Alfie Shrubb 8km race 2006

What started out as a "I don't know if I'll run today", turned out to be quite a nice experience as well as a fine result in my record books. While others were elsewhere in the world doing their own things, Rob and I decided that the race in Bowmanville was the place to be this Sunday morning. The weather turned out to be quite nice and favourable for race conditions. It wasn't unbearably hot like last year's edition. The route was the same layout with the start being on the other side of the street from the school staging area.

I got there early (almost an hour before) because my wife was setting up her "spa escape' booth for people to try before and after the race. This gave me the chance to do a proper warm-up and bathroom strategy as compared to the usual "pin the bib on during the 1st km of the race" routine. The walkers were off first with a 15 minute head start, meaning that we would be running thru the walking contingent as the race went-no problem.

Start time came with the usual warm-up and the starter saying "go", which most of the people around me replied "oh!"--surprise! If you have never run this course, it is an out and back along a straight road with a large hill to go over at the 3 km mark. So you go up and over the hill, down the other side to the bottom, turn around and come back over the same hill. The main benefit of this course is that it weeds out those who have started too quickly by killing their pace/km on the hill. The other benefit is that once you get over the hill on the way back, you have a great long downhill with a water station that will propel you toward the finish. As far as cheering goes, I had a lot of "go Kens" on the way back which really helped me stay focused for the hard parts. The final km is great because it is a straight, flat finish that you can see the crowd waiting at the line. I didn't have a lot of time to look over my shoulder to see if anyone was close, but at times I did hear some footfalls and breathing as my closest followers were closing in.

At the finish, I was able to push for the final 300m with the new "toe-sprint" method that I have been practicing. I finished the race in 31:31 with a 3:57 average. I was 8th overall and first in my age (M30-39). The field today was stacked with Masters runners as 6 outta the top 7 were all men 40-59 ages with the 7 guy being M20-29.

The prizes and ceremonies in the gym afterwards were quite well attended. Lots of draw prizes and awards for every age group. The grand prize was a 1 year membership to the Oshawa YMCA-which I missed by only 2 numbers on my bib (miss by one, miss by a mile). Another feature of the race was that Al Storie (the race organizer) was able to have Ed Whitlock and Earl Fee at the race, both are world record holders in various running distances for their ages. All in all it was a great day with many people coming away from the race with happy memories and personal bests. I can't wait until next year.