. So, I took one at 1h15 and 2hrs.  I think what happened was the electrolyte tabs actually settled my stomach and so I would say actually, that this was the best my guts have felt in a race, maybe ever.  I̓m not sure how it would have factored in, but I didn̓t get enough water down during the race. Could be it helped with the stomach issues, not sure, but it didn̓t seem to affect my performance much.

All told it was a really good weekend, meeting people, making new friends, doing the talk, running well, great weather, and reppin̓ hard in Secwépemcul̓ecw.

Mon - off + core wkt
Tues - 9.2 + Arrowstone + core wkt
Wed - 4 x P-line hills (84, 94, 87, 83) + core wkt
Thurs - 9.2 Arrowstone
Fri - off + core wkt
Sat - 15 mins jog
Sun - 26.2 mi - 2:35:25

From July 29, 2012

From July 29, 2012

Photos Courtesy Dirk Handke