I’m really excited to share some amazing news about the 2019 VIRA Island Race Series Cedar 12k! This year’s Cedar 12k takes place on March 3rd (my birthday weekend).
What will especially interest you is the fact that the course got changed.
For those of you who don’t know, the Cedar 12k is usually the 3rd event in this super fun race series. However, this year, it got rescheduled due to bad weather and is therefore the fourth event.
As a side note, back in 2013 (yes, 6 years ago!!), the Cedar 12k was my very first ever VIRA Island Race Series event. I still remember that day like it was yesterday.
Above: Me, finishing my first ever VIRA Island Race Series Cedar 12k in 2013! Photo by IMS FotoGrafix.
Prior to taking part in Cedar 12k in 2013, I wasn’t even aware that it was part of a series.
After my first experience at the Cedar 12k back in 2013, I was hooked on the Island Race Series. Little did I know that 6 years later, I would still be just as excited to step on the start line as ever before.
Last year, the course had to be altered last minute because of an accident. However, the majority of the participants who did the 2018 Cedar 12k actually enjoyed the new course better.
They loved it so much that the race director decided to make the route change permanent.
What can you expect from the new course?
Since I wasn’t fully aware of all the changes, I was lucky enough to run into the race director, Jim, when we were doing the Cobble Hill 10k.
Jim informed me of the changes and I believe that most participants will agree that those changes are definitely for the better (not that the old course was bad or anything, just different).
The Cedar 12K course for 2019 is an out and back route on mainly quiet country roads.
It’s mainly flat with a few undulations in the middle, but nothing like the large hills on the previous course. This is definitely great news for anyone who would like to attempt a personal best.
The main benefit to having an out and back route is that you already know what to expect on your way back to the finish line.
As you can see from the course map below, there are not very many turns which means that you won’t need to worry about having to slow down around too many corners.
The start and finish are on Gould Road one block east of Cedar Elementry School, which is where the package pickup and registration take place.
I was very happy to learn that we no longer have to finish on the grassy field. This means that we should be able to have a much faster finishing sprint than before.
I’m definitely hoping to run this race at a faster average pace than I did the Hatley Castle 8k last week. I’m still not going to bring my Garmin, so I really don’t know how fast I will be running.
I look forward to seeing you there! If you see me, please feel free to stop by and say “hi”.