Today is the day of the 115th anual Boston Marathon. There will be a live stream of the event starting at 9AM. More information can be found on the Boston Marathon site.

I know I will be watching and so should you.

Yesterday was a great day for a race, sunny warm and the rolling hills from High Park shaded us from any potential wind. I was running a little late (as always) but made it to the baggage drop off already having done my warm-up on my jog over to the race location and headed to the start line. The event organizers — Canada Running Series were on top of their game with the event logistics. 

I placed 6th in my category with a 34:42min 8km only a few seconds behind the 5th place racer. My race specs are: 

112 34:59.1 4:23 34:42.3 1928 SHAW, JORDAN TORONTO 92/1095 6/52 Men 20 - 24  

Full HRSRO 8KM results are also available on their results page.

This has been the shortest race I have taken part in and there’s lots I can learn from it with pacing and how to train for shorter runs and in the case of the Spring Run-Off the importance of hill training; which I need to work on. I was happy with my time, the event was great, I got a medal and this wicked athletic running cap! 

Harry’s Spring Run-Off also raises awareness for Prostate Cancer benefiting the Princes Margret Hospital Foundation and beat the projected donation goal of $300,000 by 111% raising a total of $335,120.83. Great Stuff!

See ya’ll’s at the next one!

Who’s doing the Sporting Life 10KM May 1st?

Just the other day(on Tuesday) I was smart enough to check my running calendar and it turned out that Harry’s Spring Run Off is this weekend, Saturday April 2nd (tomorrow — I’ve been trying to write this post all week) so I am pretty excited. First race of the season for me. It should be a great race as it has been sold out for a few weeks now so it’s going to be a full house!

On Tuesday I wasn’t even sure what I should aim to pace for this race. Most of my runs are 8+ miles not max 5mi or 8km. I came back on from Tuesday’s run feeling pretty good having overshot the 8km finish making it 9km but I ran the 9km in 39min with a 4.21/km pace. So I came back with sub 35 min finish time which is going to be helpful for tomorrow and pacing. I need to make sure I have a good warmup as I can not spare any warmup time during the race.  Having a good idea of what I am capable of running I feel I can probably push to around a 4/km pace throughout which will ~32min. I know High Park is pretty hilly so I am unsure how this will effect me and this last minute and sporadic goal time but I am just really excited to scramble around High Park. I do have the bonus of training in the park so I could be over analyzing this. Below is the 8km course map.

This evening I biked over to The New Balance Toronto Store on Bloor to pick up my race kit I than took a few laps around High Park on my bike and made my way home.

Here’s a great blog post with some history of the run for the 33rd Harry’s Spring Run Off.

This is the first race I’ve ran with a beard so maybe it’s going to be like a good luck thing? Who knows right.

Anyways if anyone is looking for race info it can be found on the run’s details page.

Wishing everyone a great race tomorrow keep it fun enjoy the park and Toronto! Maybe we’ll high-five during the race, it would be fun!

Over the winter months I’ve noticed a predominant theme with the friendliness between runners as we pass one another on the trail in comparison the warmer months — this theme is the stranger the weather or just the less “perfect” conditions for a run it is the more likely you will be to receive a “Hey!”, a wave back, a head nod or even just a smile. Being someone who most always waves to fellow runners it’s nice to get at least a wave back. Not only does it make your run more enjoyable it also makes it feel less like you are running alone (which is what I do most often). 

Despite the title of the post I don’t think that the more unconventional the weather is for running the friendlier the runners are I just think that the people who run in the unconventional weather just enjoy running more and want to connect with other runners and are more in tune with the runners they pass and are willing to wave back.

Do you wave when you pass other runners on the trails? What are your thoughts?

(Source: dailymile.com)

What’s it like being a shape?  A man probably in his mid sixties asked as I was running down Dufferin Street this afternoon on the final stretch home from my run. It was the furthest I’ve ran since mid December and still was only just over 8 miles. During my run I was thinking about how out of shape I have gotten these past 6 weeks. I took nearly a full month off from running. I would go out here and there, but no more than 15-20 miles TOTAL since the middle of December. “Gah, I’m outta shape” I keep on telling myself these last few weeks I’d been itching to get out but never did. This was surprising knowing how much I look forward to runs, how much better I feel after and all that jazz.

As I past this man on the street I couldn’t think of what to saw in response to his query so what ended up coming out was “*Deep sigh* It’s a lot of work!” That’s all I had… I was worried of coming up with a smart ass remark and still I feel this was the best I could do but wasn’t that good at all.

Either way this encounter got me thinking how running skews one’s perspective of what “In Shape” really is. Here I am coming back from a ~8 mile run loving life that I was able to get out this afternoon kicking myself for not getting out sooner and thinking I am getting fat from taking 6 weeks off but to others and complete strangers I am like a super athlete or something and am in shape. 

Today these were my stats:

Definitely not by best but still something to be proud of for being able to accomplish. When you compare yourself to the best of the best you often forget that what you are able to accomplish is still something to be very proud of your self for doing. I am not saying don’t compare yourself to people better than you, there’s no better way for inspire you to do better but never loose sight of what you have accomplished yourself and be proud of that accomplishment as well!

Either way it was a great day for a run, I loved it and I also got some self-reflection going in regards to my current physical fitness and how other possibly perceive it. As well as I think today is my official beginning of training for this year’s Toronto Good Life Marathon this May 15th 2011! Anyone else running this one?

The second Toronto Marathon this fall is the GoodLife Fitness Marathon which is tomorrow. I’m just heading to bed right now and thought I better check the times and route for tomorrow. I’m pretty glad I did as the start is at 9:00AM and NOT 7:30AM and the finish is at Queens Park and NOT City Hall. What does this mean? Well it means I can get roughly one extra hour of sleep! The race route is located on this available map.

As well the route seems to be mainly all downhill which should be interesting.

Well I’m off to bed. Good luck to everyone tomorrow.

A helpful trick I learned during the Waterfront Marathon. If you want to keep your rythem while still gracefully ingest liquids at hydration stations this is what I’ve learned works best. Pinching the lip of the cup making the cup opening a thin slit makes it easier to drink the cups contents while running. Doing this prevents gulping mouth fulls of water/gatorade; instead you are able to take small sips. The benefits of this is it prevents your drink from splashing out of the cup and onto you and it prevents you from drinking liquid too quickly which often results in stomach cramps.