- I spent 30 minutes warming up then 35 minutes cooling back down while waiting to start
- Apparently the overwhelming majority of the runners in the 45-49 pace group either lied or grossly overestimated their 10km time as I spent the entire 10,000m dogding through and around people
- The crowding never let up, there were so many frickin' people I couldn't even sprint for the finish
- I was only on pace for the 9th km
- Going 4:31 for the last km means I obviously did something wacko with my pacing - although my HR hit 204 at this point so this was obviously not a sustainable pace.
My pace by kilometer:
1 - 5:18
2 - 5:39
3 - 5:36
4 - 5:11
5&6 - 10:22
7 - 5:06
8 - 5:03
9 - 4:58
10 - 4:31
Overall time 51:46.
Despit the above rant, I'm not as frustrated as I would have expected at missing my goal, I'm trying to figure out the take-away lessons from this. I'll work through that on my ride home (this is posted from work [conveniently located 1 block for the start line] while I chow down on a bagel and coffee).
5 comments:
My partner and I had no trouble. Altho, those "runners" that belonged on the right side of the street anoyed us, the lack of volunteers reminding these people as such was anoying. I regisitered in the yellow section but arrived late. When I did Arrive I arrived at Burrard and Georgia where security let me in the gate and from there the start line was only 3 minutes before I was able to take off. If is time you are focused on, then you have to preplan and time everything.
Yeah, it's definitely all about timing. Or about picking a different race!
Hopefully you had a good time.
You and I are of the same mind, my friend. My report is available at http://james.wanless.info/journal/2008/04/2008-vancouver-sun-run/.
While I know this run is much like the UBC tri, in that it's geared toward new participants, it doesn't do a very good job of teaching people about seeding themselves correctly. In the yellow zone, I can't tell you how many folks I saw pushing their way past everyone, only to be passed again shortly after the thing began.
I hadn't done this in many years so the route change was a surprise, too, but all the narrow funnels made the clogging all the worse.
I don't know what possessed me to volunteer to run with my corporate team this year (particularly since it screwed up my weekend training for the Victoria half iron), but I'm hoping for a less conjested race in two weeks at the Vancouver half marathon.
James
Hey James,
I don't think the Sun Run is a good race if you're working on pacing (which I was) or if you're aiming for a PR (which I was), unless you're up at the very front (which I wasn't).
I guess I should have used it as an exercise at keeping focussed and not letting external factors bother me.
From my recollection, the Vancouver half was a congested start but within an couple of km it thinned out and I was running with people who were my pace so not a lot of passing going on.
I may be doing a relay for the Victoria half (should probably get around to signing up!) so I'll keep an eye out for you there.
Always always always register Yellow if you are trying for pacing or time in this race and then you'll only have to deek out 5000 people instead of 15,000.
If you can, go blue like I did this year and you only need to worry about 700 of them.
Ray.
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