Mission: accomplished!

Two races this week, and both went exactly according to plan.

Wednesday I ran 1500 at McGill. It was my first 1500 in about a year (I ran one last summer with Cardle and Nigel, just for fun, and I think I was about 4:15), so I started conservatively (68 first lap). I felt good, and I was right about where I wanted to be, ahead of the slow guys, but too far from the fast guys. One kid from CEGEP fell off the pack and I passed him on lap 2 (70). I actually broke the race up into 3x500m. The first 500 were easy, the second 500 push and the third, kick. So when I got to the third 500, I let it rip. I was 69 for the third lap. I finished with a 4:19 (51 for the last 300). Not bad. I had fun and I ran even.

Thursday and Friday I ran v. easy for about 30min each day, with some light strides on Friday.

Christina also raced Wednesday night and ran a 4:47. She was going to race Saturday, too, and her goal was to qualify for the national championships with a top 5 spot. She is much higher ranked than I am in her event, and she had a reasonable chance going in. In fact, on Saturday night she ran another 4:47 to finish second.

I had looked at the start list ahead of time, and calculated that I was going to have to beat quite a few guys to get in myself. This is what the start list looked like on Friday:

1 5100 Poulin-Cadovius, James 85 Montreal Olympique 3:47.00
2 6400 Brett, Allan OttawaLions 3:51.23
3 5380 Lavoie, Olivier 88 Corsaire Chaparal 3:51.97
4 6403 Desormeaux, Kyle OttawaLions 3:52.49
5 6167 Michaud, Dominic 85 Cirrus 3:58.50
6 5931 Bouchard, Julien 84 Fleur de Lys 3:59.50
7 5938 DeBardi, Stephen 78 Fleur de Lys 4:02.00
8 5935 Colle, Stephane 88 Fleur de Lys 4:05.00
9 5932 Bouchard, Remi 87 Fleur de Lys 4:05.00
10 5266 Fauteux-Brault, Guillaume 87 Sherbrooke 4:06.00
11 5748 lapierre, Maxime 88 Universite Laval 4:12.00
12 5951 Lofranco, John 77 Fleur de Lys 4:15.00
13 6410 Lalonde, Patrick OttawaLions 4:15.00
14 5741 Perreault-Varin, Maxime 89 Trois-Rivieres 4:18.56
15 5644 Carriere, Yan 89 Vaudreuil-Dorion 4:30.00
16 6207 Novotny, Peter 89 Independant 4:35.00
17 6158 Demers, Benjamin 89 Cirrus 4:40.10

So for one thing I was worried about getting to race with the guys ahead of me, as they could very well have made two heats. On Saturday night, however, Things changed a bit. Lavoie didn't show (not sure if he was ever planning to, having got standard for Pan-Am juniors out west), and neither did Debardi. Julien was going to be pacing the steeple for his littlest brother, and Debardi didn't show up either. Menard was there, ready to race, but both he and James were not allowed to run because they didn't check in ahead of time. So at the line, the situation looked like this:

1 6400 Brett, Allan OttawaLions 3:51.23
2 6403 Desormeaux, Kyle OttawaLions 3:52.49
3 6167 Michaud, Dominic 85 Cirrus 3:58.50
4 5935 Colle, Stephane 88 Fleur de Lys 4:05.00
5 5932 Bouchard, Remi 87 Fleur de Lys 4:05.00
6 5266 Fauteux-Brault, Guillaume 87 Sherbrooke 4:06.00
7 5748 lapierre, Maxime 88 Universite Laval 4:12.00
8 5951 Lofranco, John 77 Fleur de Lys 4:15.00
9 6410 Lalonde, Patrick OttawaLions 4:15.00
10 5741 Perreault-Varin, Maxime 89 Trois-Rivieres 4:18.56
11 5644 Carriere, Yan 89 Vaudreuil-Dorion 4:30.00
12 6207 Novotny, Peter 89 Independant 4:35.00
13 6158 Demers, Benjamin 89 Cirrus 4:40.10

Ranked 8th, but 6th out of Quebecers (Brett and Desy, who drove down with us, were from Ontario and so couldn't qualify for nationals at this meet), all I had to do was beat one of those guys. I'll be honest, I don't really know who any of the guys whose names I haven't mentioned are (except Michaud and Novotny). So I had to beat a 4:06 guy and a 4:12 guy.

The race started out very quick, despite not having James and Menard to push the pace. Desy wanted to run 3:50, so he took it out hard. The first 200 was in 29-30 for the leaders and all those guys went with them. I was happy to be in about 12th spot and through 200 in 32 seconds. Before we got around to the first lap, (66) I had moved up on a couple of the runners and down the back stretch for the second time I was just behind a group which I think contained Lapierre and Fauteux.

I could see Desy and Brett well ahead, and Remi, Cole and Michaud were the chase pack. I thought about sitting on the young guys (ok, I know they are ALL at least 10 years younger than me--which is why I knew enough to not go out in 29!) but I felt good so I thought why not try to reel in the Fleur de Lys guys. I went around the kids and spent the next 500m looking up (good!) and chasing Cole and Bouchard #2. I didn't really gain any ground, but they pulled me through (second lap about 67).

With 500 to go, I was still just ahead of Lapierre (I think). I made a move and that was that. With 200 to go I knew I had him, and I could also see I wasn't catching anyone else, so I just gave'er and enjoyed the ride. I knew I'd make nationals because I was sitting 4th Quebecer, so that was a fun last 200. It's nice to run with a smile, sometimes.

Today I ran for 1h20, my longest in a while. I ran with Les to watch her workout. It was a bit round-about, as we went to Kent but weren't allowed on the track (we saw Neressa though, who was there watching Kouyabe play soccer in the African Games--the reason for the closure), so we jogged to McGill. She did a solid workout and I lounged on the track.

Not sure what is in store for this week, but François said something about shooting for 4:05, so if the coach says it can be done, well, it can be done. I'll extend my season two more weeks after OTFAs, and I think if I can do 4;05 at OTFAs, there's no reason why I can't use a tactical semi-final at nats to run sub-4. Tactical for them will be just right for me!

It feels a bit like those race car games where you hit a checkpoint so you are allowed to keep going. I just won myself two extra weeks of training! I know, the naysayers will claim this is just another sign I won't retire, but I think it is just perfect. I've never run nationals in track before, and I've never broken 4min. I can do both in one shot, and then head for the couch! Haha.