Training Log Archive: Bash

Today was the big showdown between Dad and me at the Rotary Brantford Classic Run. He crushed me in the fundraising department, gathering about $6,500 in pledges, more than 10 times my total (and I thought I did really well!) Btw, thank you to "Anonymous Donor" from this morning. Your support is much appreciated.



'Bent was feeling good enough after STORM that he offered to pace Dad in the 5K. I knew this act of disloyalty would make it very difficult for me to beat Dad's time, given that I was doing 10K.

I was feeling a little self-conscious in my new Salomon gear, knowing that people would look at me in my fancy duds and expect me to be a faster runner than I actually am. I'm next to the wheelchair in this starting line photo. (He kept up for a few kms - impressive!)



The weather was cool and sprinkling with a little headwind in some directions. For the first kilometer, I looked at my pace and worried that I had started too fast. But I felt good so only pulled back the effort a little bit. My second kilometer was also faster than usual, maintaining a pace under 5 min/km. But I still felt good so I started focusing on running form, leaning forward from my ankles, pushing my hips forward, pushing off and kicking my feet up toward my bum. At 5K, for the first time ever, I was under 25 minutes (24:20).

There was a turn-around and I realized that I'd moved into 3rd place among the women. There was a young woman just ahead of me and we stayed about 20 meters apart for most of the race, passing men as we slowly moved up. I kept waiting for things to fall apart but at 8K, I was still averaging under 5 min/km and realized there was a chance to break 50 minutes. Holy crap, I'd never thought *that* would happen in my life. This was only my fourth 10K over the past five years and my PB was 52:15.

At 9.4 km, I passed the woman ahead of me but only managed to stay ahead for a couple hundred meters before she surged back to beat me by 6 seconds. I didn't care because my time was 49:44 which is still unfrickinbelievable to me. :))) 3rd of 46 women, fastest woman over 40, 2nd fastest over 30.

But in the *real* competition - the one against my Dad - I lost miserably. 'Bent paced him to an amazing 41-minute 5K. Brantford is a small town and there was a lot of talk about the bet between Dad and me, even a few comments on the PA system. The Rotarians seemed very pleased to see him kick my butt.



He actually ran! And he doesn't run.



Here's his first finisher's medal.



There is an asterisk on his win - in fact, a couple of asterisks. For instance, while I've been tiring myself out with adventure racing and athletic training, Dad has spent the last 60 years tapering, resting and carb loading in preparation for his first running race since high school. How can I compete with that? And then he confessed that one of his chemo drugs increases his metabolism, so technically he was doping. I never really had a chance but I was gracious in defeat.



Congratulations, Dad! He's already talking about coming back next year and trying to improve his time. I won't even try to beat him.