Blame it on the A-A-A-Alcohol

Or the Calgary Stampede.  Either one. (Just because I am in Vancouver doesn't mean I can't dress up like a cowgirl and drink.)

 Honesty time. Today's Summerfast 10km race was my punishment for a heavy night out. Why do I do this to myself?!

I woke up Saturday morning (thank you, Carolyn!) with about 10 minutes to get ready before the taxi came to take Care, Ally and I to the race.  I was feeling OK but totally not in race- mode. We did a little warm-up run (aka 1 km) and then got ready to roll.  I knew the race was flat the whole way through so my goal was to beat my PB (42:26). To make a 10km story short I ended up getting a PB. Yea! Sort of. I really didn't push it too hard during the race and know I could do better.  I was scared I would be sick if I ran too hard... and between kilometers 6 and 7 I was definitely not feeling hot. I also didn't  finish strong (people were  yelling "hard to the finish" to me, thanks people- do you want me to puke on you? )

Final Stats:

Time- 41:33

Average Pace- 4:11/km

Female Division- 5/65

Overall- 56/311

When I saw the results I was annoyed with myself because I think I could have run a lot faster and moved up a place. However, the race organizers combined the female age groups from 20-35 and gave medals to the top 5! Hollla! Thank you  VFAC for taking pity on the poor hungover girl.

Lessons Learned: Umm... don't drink the night before a race? I finished  feeling pretty comfortable and it wasn't an all out effort. It kind of went by in a blur. I hate not pushing myself during races, it feels like a waste. I think it's harder to do with shorter distances because I am so used too trying to conserve energy for longer races. Overall, I think that I kept a pretty good pace throughout the run but wish I had finished stronger.

I really liked the course, it was pretty and flat. Def wanted to be one of the people I saw on a boat instead of running...

Congrats to all my running friends for awesome races especially Ken for breaking 39 minutes. (Now can you not be so turbo?)

Scotia Half Re-CAP (Does that rhyme?)

This is how much of the Scotiabank Half Marathon  looked...

See that guy in the white shirt... that's Alan Yu: Runner and Pacer Extraordinaire. Alan wasn't registered in the race but agreed to pace me and help me strive for the 1:35! (Ahem, another rhyme) He was awesome. Seriously. Despite having a Garmin telling me my pace and what I needed to do to achieve the 1:35, I would not have run as hard had he not been there. He said all the right things in all the right spots, reminded me of short, quick steps uphill and light, loose legs on the downhill. He stayed just a little ahead of  me so I would push myself and was so encouraging. Thank you, Alan!! I will pace you for a km or two sometime... not that it would help but it's the thought that counts, right?

OK, from the top. The race started like any other. It was raining. I had a pre-race breaky of almond butter, banana and toast AND my mom made coffee in the morning!! What a treat. (Carolyn and I cannot make coffee to save our lives.. why is it so hard?!)  Week-end fuel was also a treat:
We had these guys:

And  my Mom helped  made us her famous homemade bread!

 Once we got to UBC (after a mini run-in with Vancouver police...) We lined up for the bathrooms annnd waited. By the time it was our turn, the race was about to start. Typical. However, I did manage to squeeze my way closer to the starting line and only started 10 seconds behind the gun.  I knew that I would need to average a 4:30/km to make my goal time. My friend Tom caught up to me about 3km in. I am so happy he did because running with Tom made the race so much fun and it really seemed to speed by. He reminded me to always keep a straight line and not follow the road, to let my legs do the work on the downhills and just breathe. We were running at a decent pace (4:30/km) but still managed to talk for the first half of the race. 

Question: What do people do with their hands when they see people taking pictures of them? The Asian in me always wants to make the peace sign but I have started waving my hands in the air? Is this cool? Or should I just look straight ahead and try and look super hardcore?

So, the race was pretty hard. I realized early on that my goal of 1:35 was not going to be easy. I knew that I couldn't really set a new goal time since I had it in my head that this is what I wanted so I tried to push through. I'm so lucky I had two friends running with me. As usual, Burrard bridge seem like the biggest hill in the world. I was so happy to see Ken along the way and my mom and Aunt driving by and honking.

The winner: Kip Kangogo

I felt pretty good coming off of Burrard Bridge with about 2 km to go. I knew that a 1:35 was going to be close so I started running at about a 4:10/km.  This was fine until the last 600 meters, I thought I would pass out I was so tired. I imagined being dragged off the ground, collapsing at the finish line, ambulances everywhere. But then- it was over! And I felt fine!

Time: 1:35: 34

Average Pace: 4:32/km

Age Group: 10/ 386

Overall Female: 46/ 2124

Overall: 232/ 3812

Lessons Learned: My mom snores. I didn't sleep well the nights prior to the marathon or even the night of. 5:25am wake up calls never get easy. Sleep is important! But so is having your mom cheer for you! I also probably should have focused more on my running during the race instead of talking, but running is a team sport!   Overall, I'm satisfied with my run.  I wanted to be under 1:35 but I'll take what I can get. It was hard even though I was told how fast the course would be and that it was all downhill! I also realized that I qualified for the New York marathon! Most people don't realize that the qualifying time for the New York marathon is a lot harder then Boston. The qt is 3:23 but you can qualify with your half time which for women is 1:37!

Next goal:   Qualify for New York with the marathon time. Wonder how long that will take?

It was so awesome having people cheer for me during the race. They were in all the "right" spots. Thank you Mom, Aunt Janet, Andrea, Alan, and Ken!!  It's like I am a real Vancouvernite now!

Now that the half is over, I don't really know what to do? I'm still marathon training but no definite races in mind. Suggestions?

Running Races, Making Money

Some people make money winning races, I make my money in the freebies section after the race. ;) This year's  Longest Day of the Year Run at UBC was no exception or maybe it was an exception because the amount of swag I took was UNREAL. More on that later, first- the race re-cap.
This race was kind of a last minute decision after my friend Alyson mentioned that the gym she works at was hosting it. It sounded like a fun 10km... actually, the semi-legendary beer garden at the end of the event is what really sounded like fun! Carolyn, Alyson and our other running buddy Alan all signed up. We ended up not being able to find the UBC stadium and running around campus for a little longer then intended. I hate being rushed before a race but that seems to be a common theme this race season and maybe it's actually better since I can't freak out before the start. The course was two loops around the UBC campus- I had no idea what the route was until we started running. (Note to self: check routes, visualizing a race is a good thing, I was checking my watch a lot) Since it was just two loops, once we had completed one lap, I knew exactly what I needed to do to finish the race. Despite playing 3 hours of ultimate Thursday night with no subs, my legs held up really well during the run. No running pain! My goal going into the race was sub 45:00, once I got into the run and felt really good I decided to push myself and aim for sub 43:00. My final time was 42:26:94.

 My results:
  5km split- 21:12.79
  Average pace- 4:15/km
  Overall Female - 8/ 293
  Age Group- 6/ 169

Overall, I am happy with this race. I pb'd and felt pretty good throughout despite my legs not being so fresh. The course was a little twisty but there were no major hill climbs. Big shout out to Dave for running out to UBC and cheering us on, taking pictures and being the best coach ever!
Check out my flashy new running flats...

They are the Saucony Kinvara and I love them! They are very light and cushiony..it's the closest I have gotten to barefoot running.

SO... the best part of the race was the after-party! The food layout was magical. Burgers, dogs, fresh fruit, cookies, chips, cliff bars, lara bars, ice cream. Honestly, it was a little over-whelming. As Carolyn put it, it was like Halloween for healthy people.

The girls and I probably embarrassed ourselves with the amount of swag we took but hey- everyone is getting lip balm for their birthdays from now on! :)

My First Trail Race

It was a beautiful weekend in Vancouver! Friday night was spent carbo-loaded on sushi before my first big trail race on Saturday at Simon Fraser University! OK-- I am not that hardcore and my race did not look like this picture at all. But it was still pretty difficult! I signed up for the enduro option- which was 9.7km. The race started downhill for the first 2.5km and then worked it's way back to the top... I thought  that the downhill part of the course would be a piece of cake... boy, was I wrong. It is WAY harder to run down a mountain trail then I thought. It was narrow, muddy and slippy... it was hard to see where to go when people were directly in front of you, even kind of scary. This was definitely the weakest aspect of my race. People were running down the trail with no fear and lots of people passed me during this part. I was actually looking forward to running UP the mountain, I contemplated dropping down to the 6km route because I was scared I was going to roll my ankle and ruin my summer! However, after the first 3km I started to get the hang of it and it became A LOT of fun! I am definitely hooked. I pretended I was in Twilight and a vampire was chasing me ;) I looked at the previous times from last year and the fastest time overall was 42 minutes... so I knew it would be a slow course. My original goal time was under 1 hour but once I started and realized how difficult it was I changed my tone and decided to aim for 1:10. I ended up finishing in 1:05:57 and could probably have taken off 2-3 minutes if I knew how to run downhill. The final km of the race was STRAIGHT up hill. Like-- at a 10 degree angle... I don't know how people could have run that, everyone around me was walking. I ran for maybe 10 meters just to push myself and to pass one girl... hehe. I felt a little nauseous by the end of the race but that passed as soon as I saw the fresh fruit! All in all, the race was a blast- Sunday's long run-not so much. The route was 16km and I wasn't as sore as I thought (or as hungover as I thought I'd be..) and averaged the route at about a 5:16/km pace. Legs were feeling pretty tight for the rest of the day and took Monday off from running even though I really felt like it... today I plan to do some sprints at UBC... let's see how this goes.  This is a pic from the non-trail part of the race...