Thursday, June 26, 2014

Waterloo Classic 10K Road Race 2014

This was the 2nd year in a row for doing this race.   I raced it for the first time ever last year on the H&P team.  I had a good time of 38:10 and coming in 3rd master overall.   

This year, the race took on a bit more excitement as I was on Team Mike.   Read more about the different teams and the draft process here H&P Waterloo Classic Results 

I was definitely shooting for a time close to 37:30.   This wouldn't be a PB, but certainly a good time on this course, which has it's fair share of hills.

It was a beautiful day, which allowed all the runners to warm up outside on and inside the track at Waterloo stadium.

The race kicked off at 9am and it was a huge sprint for the 50m down the track before making a sharp turn through the gates before hitting the roads of Waterloo.




The pace was fast and I was doing my best to keep fellow H&P teammate Greg Dyce in my sites, as he was the one I was lined up against against the other H&P team, Team Dave.

After the first 3K of the race, my average pace was pretty much around 3:30/K, which is pretty darn quick for me, and I was pretty surprised at this point.   The pace felt challenging, but I really wanted to push myself today to see just what I could do.

I went through the 5K point in 17:40, which would be a new 5K pb for me, but if it's not in an actual 5K race, it doesn't seem to count!   Just past the 5K mark, I passed a fellow H&P runner Ahmed Ahmed, who was actually drafted ahead of me in the team draft, so that was encouraging.

At about the 6K mark, the same runner (Gigantor) that I battled with at the Waterloo Half Marathon caught and passed me.  I tried to stay with him, but he was just going a bit faster than I seemed to be able to go today, and he slowly pulled away as we crested the hill on Westmount.

As we approached the turnaround point for the 10K I could see where I was overall.  I figured I was in about 12th overall, and judging by the athletes I saw coming back, I thought I was the top master runner.

Unfortunately, as we got back to the top of the hill, another runner caught me, and I was definitely a master runner, so I knew I had to stay with him.   I did just that pretty much all the way back to the 9K mark, where he ever so slowly inched away.   I know I was going to be disappointed if I lost to him at this point, but I can say 100% that I was going as hard as I could (I think!).

Only about 600m left in the race
As we got back to the track, it was only 350m to the finish, but we had to dodge, duck and dive around the slower 5K runners still finishing their race.

I pushed hard, but could not reel in Mark Meyers, who finished as the top master.   I crossed the line only 3 seconds after him in 36:46, which was a new 10K pb for me and was much better than my 37:30 goal time.   I ended up 13th overall and second master which allowed me to take home the $75 cash prize for that, which was a sweet bonus!



As far at the MikeVsDave H&P team battle, Team Mike lost by only 10 seconds overall, which is the combined time for the top 5 athletes on each team.   Man, that was close.




After the race, I chatted with all the members of the team, had some food, did the awards thing and headed home pleased with my result.  The following weekend I headed to Syracuse to the the Ironman Syracuse 70.3 for the second year in a row.   See my next blog post on how this race went (hint, it went well!!)


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