MEC # 2 Birds Hill Park Race

MEC # 2 Birds Hill Park Race
MEC #2 Birds Hill Park 2017 3rd Overall After A Sprint Finish!

Monday, August 6, 2012

Jog 4 The Bog 5K

On Sunday, July 29, I ran the 5K race in the Jog 4 The Bog, which also featured a 10K to raise funds for the Burns Bog Society. The race finished and ended at Planet Ice in Delta, and was part of the Burns Bog Days festival.
 
I saw Chris Barth before the race, he was running the 10K, and then met injured clubmate Louie Maione, who was helping with the organizing and running of the races. Louie told me that they would be starting the 10K at 9 AM and then the 5K would go off 15 minutes later, to help avoid congestion and have the finishing of the races more in sync with each other. I thanked Louie and went to warm up.
 
The 10K took off on schedule, and we lined up to wait for the start of our race. It was confirmed that we would be starting at 9:15, and Craig Asselstine and myself went off to the side to stand in the shade as the sun was beating down on us relentlessly already. Craig had said he was aiming for about the same time as myself, 20 minutes or so, but Ian Bruce told us he would be happy with anything under 25 minutes today. That was why I was surprised that as we got underway and I went out in second place following Craig, I could still hear Ian behind me for about a kilometer before he dropped off.
 
We ran along a straight path through the woods, and it was fairly flat with some nice shade from the trees. Craig was running at a good clip, and by the time I was coming up to the turnaround, and Craig was heading back and we did a low five passing each other, he had about a 200 meter lead on me. I just concentrated on keeping up my pace, and after awhile I noticed that Craig seemed to be slowing up. I'd thought I would have to settle for 2nd today, that would have been awesome enough, but now I wondered if I could possibly catch up to Craig. I'd certainly give it a try!
 
I focused on speeding up, telling myself I was all warmed up and ready to really run now. Sure enough I was reeling Craig in, and just as we turned down the path to head back to the finish line, I passed him. He was clearly exhausted and said "You're a real pro." as I went by him. Not really, but a nice compliment. I turned again and the volunteers were screaming now, guiding me around the corner to the finisher's chute. There were a large group of high school cheerleaders and others cheering as I cruised in, and Mitchell Hudson from Try Events yelled "Way to go Gordon, you won another one!" as I crossed the line. I'd also won the 2011 Boundary Bay 10K, one of his races, so that's why he said that.
 
Craig came in right after me and we congratulated each other, and then he had his wife take a picture of us together. Louie also came up and congratulated me, another victory for our club! They had an incredible amount of food for us, bananas, oranges, cantelope, nutrition bars and sherberts, a pancake breakfast, and coffee and Timbits from Tim Hortons; plus spinach, ham & cheese, and chocolate mini croissants from Cob's Bread (I took one of each).
 
Mitchell took a picture of me with the Cob's Bread guy, and then I went to cheer for the incoming finishers. What was fantastic was the high school cheerleaders wearing their Seaquam Athletics tshirts, cheering everyone in as they came in to finish. They were just awesome, and I got some pictures of them performing a routine.
 


 
 
They got the awards going and I got a certificate for winning my race, plus one for being the top male master, and a $50 New Balance gift certificate! 
 
 
 
There were 70 people in my race and my time was 20:48, and Chris lost out to a young runner who wore a floppy farmer's hat. He said he'd expected the young guy to slow up, but he never did, just increased his lead throughout. Chris exchanged emails with him as they're going to do some training together, and hopefully get him hooked up with a good coach.
 
 
My next race was the Warrior Dash 5K obstacle race on Mt. Seymour, in the 2 PM wave on Saturday, August 4.

1 comment:

Eva, Alfie and Elwood said...

Hi Gord, Wow! Congratulations on a great race and your first place finish. You and Craig both did great, winning by such a healthy margin over the next runner!
It looked like so much fun, with the cheerleaders and all ~ and of course Timmy always thinks it's great when they serve TimBits at the refreshment area.
Go Gord Go!!!!
Cheers, Eva, Timmy and Pashmina