Yesterday morning I ran in Mountain Equipment Co-op’s (MEC) inaugural Annual Shubie Trail Run. They had mapped out three routes through Shubie Park, in Dartmouth, NS: 5K, 10K and 21K (half-marathon). I ran the 5K and finished with a time of 29:15 (which isn’t possible but I’ll touch on that later).
[UPDATE] I went back and traced the route at dailymile.com and verified that the route was, in fact, 5K. Sorry for doubting you, MEC. Still friends? And WOOHOO on the time! 🙂
MEC has traditionally sold camping and non-urban outdoor adventuring equipment. Recently, however, they’ve expanded to include cycling equipment and are soon going to be carrying road running gear in addition to their more typical trail running stuff. That being said, even though this was a trail running race, from what I understand, part of the drive behind organizing the event was to start linking MEC to running in general.
Well, this was officially my first running race in over 17 years, since my last year of high school so, I was a bit nervous and whole lot of giddy. The race itself started at 09:00 so, I showed up around 08:30 and parking was already scarce. I had originally registered in-store for the 5K with the understanding that I could switch to the 10K at the race if I really wanted to. Unfortunately, the line-ups and sign-in sheets were all organized by registered distance. So, I queued up in the 5K line and just decided to stick with it, and I was quickly handed my race bib, #209. 🙂
Shortly after 9:00 the 21K runners were off.
About five minutes later the 10K runners followed suit.
Then another five minutes after that, we (the 5K runners) were off.
Sometimes, leading up to a run, I question whether or not I really want to torture myself for the next half-hour but once I get moving, I wish I could run forever.
When I did the Run for the Cure last month I started near the front of the pack and was passed by a number of people so, I this time I chose to start at the very back and just work my way up as needed. Of course, being the genius boy that I am, I didn’t take into account how difficult it would be to pass people on a narrow path. Nor did my brain even register the runners with strollers. According to my trusty iPhone and today’s running app of choice, Kinetic GPS, it was a very slow first kilometre at 00:06:44. 😐
[UPDATE] According to the route retrace the time was closer to 00:06:38, which is still not that great of a pace for me.
The weather was beautiful! The sky was clear and the air was crisp — a tad cold on the lungs but it felt great. 🙂
The rest of the run was well paced. I managed to bring my average pace down to 00:06:17/km, which means for kilometres 2-5 my average pace would have improved to 00:05:39/km, with which I would have been very happy. 🙂 Of course now, me finishing a 5 kilometre race in 00:29:19 with an average pace of 00:06:17/km is not possible — 5 km x 00:06:17/km = 00:31:15. Glad it wasn’t and official race because I think the people out at the half-way turn-around point didn’t set themselves up far enough. Oops.
[UPDATE] Heh, heh. The half-way point was fine. The GPS app just didn’t maintain an accurate signal for the whole race. Super-oops.
The Kinetic GPS app tracked my total distance at 4.66 km and, given how slow my start was, that seems to be more realistic with my time. Of course, it’s entirely possible that the tree coverage could have thrown off the GPS signal a bit and the route really was 5 km, and I really am wicked-fast, and all this math would have been for naught.
[UPDATE] So, with a total run time of 00:29:19 my average pace for the whole race was 00:05:52/km which is quite good for me on a normal day. That being said, if we were to *ahem* ignore the 00:06:38 for my first kilometre, that means my average pace for the last 4K was just over 00:05:40/km which is a personal best for me in YEARS. 😀
Regardless, I had a blast. It was my first of what I hope to be many running races in my adult life, and I already can’t wait until next year’s. 🙂
[steelie]
That sounds like a cool race. I am definately there next year.
Glad you are enjoying the running so much.
It was a great trail! I really want to go back and run it again; equal parts “because I enjoyed it so much” and “gotta verify that distance”. 🙂
I really am enjoying the running. It’s extremely meditative. And addictive. Although, the races would be better with a running buddy. I love the energy of the racers warming up and chatting, before and after the run.
Definitely next year. The $5 registration fee is tough beat. 🙂 Who knows, next year it might be more expensive if they make it an official race.