Violet Sky

For my third quarter 10k (remembering that one of my New Year’s resolutions was to run an organized 10k every quarter), I had to sort of stretch the definition of Q3. We had a lot of travel during the summer, so while I technically should have run this race in July, August, or September, I’m also just doing this to keep myself motivated and in shape so being two weeks late is fine. It certainly beat trying to start 10k training while we were in Québec City or immediately after when we had a short trip to Boise.

Last year, my husband and I ran a half marathon in October, and it was really ideal conditions – not hot at all, but sunny and clear. I was hopeful that signing up for a 10k in the same time period would work out, and it did, the weather was great.

I followed Hal Higdon’s intermediate 10k training program to start. I’ve attempted this training program once and ended up dropping out of it for schedule reasons, but I was really determined to make it work this time. My first 4 weeks of the program were nearly perfect: I did every single run save one tempo run, I did speed repeats for the first time ever, and I diligently followed the time goals for all my runs even though running a 10+ minute mile feels odd when I’m trying to get faster. “Run slow to run fast” has been circulating social media for a while, so I decided to trust the process.

A little over halfway through, though, things started to fall apart. Five days a week running and two days a week lifting plus all the other normal household management and children and work “stuff” started feeling too overwhelming, and I started resenting the amount of time I was running. I also resented that I was being told how fast to run, even though I initially enjoyed the easy pace. With two weeks left to the race, I abandoned the training entirely – I ran roughly along plan some of the days, skipped the remaining speed work, and revised the final 8 mile long run to a 10k or so to a local brewery that I hadn’t run to in 6 years.

For the goal of relieving the pressure of my overloaded schedule, this worked great! My stress levels dropped, I felt like I had time for my family again, and I didn’t entirely stop running so it wasn’t like I was necessarily detraining. But for the goal of running a 50 minute or faster 10k … that didn’t work so much. Nonetheless, I went into the race fairly relaxed, knowing I wasn’t going to hit my goal but was going to run a race with no pressure and hopefully enjoy it.

Vancouver’s waterfront park is a new addition since we’ve lived here. It used to be a largely abandoned industrial area, set next to an industrial scrap yard, and while the scrap yard is still visible in the distance from some angles, the rest of the area has been revitalized or is actively being revitalized at this moment. We’ve spent a fair amount of time down there as tourists in our own city, so it was fun to start and end the race there. The timely recent opening of a new, 9 story parking garage (replacing the surface parking that had been there before) made it easy to zip in, find parking, and immediately walk to the race start.

I positioned myself up toward the front of the pack, right around the 1:45 half marathon pacers, as the 10k and half marathon started at the same time but experience has taught me that most people running races overestimate their abilities (or just want to be closer to the start) and I didn’t want to spend my first mile weaving through joggers and walkers.

The first part of the course left the waterfront and wound across downtown, crossing the I-5 bridge and sending us down through Officers Row and then past Fort Vancouver. The current fort is a reconstruction, but it’s still fun to visit, and it was certainly fun to run past it on two sides. The course also took us past Pearson Airfield, which is the oldest continuously operating airfield in the country. I have mixed feelings about the airfield, because its proximity to downtown Vancouver means that FAA height restrictions are in effect, something also keeping the skyline of my hometown, San Jose, stubby and unimpressive. But Vancouver isn’t presently a skyscraper kind of community, so it’s probably fine.

Every single race that runs in this general vicinity ends up crossing over the Vancouver Land Bridge, a cute little pedestrian project that nonetheless always annoys me because the last thing I want to do mid-race is huff up a brief but steep foot bridge and then have to avoid slipping on the damp walkway on the way down. As usual, I survived this annoyance and found myself running down parallel to the Columbia river, a familiar stretch that I’ve walked and ran repeatedly over the last several years. I was really glad to see the 10k turnaround at this point, as I had been struggling to get my mental game where it needed to be and, at this point, figured it wasn’t going to get there but I was at least going to finish strong. It was a beautiful fall day on this particular part of the path.

As we came back into the waterfront, things got a little annoying. There were some odd turns and strangely prescriptive pathways (including one that I accidentally cut across without realizing I was supposed to follow the path exactly) and at the very end, we had to run through the roundabout. I had my music up and was in my last push to the end, so while there were people standing on the roundabout, I didn’t realize that they were there because I was supposed to run around it – the roundabout is shallow and I ran straight across it, past people who I thought were just spectators but realized after the fact were trying to direct me around it. Oops x2.

Nonetheless, I made it across the finish line without anyone chasing me down and making me rerun the two cut corners. Some firefighters (?) were waiting at the finish line and wanted to put the medal over my head, but I grabbed it because the last thing I wanted to do while panting after a race is get close enough to someone for them to maneuver a large necklace onto me. I checked my results and was relieved that I got 4th place in my age group – no waiting around for the awards ceremony!

So, not the results I wanted, but not a bad showing considering how things fell apart at the end of training. I’ve concluded that competitive running is probably not in the cards for me until I reach retirement, and have started to ponder the benefit of races in my life, especially considering that my husband did all the training with me and then enjoyed an hour in a waterfront coffee shop with a book he’s been reading.

That being said, I have a Halloween run coming up in two weeks and my annual virtual Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving, so this won’t be the last race report for the year.