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Wednesday February 22 2012
 

Running With Scissors. The race is over!

Printer friendly version Posted on: Friday December 10 11:32:17 AM

First of all, I want to say hello again, because it's been a while since I wrote about anything here. This will also be the last post on this blog. Yes, that's right, Running With Scissors has run it's course so to speak. I plan to revamp my blogging ways. I want to change things up a bit, and write more interesting stuff, about running and racing, traveling and all the usual stuff but in a more informative way. Basically, less about me, more about the big picture. I also have several new adventures in relation to websites and blogs coming up. I'll explain more on this later.

Let's talk Fall Races shall we? The Fall season was important to me this year. You may know I dropped my quest of racking up as many marathons as I could do and decided I am, for the moment, more interested in racing marathons at a competitive level (with myself) rather than just reach the next milestone, which in this case was marathon #20.

So if you happened to read my last blob / race report, you already know the season started well for me. I had a decent training run @ The Scotiabank Half Marathon and followed it up with a personal best 3:18:20 at the Toronto Goodlife Marathon. I am happy for that, and stoked that I ran personal best and earned another trip to Boston but I know I can apply myself and do even better. If I were to grade myself on overall effort in 2010 it would be in the about 7/10, perhaps 8/10 but I have planned to boost that for Boston 2011. How is that going so far? Read on.

First, a recap of the 3 races after the Toronto Marathon PB. To be brief, which is all I think is necessary at this point, the remaining autumn graces went well, also not as good as I hoped, perhaps save for the Hamilton Half Marathon.

The Hamilton race was originally supposed to be another marathon for me but I thought I would try to be my Half time and Hamilton is a good place to do so. I knew I was prepared enough to beat my previous time of 1:33:59 and I hoped to do it under 1:30 so I could earn a spot in the NYC Marathon without having to go through the lottery process. As it turns out, the 21.1k course is NOT certified so had I accomplished this task, it wouldn't have mattered anyway. The bright side is, I did run well despite a chaotic morning and turned in a PB of 1:31:30 even with the long course. Yes, a long course (21.5k) but that is another story and ancient history already so I won't delve further.

The Hamilton Half was followed with 2 Cross Country races. Cross Country being not quite 'Trail Racing' means you can expect some challenging terrain but still run decent times. The 2 half marathons and marathon left me in no real mood to train between races so I didn't expect too much. I ran the first one, The Ontario Masters Championships 5k in 20:30 finishing very close to the back of my age group. This doesn't phase me as I know it's attended by mainly serious competitors (Masters being age 30 and over an divided into 5 year age groups) and after all it was the Ontario Championships.

A cold snowy day in Guelph2 weeks later, also in Guelph, midway through November was the Canadian Masters XC Championships and again, I was able to enter based on, well, the fact I can still sign a form, so I got in! This was the same 8k (4 x 2k) race I did last year and for the 3rd time in as many Masters Events, I finished 2nd from last out of about 25 men my age. My time was 34:30, about 25 seconds faster than last year but we also had to endure a major snowfall, winds, snow belting us in the face and -10 degree temps. Still fun? Yep. These shorter races are tough and so is the competition so without a decent performance (for me), I would be left way behind them all. I really like these events, they are well run and the people, the organizers and the runners are all super nice. I hope to get more people I know, and from the Beaches Runners Club to attend next year's events. The team aspect of running is just as enjoyable.

So onto 2011, and the fact I mentioned I plan to boost my effort level. Let me admit that I am already behind schedule, fighting between laziness or listening to my body and taking it easy for a while. Time however, is running out and a serious training schedule for Boston would include more running than I have been doing, less eating than I have been lately, more sleeping than I've been getting and at least some sort of strengthening routine. It's time to kick it up!

I have faith that I can mentally turn things around and get the momentum rolling. In the meantime, I hope to get more writing done. You will be able to visit this site and be forwarded to my new blog site where the admin side of things is a lot easier for me and you will be treated with a better look and feel and a new name. What is that name?

You will soon find out. See you soon!

Dave

P.S. I will also be guest blogging for The Food Network`s Nutritionist Theresa Albert in support of her new book "Ace Your Health" A 52 week program and there are 3 of of following her healthy lifestyle plan with 52 posts, one per week during 2011. This should be interesting, I will post the link when it becomes available.

I have also started a new band website for "Mixed Tape" which will also feature some blogging about retro and new music. Check it out at www.mixedtape.ca



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 Posted by Dave on: Friday December 10 11:32:17 AM

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