Went out to Chang Chun for the Vasa Cross Country Race: 30 km of lakeside sidewalks, boardwalks, hills, and winding paths through the forest.
My last race, a 10k'er almost killed me, but this 30 k'er was quite lovely. Took an overnight train and met up w/ a group of 6 BJ runners and a few of their partners in a hotel. I was hoping to get Yoyo out for the 15 km run, but she a) couldn't be commit 2 days away from work and b) trained zilch.
Me: i ran pretty fast for the 1st 10 km, even though i knew i was pbly outpacing myself. (Which i was.) And by the time the 11 km marker crawled into view, my stomach was cramped and my speed was max'ed out at brisk walking pace; rather embarrassing.
But by 17km i had found a nice way to go: not fast, not slow, and i felt like i could keep it up indeterminately. I pbly ran more than 1/2 of the entire race solo. No runner ahead or behind of me. Just me, weaving through a beautiful forest and slicing through the fresh air. (The air wasn't awesome by Canadian standards, but it was pretty darn good nonetheless).
The last 5 km, included massive amounts of downhill. Gravity is my friend. My stride goes long, and each stride jams my toes into the fronts of my shoes in an effort to keep my velocity under control. A surprising number of runners would appear in the distance, grow larger, and the slip behind me.
After 2 hours, 46 min, i crossed the finish line, well ahead of my 3 hr goal. My whole body felt pretty darn good. It raises the question: could/should i have run faster? The answer: heck no. Maybe i coulda shaved off a minute or 2, if i wasn't stopping to take pictures (writing up a report for CRI), but i'm pretty happy w/ how my body performed in the end.
Final result: 26 out of 46 runners. Well that's disappointing. i generally expect to finish in the top 1/2 of runners, but i suspect that the runners who came out to this event were slightly faster than the usual crop of weekend joggers. But then again, what can i expect? i barely train more than once a week. it'd be great to run more, but it's hard sometimes when you have, like, a life on top of it, y'know?
My last race, a 10k'er almost killed me, but this 30 k'er was quite lovely. Took an overnight train and met up w/ a group of 6 BJ runners and a few of their partners in a hotel. I was hoping to get Yoyo out for the 15 km run, but she a) couldn't be commit 2 days away from work and b) trained zilch.
Me: i ran pretty fast for the 1st 10 km, even though i knew i was pbly outpacing myself. (Which i was.) And by the time the 11 km marker crawled into view, my stomach was cramped and my speed was max'ed out at brisk walking pace; rather embarrassing.
But by 17km i had found a nice way to go: not fast, not slow, and i felt like i could keep it up indeterminately. I pbly ran more than 1/2 of the entire race solo. No runner ahead or behind of me. Just me, weaving through a beautiful forest and slicing through the fresh air. (The air wasn't awesome by Canadian standards, but it was pretty darn good nonetheless).
The last 5 km, included massive amounts of downhill. Gravity is my friend. My stride goes long, and each stride jams my toes into the fronts of my shoes in an effort to keep my velocity under control. A surprising number of runners would appear in the distance, grow larger, and the slip behind me.
After 2 hours, 46 min, i crossed the finish line, well ahead of my 3 hr goal. My whole body felt pretty darn good. It raises the question: could/should i have run faster? The answer: heck no. Maybe i coulda shaved off a minute or 2, if i wasn't stopping to take pictures (writing up a report for CRI), but i'm pretty happy w/ how my body performed in the end.
Final result: 26 out of 46 runners. Well that's disappointing. i generally expect to finish in the top 1/2 of runners, but i suspect that the runners who came out to this event were slightly faster than the usual crop of weekend joggers. But then again, what can i expect? i barely train more than once a week. it'd be great to run more, but it's hard sometimes when you have, like, a life on top of it, y'know?
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