Saskatchewan Marathon Day Photos

Check out the Recap page for the official race recap.

A beautiful day in Saskatchewan for a win

2014 Saskatoon Transplant Trot
Victoria Park, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Distance: 5K
Time: 24:33
Rank: 1/100
Post race meal: Green apple Gatorade, Arby's Roast Beef!, Tim Horton's Iced Coffee and Cinnamon Bun

Comments: Well, it's nice to win one.  Course was the opposite of flat, but that was okay, since the lack of flatness worked to my favor, and against *everyone* else.  The result, I got the gold.
Otherwise, Jasmine and I had quite a lot of fun on what was a pretty exciting day.   I ought to note that I did break the cardinal rule of racing, and tried two new things on race morning.  For one, I drank Gatorade (as opposed to Crystal Light), and this seemed to help a bit.  And I also used Kinesiology tape for the first time and taped the side of my knee.  I gotta tell you, it sure felt great not to be bothered by my knee... especially on a course like this one.

Tomorrow's Transplant Trot

My next race is tomorrow morning.  Weather forecast calls for subfreezing temperatures in the morning, though it'll be around 5c by race time.  I don't foresee a new PR happening tomorrow.

... And somehow the day ended at McDonald's

And so, faced with a need to unburn the 400-500 calories I needlessly burned running today, I took advantage of a trip to McDonald's--which I'm sure Meb, Ryan Hall, Shalene Flanagan and all the other gods of running do on a daily basis.  I should point out here and now that, aside from my beautiful girlfriend, I live with two kids.  Want to guess how much they love the playground at McDonald's?  If you guessed "more than anything else in the known universe," you would be correct.  Normally, though, I don't order fries, McFlurry and a diet f-ing coke; in fact, I don't order anything, save for the occasional unsweetened iced coffee.  (note: despite the poor food choice this evening, my postprandial blood sugar was only 127).

Today's run was interesting as I didn't have any real running fuel, and didn't have the time to get any either.  So I fueled up on a potato scone. Shockingly, I didn't have a particularly good run. 33 minutes and 5.5k.  The pace was deliberately slow, of course; but the point was really just to get my body used to running everyday again (given the lack of continuity in April).

This was another run through Forest Grove. The temp was a fairly warm 20c.

This was an interesting little path from the park to a nearby street.

On another note, the Saskatchewan Marathon is 24 days away!  I'm running the 5K event, thankfully.  Not sure how competitive I'm going to be.  But we shall see.

Recovery Run Redux... outside!

Just finished my second recovery run of the week about an hour ago. I ran a really slow 10 minute / mile pace, which made for an enjoyable and easy run.  The only annoyance was a pretty brisk series of gusts I encountered.  IT band held up okay, but I felt the pain when I used the foam roller after the run.
Aside from wearing a normal tech shirt and nike shorts (i.e. warm weather running gear), the only thing new thing I did was drink Gatorade prior to the run (with a little bit afterwards).  Can't say that I noticed much difference on a 5k, but I'm sure Gatorade might be a good drink on longer runs.  Technically today's run was 4.99k... thank you, Runtastic.

Recovery 5k... on the treadmill

Today was a recovery run day, but thanks to the snow it was a bit too slushy to go out and run.  Still, I wanted to get in some quality kilometers and flush out my legs (despite my post half marathon ice bath, where I somehow failed to submerge both quadriceps).  I ran for about 33 minutes at a *slow* place (i.e. 9:50 / mile).  I would have run quite a bit more, but I began to feel slight pangs of something from my knee.  So I halted just beyond 5k, cooled down and had a protein shake, ice bath (with complete quad submersion this time) and a banana.  I also rolled my quads, and IT bands with the foam roller.  The lactic acid feels like it's mostly gone, but we will see tomorrow morning. The big news here is that I actually stuck to my game plan and didn't overdo it.  I set out to run 5k, and I ran 5k.  I resisted the urge to do another 3 or 4 kilometers--and thus risk further inflaming my left knee.  Should also mention that I walked for about 50 minutes prior to the treadmill run.

Here's a photo of a sudden lake that formed from previously melted snow.  Yes, it's springtime in Saskatchewan.

Running News Round-up: Ninjas, Mebsanity and the Lincoln Tunnel

On Monday, Meb Keflezighi became the first American in forever (over 30 years) to win the Boston Marathon.

Ran across these items (no pun intended):

• Ninja 5K costume race scheduled for June 28 at The Horizon Center.
• Meb Keflezighi evidently won the 26.2 mile race wearing LA Gear Sneakers Skechers.  "I don't even know how people can walk in Skechers," unnamed source.
• Special treat for anyone who wants to run an entire race in a smoggy, filthy tunnel, whilst also inconveniencing an entire city and thusly bringing it to its knees: there's a 5K race in the Lincoln Tunnel. 
• I ran a half marathon... while injured. Global Saskatoon has the scoop on the race. 
• Another news story about people dying while running half marathons.  Makes you wonder if eventually participants would need to be pre-screened before being cleared to run. I hope not.

The delicate art of selecting 5K running music

You're three quarters of the way through a 5k race and you're feeling zapped from running at such a fast pace.  You're nearly out of breath as you try to keep your mind from thinking about how your body feels. You steal a glace to your left and see the blurry outline of a competitor looking to overtake you. He has no earbuds in, and he's wearing funny glasses. You decide to empty the tank and reach for greatness; you can taste the glory of an impressive finish... you can feel the finish line getting closer, and the sweet sweet oxygen waiting for you.  It's there... just another few minutes; and you can do anything for a few minutes, right?  So what song do you want playing?!

At a recent 5K race in Calgary, I would have liked Eye of the Tiger or Don't Stop Believing. Truly.  I feel like I can endure all matter of agony if I can I hear the virile strains of Steve Perry, or the sure proclamations of certain victory and infinite life from whoever the lead singer of Survivor is.  Instead I got "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" by Queen.  Now I *love* Queen and can think of a ton of Queen songs that would make excellent running songs, but this is not one of them.  It's like listening to Wagner while getting an enema, or carving a turkey while listening to a mash-up of Megadeath and Haircut 100.

Witness the awesome power of Eye of the Tiger: