The Port Alberni Paper Chase 15k, which took place on March 4, 2018, was a completely new race for me.
I did my best to write a course preview, but it was difficult to do for a race that I’ve never done before. As I said in a previous post, I really like the idea of having to run in a new location.
I thrive on trying new races and running in different places. I may not be the fastest, but my heart is truly in it.
The drive to Port Alberni was very beautiful. It’s definitely a gorgeous city and I want to be back again, maybe even to do some exploring. We live on a beautiful island and this city is definitely a gem.
For those of you who have been following my running journey, you are probably aware that the week before this race I ran a half marathon in Phoenix, Arizona. If I could race every week, I definitely would. However, I’m pretty sure that my body would complain if I did that. HAHA.
Luckily, when it comes to my body, so far so good. The injury in 2016 really derailed my running journey and made me re-evaluate my goals.
Right now, I’m just grateful to be back on the roads. 🙂
Since I ran a half marathon the week before, I didn’t have any specific goal for this race. I knew that I would be slower than I was at the Merville 15k a few years back. I also knew that I would probably end up being faster than 1:10 on this course.
Just as I expected, this course is more challenging than Merville. Therefore, if you ran this one slower (by up to 5-6 minutes), don’t worry about it.
How it went:
I knew that some of this course would be done on trails so I didn’t expect to run it very fast. Furthermore, the elevation profile that I generated on Plotaroute showed that there are hills that I need to watch out for. My goal was not to destroy myself because I need to save my body for many more future running adventures.
In the beginning:
When I don’t know the course very well, I start slower. In fact, I made it a point to start a lot slower at every race this year.
With that in mind, the first km of the 15k race was 4:41. Then, I sped up a bit (perhaps even too soon) and ran the 2nd km in 4:22. Looking back, I should have done it in 4:35 or something like that. For the most part though, I think I ran it fairly smart.
However, my next three kms were 4:10, 4:15 and 4:16.
I don’t know what made me speed up, apart from the fact that there was a gentleman from the Ceevacs running club, who was running at a good pace.
I also knew that Ken and Lois DeEll always take race photos of Ceevacs members, so if I ran with him, I’d get good photos to post here! 😀
Photo by Ken and Lois DeEll. Leggings: JP Activewear-Dream Strides.
In the middle:
When I got to the turnaround point, I got to see all the people who were ahead of me. However, I was enjoying my run way too much to worry about who was ahead of me. I just kept pace with the gentleman from the Ceevacs running club. I think if he wasn’t there, I would have slowed down a lot.
The next 5kms went like this: 4:11, 4:13, 4:16, 4:16, 4:25. I was very happy that I was able to maintain that pace while running on the trails.
Normally, I slow right down the moment my feet hit the tail. I ended up passing a few gentlemen, even though I was running my own race. Surprisingly, I maintained a good pace up until the 10k mark.
Photo by Ken and Lois DeEll. Leggings are JP Activewear, from www.dreamstrides.com.
In the end:
After the 10k mark, I slowed it down a bit. My km splits were as follows: 4:28, 4:19 (suprisingly, as that was on an uphill), 4:49 (even though it was a downhill), 4:56 (another downhill, but I still slowed down) and, finally, 4:35.
Photo by Ken and Lois DeEll. I’m being careful on the downhill.
I didn’t want to wear myself out because I wanted to enjoy the rest of my day. I probably could have kept a sub 4:25 pace for the remainder of the race. However, I decided not to and I believe it was a good choice.
Why did I slow down towards the end?
I felt that I needed to use those last 5k to recover from trying to push the pace in the middle of the race.
The last 5k of this race were not that difficult. We were past the trail portion and all the more challenging hills were behind us. This time, I slowed down on the downhills because I was worried about landing too hard if I went faster because I was starting to feel tired.
Perhaps, if I didn’t race a half marathon the week before, I probably would have reconsidered my decision to slow down in the end. This time though, I knew I did the right thing.
What I would have done differently:
If I hadn’t raced a half marathon the week before, I would have run this course slightly differently. I’d run the first 3km relatively slow (between 4:30-4:45 per km).
Then, I would try to run the next 7km fairly conservatively, but slightly faster than 4:30.
I probably would have taken the trails a bit slower and not pushed it in the middle.
Towards the end, I’d run the last 5k as hard as I could. This course is definitely “speed-friendly” in the last 5k, at least in my opinion.
Post-race:
Kudos to those who prepared the food.
The chili was absolutely delicious and so were the cookies.
If you didn’t go to this race-you missed out on some great post-race treats. However, if you didn’t go, then that means there was more for me 😀 HAHA.
Since this race was a few days after my birthday, the organizers provided me with a pleasant surprise. That surprise was a delicious cake for me to eat and to share with other runners that I’m friends with. I think the cake lasted about 15 minutes tops. They also had the entire room sing “happy birthday” to me 🙂
Thank you to the race organizers for treating me to a cake. 🙂
Making friends with other runners who share my passion is why I love the running community and I’m grateful to be a part of it.
Would I do this race again? Of course.
Final words:
Gratitude definitely comes to mind.
Excited to be adding another medal and race bib to my collection. This wall is full of racing stories and memories that will live in my mind forever. When I look at the wall, I remember everything that I’ve accomplished as a runner and all the friends that I made.
I finished 1st in my age group and 6th out of 133 women overall. My time was 1:07:24, definitely not a PB but I feel good about the run anyways. You can’t get a PB all the time.
Two years ago, after my injury, I wasn’t sure if I would ever be able to run a sub 5 min km.
So far, I’ve been running 4:30 pace and under on average for every race that I’ve done.
Happy to see progress and I’m celebrating all the small victories.
Sometimes, that small victory is just about choosing to get out the door and run instead of sitting on the couch eating potato chips and feeling sorry for myself about my past injury and not being as fast as I used to be.
Although I gotta say, potato chips taste extra good after a run.
I’m getting over it and I’m grateful for each day that I make progress, no matter how small.
Next race in the Island Race Series is the Comox Valley RV Half Marathon. Stay tuned for a course preview.