This year’s VIRA Island Race Series Harriers Pioneer 8k took place on Sunday, February 27th at 11:30 am. At first, I didn’t think that the weather would be good since they were calling for rain. Once again, I had to think about what to wear. I find that if I’m a little bit cold at the start, then that’s OK because I end up getting warmer once I start the race.
Again, I carpooled with my friend because it’s always more fun than going by myself. I picked up both of our bibs and then we parked at another friend’s house who lives near there.
I had to take this one easy because I hurt my toe earlier (not during any of the races). I’ve had to decrease my weekly mileage a bit since hurting my toe, even though I want to get back to running 100km per week at some point.
Harriers Pioneer 8k 2022 Running with Carlos. Photo by Lois DeEll.
Prior to starting the race, I told my coworker that I would be finishing the race anywhere between 34:30 and 36:00 minutes. My personal best in this race was in 2014 when I ran it in 33:03. I still hope that one day I will be able to get back to running as fast as I used to.
Once again, I didn’t wear a watch and ran it by feel. I still felt that I ran the first km a little bit too fast. My friend Carlos and I ran beside each other for the next couple of kms until he started to pull away from me.
I decided to keep it slow because I wasn’t sure how my toe would feel if I picked up the pace. Once I got to the turnaround point, I held off on trying to go faster until I reached the 6km mark. There was a gentleman slightly ahead of me that I was trying to catch up to.
Approaching the finish line by Joseph Camilleri at the Harriers Pioneer 8k 2022.
As I got to the last km, I was feeling pretty good because I ran kms 2-7 quite a bit slower. With 1km left, I began to pick up the pace a little bit and my toe seemed to be OK. I was running beside a taller gentleman and with about 300m left, I asked him: “what are we at for time?” Then, he said, “34 minutes”.
At that point, I decided to stick with him to the end of the run so that I would have someone to sprint towards the finish line with. It’s always more fun to sprint towards the finish line when there is someone beside you.
After crossing the finish line with at the Harriers Pioneer 8k 2022. Photo by Joseph Camilleri.
I ended up crossing the finish line in 35:35 (average pace was 4:26 per km), which was good enough for 6th place in my age category and 40th out of 192 women.
The next race in the VIRA Island Race Series is the Comox Valley RV Half Marathon on March 13th. If you would like to run the race, you have until Friday, March 11 at 6pm to register. Stay tuned for my race preview and tips for the Comox Valley RV Half Marathon.