Boundary Bay Marathon 10K

Yesterday I ran the 10K race at the Boundary Bay Marathon. Myself and Dave Burroughs, who was running the half marathon and requested a ride out to the event on the TRY EVENTS facebook page, arrived at Boundary Bay Park almost an hour early for the race. Centennial Beach had all new washrooms and other facilities now, so much nicer than last year, and we had a new starting line, but not far from the previous one.

The races consisted of a marathon, marathon relay, half marathon, 10K and 5K, and we all started off together at 8:30 AM. Dave and some others bolted out ahead, and I tried to keep pace somewhat, but then dropped off as I adjusted to what I thought my speed should be. A few fellows went by me, but I caught one of them before long and repassed him. We'd been running along the wide gravel trail by the ocean, but at the 2K point we were directed to turn right onto a residential street.

We ran along the street and past the 5K turnaround, and a younger fellow pulled up alongside me. I noticed by his blue bib colour that he was running the half marathon, but going at a faster pace than myself. Still, I decided to pick it up and ran alongside him for a couple of hundred meters before easing off just a bit so he pulled ahead of me. By this time we'd reached the 3K marker, where we were directed to turn right, down a short asphalt path before turning left and hitting the gravel trail alongside the ocean again.

Although it was fairly warm for November at about 10 degrees and the rain had held off, crosswinds from off the ocean were slowing us up now, and I focused on trying to keep a decent pace going. After we'd passed the 4K marker I kept looking ahead for runners coming back after hitting the 10K turnaround. I was about 250 meters from it when the first guy went by me going the other way. He said "Way to go Gordon.", and I said "You too.", but though I'd seen him before I didn't know his name. Soon after another fellow went past, one more when I was 30 meters away, and then one last guy a few seconds later.

I knew I wouldn't be repeating as winner of the race, but I was still hoping to at least grab third. As we headed back throngs of runners were coming towards us still heading out on their respective distances, and I heard one guy say to his 2 mates "That guy won the race last year." I focused on the blue shirt of the 4th place runner, and at times I was reeling him in, but then he'd speed up and increase the gap again.

After the 6K mark when we'd taken a right turn and were being buffetted by winds pushing us back, he began to slow up, and I gained on him as he apeeared to be down to a jog approaching the street again and the 7K marker. When we hit the pavement and the winds were calmed he got back up to speed, and we pretty well just ran it in at the same pace from that point on. I reached the trail again and turned left onto it, and we were now constantly passing walking and slow jogging 5 Kers.

With a few hundred meters to go you could hear the announcer, and there were some spectators lining the route. I heard a cowbell ringing and people cheering and soon I saw the building and tents and turned the corner to run down the chute and across the line!

 

I received my finisher's medal, and noticed they were doing the 5K awards so I went and watched them. They were only giving medals, plus a box of Muscle Milk, for overall top 3 male and female finishers in each race today, so it didn't take very long. The announcer was encouraging people to go into the food tents, so I did this next. They had bananas, oranges, brownies, bagels, small Clif bars and Protein Builder bars, and Vega performance drink samples, plus Muscle Milk, water, and coffee. I had a few brownies and grabbed a bagel and 4 of the Clif bars plus a coffee, and then went to my car to get my jacket, camera, and bell. I went to the finish line where a woman was ringing a kettle bell, the one I'd heard when I was coming in, and I went to join her ringing my bell. It turned out she was clubmate Judi Cumming, who'd just returned from hiking the 790 kilometer El Camino pilgrimage in Spain http://www.runninginthezone.ca/blog/2012/11/01/a-tale-of-the-seasoned-pilgrim/ . 

Husband Dan was running the 10K and she was welcoming the other racers back with her cowbell while waiting for him to finish. Ingo, who'd obtained a no-show bib number to the sold out event this morning, came in, followed by Lynette a couple of minutes later. Dan came in and Judi went to join him for a bit before resuming her cheering duties, and then Rick Varsava's daughter Molly finished. I'd missed her at the Rubber Ducky when I went to my car around the same time she was finishing, so I got her bib number from Kristina at package pickup so I'd know who she was when she finished this time. Her formal name is Amelia but she goes by Molly, and I haven't seen her since she was a little kid so I wasn't sure what she looked like.

I said "Way to go Molly!" as she ran into the finisher's chute, and she smiled and waved and then I went and introduced myself. She's only been running for 6 months and she and her friend are running races together. I told her that she's doing very well, and we talked some more, they are both very pleasant young women. Soon they said they were taking off, and we said we'd see each other at future races.

Preliminary results were posted for the 5 & 10 Ks, and it said I'd finished 6th, even though I don't know where the extra guy came from. I talked to Lynette and then Ingo for a little bit and then went out to beside the mouth of the finisher's chute to ring my bell and cheer for the finishers coming in. There were quite a few people gathered there doing the same thing, sans any type of bell, and the first half marathoner came in just after 1 hour and 20 minutes. I watched for Dave, hoping he'd medal, but he ended up in 5th place, after having a race much like my own, and we both said we'd try again next year.

I talked to Dan Cumming for a short while, and Dave chatted with the guys in his race and some other runners, and then we watched the 10K awards. Dave went back to mingling, and I went back to the finish line and joined Judi who was out there again with her cowbell. After about 15 minutes she and Dan left and I stayed for another 15 until there was a break in the action. Dave came up and we decided to head out, our work here was done. We said goodbye to Mitchell and said we'd see him at the Historic Half in a couple of weeks, and off we went!

Results are up, and I'm now 4th instead of 6th out of 147 (not sure what happened, but it works for me). My time was 42:52.6, and Ingo was 19th at 51:57.3, Lynette was 30th (and 9th female) at 54:16.8, Dan was 64th at 1:01:07.1, Molly was 83rd at 1:05:01.4, and Dave was 5th of 239 in the half, with a time of 1:26:41.2.

http://www.tryevents.ca/images/results/bbm2012.pdf

My next race is the Remembrance Day 8K cross country series race, in Stanley Park on November 11 at 11:01 AM.