You can view complete Edmonton Marathon 2010 results here.

The Edmonton Marathon course is really great. I have to say it’s one of the faster marathon courses I have ever run. If you are looking for a quick course in Canada in August, this is the race to go to.

This how I looked at 37.5 km - way more tired than I looked!

As for my race, it started out good and I ran together with another guy for most of the first half. We were in 4th/5th position, and we passed 5 km in 18:45, 10 km in 37:20 and then at 21 km, I had 1:18:10. At that point, I felt quite good but I noticed signs that my legs were getting a bit tired. I slowed down a bit, thinking that even with a 1:22 second half, I will get around 2:40. The other guy I ran with dropped back at about 23 km or so.

I noticed I was gaining on Corbett and by 31 – 32 km somewhere, I passed him. I still felt confident. I was running around 4:00/km and I remember doing the math – if I keep this pace all the way in from 30 km, I will get 2:39. Same at 32 and 34 km, I was still on pace for 2:40.

At 36-37 km, there was a hill. Not insanely hard, but long and steep enough that I had to really slow down. I was being careful so that I didn’t red-line. At the top of the hill, with 4-5 km left, I tried to pick up the pace again. Uh-oh, bad news buddy. The tank was now empty. DARN IT! I knew it was game over. Corbett came back at 39 km or so and I was barely moving. There went 4th place. I was hoping I could gain some energy back if I took it really easy for a few minutes, but not a chance.

At 41 km, I figured I should be able to work hard over that last one kilometre, but then Jack passed me at what seemed a blazing speed. I tried all I could to go with him, but couldn’t even do it over 20 meters.

There was nothing I could do about the empty tank – I could only jog slowly towards the finish, and I ended up with 2:44:51 and 5th place. Not bad overall, but not what I had in mind this day.

I felt very tired at the end, and also very hungry. I ate an armfull of bagels and fell asleep in my car – I was completely exhausted. This has made me think – perhaps I should have a bigger breakfast. I ate a large dinner the day before, but for next marathon, I am going to try a different approach: get up earlier, eat a larger, more complex breakfast 3-4 hours before the race. That might help with energy in the late stage of the marathon.

As for the next marathon, I am not sure, but I am hoping it may be the marathon in Sacramenton in December. My goal is to increase my mileage a bit now, to get tougher legs for finishing the marathon strong. I always fade way too much at the end of marathons, so higher mileage is likely what I need.

Next on my schedule is some shorter road races and then cross country. I will be going to Guelph, Ontario in November, to run the National Championships with a group of runners from the Edmonton area. I am really looking forward to this!

Well, I learned something this last weekend. Before you run a 2.5 hour run in hilly terrain, you have to fuel up. Like I didn’t know that… but here’s what happened. I went on a 17 km fairly fast run on Saturday evening. It felt great, but I didn’t eat a whole lot after the run. I just wasn’t hungry and wasn’t thinking. Bad idea.

Next morning, I ran with my friends up and down the ski hills in Camrose. A young running lady from Boston was visiting, so we took her on the “ski trails tour”. That meant most of them steep hills, and I didn’t bring water or any snacks either.

After 2 hours of running, I noticed that ugly, tingly feeling in my legs. We stopped for water, but it was too late. I knew I had to get home soon or it would become nasty. Well, it got nasty.

About 2 km from home, I stopped and walked a bit. Then I tried to start running again, but now my whole body said – this ain’t working, buddy.

All I could do was to tell my friends to go on finishing their run, while I suck it up and walk home. Yes, I had no other choice but to walk. The 2 km walk felt very long as well.

When I got home, I ate a lot of carbohydrates and drank water. Then I had a nap, and I felt much better. Next day, I ran another 17 km at a fast pace, and I felt just great. The body actually recovers quite fast from something like this.

What happened to me was that my stored energy in my body was low when I started, since I didn’t eat much after the late run the night before. When I then ran up and down the hard ski hills for 2 hours, eventually my stored energy became completely depleted. This can happen in races too of course, but I honestly think this was the first time I ever bonked in training!

There’s a first for everything.  I learned the hard way – eat enough food the day before you exercise for hours!

It turned out to be a really nice day for running, although for the soloists, it got quite hot on leg 3 and 4. Heat is a runner’s worst enemy. However, it was not as hot as during last year’s race.

After many difficulties with getting the organizers to assign myself, my wife and daughter to team(s), we finally got it sorted out late Friday night. My wife and I ran with a team called No Dafeet, and I was assigned to leg 2, and my wife ran leg 5. Our daughter Karly got assigned to a different team, a North Face team, and she ended up running leg 3. She did awesome and impressed us all. She had to deal with some pretty serious heat on leg 3, but ran very strong all the way.

I enjoyed leg 2, although it was very hard. My quads were sore for 3 days after, and the end of leg 2 is brutal, with a very steep descent from the top of the mountain. This leg 2 is sure a challenge, I tell ya! But I survived.

In the end, we had a great time at the 2010 edition of the Canadian Death Race. We will likely be back next year, probably with 2 teams. Relays are great fun, and especially these adventure racing relays.

Stuart did fantastically well in his first Death Race solo race, and finished in a very impressive 28th place, in spite of having a very sore knee for the 2nd half of the race. Great job!

The male winner of the Death Race was a very impressive runner by the name of Hal Koerner. He shattered the course record with his 12:45:38, and was completely untouchable. I was very impressed by his abilities. This guy is world class.

Just as impressive was the overall 2nd place runner, Ellie Greenwood, who also destroyed the female course record, winning the female category with the stunning time of 13:28:39.

Both these runners left my jaw hanging. Now, beating these times will be a good challenge for future death racers! Bring it on! (as they like to say in Grande Cache)….

Regarding the challenging leg 2, see below.

Description of leg 2:

Approx.1km of pavement, the rest is dirt trail, with rocky sections, mossy/swampy in places, and approximately 6km of hard packed dirt “road.” Net elevation gain-500ft, but total elevation change is well over 6000ft.  This section is characterized by long sustained climbing, with steep scramble and about 3km of very rough terrain with two creek crossings.  The trail from Flood Mt. to Grande Mountain is the roughest section of trail in the Death Race, with treacherous footing, and many drop-offs.  The power line down the front of Grande leading back into town will be the most dangerous section in the Death Race because of the extreme nature of the terrain while running downhill – steep rocky drop offs and unstable footing.  This is the most technical section and is rated second hardest leg of the Death Race (although many rate this leg as the hardest of all).

Directions: From the 1st full aid station, racers will exit the rail yard and cross the highway (about 150m west of the train bridge) and proceed up the Flood Mountain Trail to the summit.  As you approach the summit, keep a sharp lookout for flagging tape that denotes the steep but direct assent to the peak (we marshal this point on race day. Loop around the survey poll and follow the quad trail west from the summit around the back side of Flood Mt. and gain the Flood to Grande Trail survey line.  This is a rough and steep section crossing Washy Creek and traverses the high country from Flood Mountain to Grande Mountain (crossing Carconte Creek).  At the intersection of the survey line trail and the Grande Cache Radio Tower road there will be an emergency aid station available.  Racers will proceed to the summit of Grande Mountain and down the front power line back into town (to the respective start/finish area) along the trail beside HWY 40, turning on Shand Ave. and taking the first left into the Grande Cache downtown square.  This will be the 2nd full aid station, and the 2nd relay exchange zone.

First of all, what the heck is Sinister 7? Let me explain. Sinister 7 is a 146 kilometer ultra marathon race. The course takes the runners through the most rugged and beautiful terrain in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains. Because the course has over 5,050m of elevation gain across the course, this race is hard, if you haven’t prepared. Racers have 27 hours to complete the course, and the relay is split in to 7 stages.

Our Cool Running, finished first of the teams, and it was a complete surprise to everyone. After the first stage, we were among the slower half of the teams. After stage 2, I think we moved up a bit, but we were still way off the top 5. I am guessing we were somewhere around 70th place after the first 2 stages.

Next, our marathon star Brendan ran the 33 km long stage 3, and when he handed over to me, we were in 5th spot. Yeah, Brendan can sure move! However, we were still 1:30 behind the leaders, and there was another team way ahead of us as well. Needless to say, we were not expecting to catch the top 2 teams this day, but perhaps 3rd place could be a possibility, since 3 and 4 started just a few minutes ahead of me.

On stage 4, I started chasing the two runners ahead of me, and it didn’t take that long until I went by them. I probably went a bit too had in the beginning. My quads were burning…

At the first water station, they said I was the first runner to come by. I was thinking, hmm, you must have just started your shift buddy, since I knew the two top teams went by here an hour and a half ago or so. There’s no way I could be first. I kept plugging away best I could – I knew there was a lot of work ahead of me.

This was a long, hot and hard stage to run – 32 km in mountainous terrain. I struggled a bit at the end, and my feet were hurting pretty bad from running over the hard rocks. When I finally saw the end of my stage, I was very happy to have it over with.

As I passed the timing stick to the next runner, they announced me as the first runner to come in. What? It turned out that both the top 2 teams took the wrong turn at the first water station, and ended up running half of leg 3! Uffda! That meant a 50+ km run for them, and several hours added. This meant we were now in first place, with a 36 minute lead over the next team.

We were all of course a bit nervous during the next 3 stages, but our last runner came into the finish in Blairmore with a comfortable lead, and we ended up WINNING the Sinister 7 by a margin of 20 minutes or so. It was so surprising, and it shows that when it comes to relay events, anything can happen.

We received gift certificates and the team earned a $1,000 check for placing 1st. A good weekend! We will be back again next year.

I took it fairly easy up the hill, as I usually do, and then I tried to change gears at the top of the hill. I noticed the group was splitting up, and I started chasing the last guy from the group. At the turnaround mark around 11 km, I passed him and noticed I was challenged from behind from a couple of guys. From then on, I turned it up as much as I could, and for a while, I was gaining on the 3rd place runner. However, I couldn’t get close, but I pushed hard on the last 2 km and got to the final hill with no immediate threat from behind.

It was fun to see Amalia, Karly, Kris and Denise at the finish, cheering for me! I came in at 51:15, which is an awesome time for a 40-year old fart like me! 4th place and 1st in my age category. I was exactly 2 minutes off my time 10 years ago.. but that is okay, I was in my best shape ever then, and even the 2010 winner (Taylor Murphy) didn’t run faster than that (although I have no doubt he absolutely could, if he had been more challenged).

Brendan had a great race too and came in at 52:32.

A great Canada Day! Afterwards, there was a free pancake breakfast, and the weather was just perfect.

Later in the evening, I played a blues gig with my band here in Camrose, which was great fun too.

We had, on paper, a slightly slower Camrose Pirates team this year, but everyone on the team ran their heart out, and we managed to finish 3rd in the Open category again. Great stuff!

I ran leg 5 in a new record for me, 1:12:03 and I am very happy with that time. The competition on this leg is unreal though, so I was only 5th on the leg.

Warren ran strong on leg 1, and had a battle with a younger runner, but he prevailed. On leg 2, Kieran ran a solid run and when he handed off to Tom on leg 3, we were ahead of schedule. Tom had a good run as well and smiled all the way. Gerhard worked hard on leg 4 and when I started leg 5, we started getting into the crowded part of the race. I felt really good during and after my run. I sprinted hard to try and get under 1:12 but just missed it.

Neal had fun on the downhill fest called leg 6. For leg 7, it was my turn again, since we were short one runner. It felt quite good, I have to say, so I ran about 10 km of leg 7 (37:40) and let Warren finish it off, which he did very strongly. Our youngest runner on the team, Roman, proved his talent to us, when he took it out at a fast pace on leg 8 and kept a good pace all the way. He had never run this far in a race before, and he ended up with the fastest average pace today! Kevin did excellent on leg 9 and we were now way ahead of our schedule.

Leg 10 was shortened to about 11-12 km because of the creek being very high. Andrew just rocked on leg 10 and came in fast to the finish.

The K-100 Relay is Fabulous Fun! One of the best relays you can possibly do in Western Canada. We’ll be back next year!

Camrose Pirates!

The little kids ran a bit shorter, and the rest of us ran 3 laps around a loop to make it a Mile. It was right beside the horse track. Amalia enjoyed it, and ran with her friend Abby. It so cute to see little kids run, I love it!

While we were waiting for our age category races to start, I placed a bet on a horse for the first time in my life – $2.00 on number 2 to win. Guess what – I won! I made a whopping $10 something as a result.

Annik, Erin and Lori ran fantastic and were way up there in the field. Great to see them do so well.

Brendan looked super strong on his run, and he completely destroyed the competition in his age category. Great to see!

Denise and Mary went next in the Womens race, and both finished strong during this lovely Friday evening.

I worked hard from the start on my run, and stayed behind a tall fellow. I was hoping I could get some more speed going and perhaps pass him towards the end. However, no matter how I hard I tried on the last lap, he still had more and I could not quite catch him. 2nd place in 4:53 is fine by me though, quite happy with that. I won a nice HR monitor for this too.

The elite races were great to watch. Malindi Elmore was mighty impressive as she broke away to win by quite a margin.  Kip Kangogo proved once again his strength by pushing hard on the last lap, which left the others unable to follow.

The last “event” was perhaps the most interesting one. The Beer Mile. If you don’t know what this is, here is how Wikipedia describes it:

A Beer mile is a sporting event combining the skills of competitive running and speed drinking. Typically, the event is contested as a race on a standard 400 meter or 1/4 mile running track. The race begins at the 1-mile starting line with the consumption of a standard amount of beer, followed by a full lap around the track. The second lap continues in a similar manner; the standard amount of beer is consumed before commencing the running of the second lap. This process is repeated for the next two laps. Following the completion of the fourth running lap (and four beers), a competitor has finished the race. The more specific rules of the race vary by region.

In this case, we did a “light version” on the race track itself – we had 2 cans of beer and 2 cans of root beer. Since many people had driven to get to this event, it wouldn’t have been a good idea to chug 4 beers fast. I don’t know if the root beer made it any easier – they have a high degree of carbonation and the two drinks didn’t mix so well in my stomach!

The Beer Mile started in the horse race starting booths. Three runners per booth, and the locked the doors behind us. Feeling slightly claustrophobic, Brendan, A.J. and myself were waiting anxiously for the gun. As it went off, there was a mad dash to the first beer root beer stop.

The first Budweiser went down easily, and I was in upper half of the field (which I am guessing could have been 15-20 runners). I figured, perhaps this isn’t so difficult after all. I do like beer.

I ran hard to the next stop, the first root beer stop. It was harder, but I got it down after a while. Now it was suddenly way harder to run. My stomach was full of air and it was quite uncomfortable. I got going slow, but picked it up after a series of advanced burps. I passed several younger runners who seemed to be suffering at this point.

The 2nd beer was way harder now. It was very cold too, and chugging it down on top of all bubbly mess already in there was far from pleasant. It took a loooong time to get it down. Meanhwile, AJ, Brendan and Warren got theirs down really fast, and I felt like a complete newbie at this (which I was, of course, and so where they). I did get going running pretty good, after burping like a mad cow.

The last stop was root beer again. Brendan was just ahead of me, and he got that root beer down fast. Me? I took 2 sips and – Ouch! The stomach felt like it was going to explode. Still, I drank as much as I could, but then I had to just stand there and wait for the burping and the nauseating feeling to subside. I finally got started running, and I was half expecting to be hurling out some nasty mixture from my gut. I burped twice as I was jogging, and that helped. I sprinted as fast as I could (read: slow jog) towards the finish, and I saw Warren and Brendan up ahead, near the finish. I still felt like I could throw up any second, but I managed to keep it under control, and came to the finish in 6th place, in about 8:50.

Oh man, this Beer Mile stuff is harder than you might think. I think a person needs a very stretchy stomach!  The guy who beat me in the regular mile won the beer mile too – Shawn Muldrew. He is truly a monster.

The weather was amazing – really nice warm evening, even later at night. This event is highly recommended – great fun to run and watch, and lots of good food and prizes as well.

I ran the first 10 km in 35:20 and I didn’t feel like I had a lot of power in my stride. I saw Paul McCloy and another fellow (Aaron) a few seconds ahead of me, and I kept chasing them. At about 15 km, I caught up to them. I pushed the pace for a little while, but they hung on. At about 18 km, Paul fell back a bit and I tried to increase the pace. Aaron stayed with me. Then with a mile to go, I was by myself and I worked as hard as possible so that I could get under 1:15.

The weather was good for running. It had rained just before the race, and there was no wind. During the race, no rain was coming. However, after the race, it got quite cold and a bit wet. The awards ceremony was delayed a bit due issues with results, so standing around waiting on the muddy and wet field was no fun.

Now I will need to start training a little more volume, since I’m going to try and get in a good marathon time at the Edmonton Marathon in August.

The half marathon was won by Dave Jackson in 1:09:40. On the marathon, Graeme Wilson finished first in 2:32:14. Kip Kangogo won the 10 km race in 30:22, and Luke Ratzlaff finished first in the 5 km race in 17:44.

• Half Marathon Results available here.

The course was different this year, which meant more turns and a few kilometres of running on a gravel path. I think I liked the old course better, to be honest.

The good thing is that I felt much better in my legs after this race, compared to the Vancouver half marathon I ran two weeks ago. I think I am getting stronger, although perhaps not so much faster. That is a good sign though, because I need strength for the Edmonton Marathon in August.

This coming weekend, I am going to Calgary to run the half-marathon there. I am hoping to go under 1:15 then, since it’s a flat course and the weather will be better.

My friends did well today too. In the marathon, Ian ran 3:03, Warren 3:08, Stuart 3:22, Mary 4:30 and a 15 year old from Camrose ran 3:40 in his first marathon.

Karly had 1:54 on the the half, same time as Alvin, and Denise had a tough day and finished in 2:38.

Jack Cook won the marathon, and Russ McLellan was first on the half.

As for myself, I placed first on the 8 km race, with the time of 27:19. I was sore all week from the Vancouver half-marathon, but once I started the race, I felt better than I thought I would.

Brendan Lunty took it out at 3:20 for the first kilometre, and after about 2 clicks, I went up to the front, and from then I held it together. I wasn’t feeling that strong, since I had trouble recovering from the half-marathon the previous week. I kind of surprised myself my coming in at 27:10, only some 10-12 seconds over my course record from last year. Good sign, I think.

David Arial, Kelly Bauer and Evan Smelquist came in just over 30 minutes. Megan Hodges, Kathryn Stone and Susan MacDonald were the top 3 in the women’s category.

It was a great day overall. This was our first ever Ole’s Spring Run Off, and with over 170 race participants, I think we can say it was a success.

The 3 km race went well too, and the 1 km kids race was very entertaining. Over 50 kids ran like greased lightning! It was so awesome to see.

Naturally, we had the mascot of Ole Uffda, and the kids really loved having him around.

Race results available on http://www.camroserunning.ca/oles_spring_run_off/results/

The Camrose Public Library is receiving $1,000 from the proceeds from this race, and they will be used towards the childrens’ reading club.

Thanks everyone who came out to our event!