Rain For Reach,

Six of us from Toronto braved the elements in Ottawa this weekend.
Morgan, Sarah, Eric, Candy and Richard (The Mayor).

Results for the Run For Reach 1/2 Marathon in Ottawa this morning.

10 ED LENRY TORONTO 55 0:53:09.4 23.8 Men 31 & over 8/22 9/28

First race of the season with no real training under my belt thus far. Yet another Skate in the Rain, but I figured I had a ride to Ottawa departing from Morgan's place across the street, and I could crash at Lisa's, so I had absolutely no excuse not to do it. I even got Jen's blessing that I could miss the Loreena Mckinnett concert if I was running late getting back to Toronto on Sunday night. I was thinking of it as a training opportunity, particularly since it would give me a chance to skate with the Ottawa Inline guys that I normally skate with at most of the local events.

Good learning opportunity more than anything else. I did lots and lots of dumb things before and during the race.

The morning of the race I had a pretty good breakfast and kept second guessing as to what I really needed for this race... since it was only a 1/2 marathon. I opted to wear three layers including my running jacket, camelback and the extra little pouch I usually carry for gels and paper towels. As soon as I got there (rushing five minutes before the official start time) my Toronto teammates all pretty much had a good laugh as soonn as they saw me with so much gear strapped to me.

I also tried to switch up my bearings in the morning in anticipation of the rain, only to discover that I had forgotten my little bottle of Oil and the "race bearings" I had were bone dry. So I put my skates back together with the crappy "training bearings" I had been using all season at indoors before rushing off to the start line.

I was happy to see Danny and Mike from Ottawa Inline at the start line, as well as Brian Joubert from Montreal. Folks I generally skate with at various events. Only forty people With the rain, so I told myself not get skate solo with the wind it would be a problem for me. I was suprised at how sluggish I was feeling in the rain, particularly since it was pretty good pavement quality and it didn't seem to be any worse than Duluth. it was a fairly even paced start at the beginning and I managed to get behind Danny. Halfway down the first quarter stretch, there was the first surge and a small gap opened up. I should have pushed just a little harder to stay in the draft, but as soon as it widened I knew I'd have to try to form a pack with the folks coming up behind me and try and catch up.

Eric came in behind me followed shortly by Mike, and we packed up fought a bit to try and catchup, but didn't look like we were gaining too much ground, and lost Eric at some point in the process. Michael and I were working well together until the 180 turnaround (looked like we were averaging 30km/hr) where I misjudged my radius and ability to crossover in the rain. Overshot the turn, braked and had to start up again, by then Mike was ahead and we were into the wind and as I learned in Cambridge, he is quite a strong solo skater into the wind. I saw who was behind me and decided that I was useless in this wind solo, particularly wearing my jacket. At the turnaround I knew there was a pack with Eric in it just behind me, so I slowed it down to 20km/hr and they eventually caught up. I jumped in and was happy to see Pascale from Ottawa Inline who I don't think I had seen racing the previous year. She told me that she had taken the time off because she had a baby! In past races know Pascale pulls strongly and is a good motivator, and we had Eric as well. The other gentleman was named Andrew (mishearing, I kept calling him Anthony... he later told me he was just too tired to correct me). I felt pretty strong in this group and it was good to have Eric there with some friendly advice about keeping the pack together (as well as pointing out that I might as well have been wearing a tent on my back). Unfortunately there was a surge on the hill and we lost Eric partway through the second lap.

The remainder of the race was pretty uneventful, Pascale, Andrew and I worked quite well together, but didn't have much luck reeling in any of the folks ahead of us. I pretty much stuck with them for the rest of the race and just prior to the end I decided to tie with them at the finish line instead of opening up my full sprint at the end since it was just a training skate and we had worked so well as a group. I pulled out and skated alongside Andrew and Pascale at the very end and stood up just before the finish.

What to do next time I'm in this kind of rainy day situation...

Fight a little harder to stay in the draft. The amount of time I skated solo or in a group of 2-3 could have been avoided I pushed myself a little more and just stuck with the pack. I kept holding back in anticipation of what would seem to be a longer race... however the end came quicker than I expected and I wasn't really wiped at the end and felt I had much more juice. I'm just not used to skating 1/2's.

Warm up better. It was cold and it takes me longer to warm up. I should have given myself more time before the event to get my muscles moving and ready to work. The second half went much better in that respect than the first half.

I should have taken off my jacket and lost the camelback. With the strong winds on the way back, I might as well have been wearing a parachute.

Despite all of that, I felt like I had a good time and I always enjoy the positive comaraderie skating in Ottawa.

WHAT I ATE SATURDAY
Bowl of Cereal, Apple, yogurt, Harvey's veggie burger, Tropicana Twister fruit beverage, pickles, French fries, peppermint tea, proissuto/brie/pear, tomato and eggplant soup, Whole Wheat Pasta and veggies, hot apple cider, raspberrry cake.

WHAT I ATE ON SUNDAY
Bowl of Vector cereal in Soy Milk, 2 Apples and a banana. Pasta Salad. 4 slices Meat Lover's Pizza, Dairy Queen Brownie Sundae, Pepsi, gatorade.