CheapRunnerMike's 2015 Forest City Road Races Half Marathon Recap

Well that title's a mouthful…now on to the recap.  You heard all about Michelle's race yesterday and she did so well and I am very proud of her.  Way to go Michelle and Mum as well!

The Forest City Road Race is probably the biggest running race on the calendar here in London and it is certainly one of the best organized races in these parts as well.  I always look forward to running it and this would be the third year in a row for me to take on the half marathon.  I have had some success here in the past and even took home the age group win last year.  I was fresh off a PB a couple weeks ago at the Run for Retina and wasn't really sure what to expect from myself this time out.  I had just run a 1:23:20 and would love to go a bit faster, but just wasn't sure if I could.

Race morning was cool but bright and sunny…really great weather for racing.  We all headed down to Victoria Park for the start of the race and I got a little warmup run and some stretching in while chatting with some fellow runners waiting for the horn to go off.  I don't usually go right to very front of the group but thought today I may as well…I was going to go for it.

The race started right at 8am…there wasn't much of a countdown, I just heard someone say "10 seconds" and then about 3 seconds later the horn went off.  Jackson and my Dad were just around the first corner where they had a good spot that they could see everyone from and I had a plan…I was taking a page out of Derek Yorek's book and decided that I would bust it off the line in the hopes that I could come around that corner in the lead so that Jackson could see his daddy "winning" the race.  It's a good thing they were standing in that spot and not another 100m down the road, because they were able to see my short-lived lead.

The leaders swallowed me up well before the 1km mark despite going way faster than I ever should…first kilometre was 3:32.  As I waved the top 4 runners goodbye I briefly ran with another guy until the 2K point. I was going good but his pace was just a little too rich for me and I didn't want to try and hang with him either.  Just after he left I was joined by one more guy and our paces matched up well and we took in the third, fourth and fifth kilometres together before we hit a hill heading into the University of Western Ontario and I broke him.  I then ran solo for the next 8K.

After a quick sprint through the university I turned into the park system and headed towards the course's big hill.  As you exit Gibbons Park you have to tackle a solid climb up St James Street, a 20m incline (65 feet) over 800m.  This was my slowest kilometre split of the race at 4:03.  I finished the hill and continued with the long uphill climb through the beautiful Old North subdivisions to Adelaide St and hit the halfway point.  I had been running all by myself for a while now and the only energy I had to feed off of were the great volunteers that were lining the course and cheering like crazy.  Their encouragement really helped me push on!

It was around 13K that I noticed the runner ahead of me was getting a bit closer…as he made the turn onto Windermere Road I checked the gap…he was 250m ahead of me.  There was another decent climb coming up on Windermere and I figured I would do what I could to try and chip away at the gap.  I was keeping the pace quick at 3:53/km (about 6:15/mile) and just tried to keep it there knowing I was making up time on him.  I had a couple of surges along the way as we came back to the university again and I was able to use some short downhill stretches to speed up my legs and by the time we were back into the park system at 18K I had closed the gap to just 50m.

I guess that was the point that he realized I was going to overtake him because he decided to pick up the pace.  I tried to answer as best I could, but chasing for 5K had taken it's toll on my burst.  I did pick it up a bit but not enough…I finished strong with my last kilometre clocking 3:35 (a 5:44/mile pace) which was proper fast and left me feeling appropriately gassed as I crossed the finish line.

It was great coming down the finishing chute and hearing cheers from my Dad and Jackson, as well as Chris and Strava buddy Abe.  I crossed the line with a new PB of 1:22:15 (3:54/km, 6:14/mile) which I had figured was good for 6th overall.  All the runner-geek details can be found here.  This is the face of someone that has left it all on the course…

Once I crossed my Dad said he thought I was 4th place…I was almost positive I was 6th but was happy no matter what.  We waited around for a bit and went to cheer on Michelle and my Mum, then headed over to check out the awards ceremony.  I had been checking for results for a while, but none had been posted yet.  The ceremony started with the overall winners and then moved to the Age Group awards.  When they called up the top 3 in my age group and I wasn't among them I knew that something was wrong…at 6th overall there might have been another old guy like me, but I knew that the top guys were Western University runners.  I went to the results board and there was finally something posted…but my name wasn't listed ANYWHERE.  I ran into Abe and Spencer and Abe mentioned that he heard a couple of the leaders took a wrong turn out of the park and went off course, so maybe the 4th place my Dad thought I had was accurate.  I set off for the timing trailer to try and get things straightened out.

It turns out that there were some issues with the bibs and timing, especially in regards to people with the same last name.  Michelle mentioned that when she crossed the line they called her Mike, and apparently when I crossed the line I registered in the system as Michelle.  Once they figured everything out it turned out that I had placed 3rd overall!  I asked them if they were sure because I thought there were a few guys in front of me and they said that there were issues with a couple of the leaders getting DQ'd (perhaps validating what Abe had heard?), and yes, I was indeed 3rd overall.  ell that had me pretty excited!  I took the good news and let the family know and Michelle decided to get a picture of me on the podium since the awards ceremony was already finished.

Well there was a little bit more to the timing issues apparently as the final results posted online showed me in 4th place…I chatted briefly with the Race Director and he said that the timing company spent the night going over the finish line video to make sure they got everything right.  So I guess after some confusion it was settled…4th overall out of nearly 500 runners!

Congrats to all my buddies who ran as well, with PB's for Michelle and my Mum, a new PB as well for Boyd, and Albano, who put up a 1:25 in his first ever half marathon!

Thanks for reading folks…

1st 1/2 Marathon of 2015

Hi friends! Well yesterday marked my 4th consecutive year running the Forest City Road Race. The 2012 FCRR was my 1st race ever, and I did the 5km distance....and it SUCKED big time....but none the less I was hooked - I caught the running bug.

You may (or not) remember that I ran the 1/2 marathon at this race last year. I had a lot of knee issues last year, and coming back to this race my only goal was to finish feeling good! (Something that I hadn't ever experienced at the end of a 1/2). After being at the RunDisney marathon back in January, and then doing some research, and ordering Jeff Galloway's book on the #runwalkrun method, that's how I've been training this year. Other then a little knee issue I had about 6 weeks ago, training this way has been going awesome!!

I was running this race with my MIL (her 2nd 1/2 marathon ever), and she had asked me earlier in the week what my goal was for this race...and in all honesty...I was really just looking at this race as a training run for my upcoming 1/2 that we are doing in Niagara Falls the 1st weekend in June. This distance fit in nicely with our training plan right now, so I had decided that although it would be great to PR...that's not what I had my sights set on for this race...I just wanted to DO, and more then anything FEEL, better finishing this year than I did last year (which ended up being 2:58:57)

Mike and I were up bright and early, and after a 1/2 a bagel, Mike taped my knee up for me

we were off to the races (literally)

We met up with my in-laws once we arrived at the park and chatted with a few fellow runners that we always tend to run into at local races. After our pre-race photo we headed to the start line

And we were off...we started all of our gadgets (gym boss, watch and iPod) and then right away we settled into a comfortable pace, ensuring we weren't too quick out of the gate only to lose momentum later. It was nice to have someone to chit chat with along the course, allowing me to not stress about pace or how far I still had to go etc. Before we knew it we had passed the 2km mark, and I spotted a friend up ahead that had come out to cheer us on...this was especially a nice treat 'cause I knew we wouldn't see another cheering squad for us until the 20km mark

I knew that at the end of this race, we would be asked to vote for our favourite "water" station, so I really made sure to pay attention to each and every one of them...my fav was the London Pacers station. They had music pumping, great race signs that made me really chuckle both times we passed their table, and were just super encouraging to each runner as they came through! With doing our run/walk/run (3/1/3) it just so happened that our walk breaks for the most part always corresponded to the water stations - which worked out really well!
It was my MIL's first time running this race, so she got to run in a lot of places/paths that she had never been on before, and couldn't believe how many really nice running paths our city has to offer. You know it's funny how we can get "stuck" running the same thing over and over again (ahem...cough...all of my training has been on the treadmill), so it was so nice to be out enjoying ourselves!

At about the 14km mark, we needed a port-a-potty stop...but they were both occupied, luckily though, just up behind them there were public bathrooms...which happened to be open! After a 2min pit stop, we were on our way. While on our pit stop, I was calculating our pace etc. and knew that we were going to have a great race if we could stay on track. With the Jeff Galloway training plan the goal is for race day, that you should be feeling good still at the end of your race that you can run through the last number of km's. We had decided at the beginning of the race that we would talk about it at km marker 17, and decide how we felt at that point. My MIL was having a toe issue, so we decided "hey today's a training run" and we want to finish feeling as good as possible, so why mess with what was working for us...so we kept on with our 3/1/3.

We high-fived each other at each km marker (one of the best marked courses I've ever run, with each race's km markers in different colours to easily distinguish your race), and I was thrilled when we reached the 20km mark, we rounded the corner into the home stretch, and I immediately started looking for my FIL, Michael and Jackson...to be honest, I knew that we were running faster then Mike would expect us to, so I wondered if they would even be there yet...but lo and behold they were and we were able to get a few high-fives in with them

Now we were in the final block, turned a couple corners, and I asked my MIL if she knew what we were at, and she said she hadn't been looking on purpose...well we headed down the final stretch and the announcers announced Sue and Michael (yes you just read that right...Mike will have more on that story this week), and we crossed the finish line 2:27:36....what?!?!? That was a 31:20 improvement for me over the same race last year, and a 12:28 PR for both my MIL and I!!!!! Wowzers...I wasn't sure that I would ever break 2:30:00, and here we did...and more importantly I felt great!!! I am thrilled and so happy to have finally found a plan that seems to work for my body.

It was a GREAT race, great weather, a great day to be out there running!

Thanks again to the organizers and volunteers of the 2015 Forest City Road Race!!!

What's your go-to meal/treat after a race?
Ours is always pizza

Another Race Weekend!

Time for another race!  This weekend brings us to the biggest race on the London scene, the Forest City Road Races.  The longest distance offered is the half marathon and I will be running it along with both Michelle and my Mum.

I'm not really sure what I am looking for going into the race…I had been hoping to break 1:25 a couple of weeks ago at the Run for Retina and finished in just over 1:23.  I have raced both Retina and FCRR the last few years and have always fared better at FCRR, but it will be tough bettering my Retina time.  I'm just going to go out and run as hard as I can and see where that gets me…hopefully we have a nice day for it and everything clicks!  Once the race is done I am officially into triathlon season, so I'd like to give all I've got for this one.

Speaking of the weather, it's been crazy as always around here.  Last weekend was absolutely gorgeous and I managed to get out for my first outdoor ride of the year.  It felt so good to be out there and breathe real air while riding and actually move instead of just spinning my wheels on the trainer.  On the other hand, I forgot how much hills, wind and traffic suck.

After I finished up my ride, it was time for biking round two.  Michelle, Jackson and I set off for the park on our bikes and I tricked Jackson into going to a new park a bit further away.  We had a pretty decent hill to climb along the way but he handled it like a champ.  After a bit of play time at the park we turned back home, but I managed to get a Starbucks pit stop in on the way.

The weather wasn't meant to last though, and we were back to freezing temperatures and even had some snow by midweek.  I almost even put my tights back on for my run yesterday!  I decided against it though as I was going to do one last tempo before my race and figured I warm up enough by going fast…in the end it wasn't so bad.

The wind has been pretty wicked here lately too.  I felt sorry for all my pals running Boston on Monday as that wind and rain and cold combo is one that does me in every time.  Congrats to all you Boston runners; I plan on joining your ranks in 2016!

We'll be heading up to the cottage tonight after Michelle finishes work so that we can just have some nice quiet time before coming back to town for FCRR.  Hopefully it isn't too cold tonight so that we can get out and sit around the campfire.

Maybe if it is too cold I convince my Dad to find us some burniture to heat things up a bit

Either way, some nice relaxing time up at the cottage sounds like just the thing I need right now…all I need to do is make it through the work day!

Hope everyone has a great weekend in store…I'll be back next week to let you know how the race went!  Cheers friends…