From: Lorne 
Subject: Race report: St. Albert 10-miler
Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 20:05:07 GMT

This was the 18th running of the local 10-mile certified road race.  It's 
a big draw in these parts - about 700-800 runners in past years.  

St. Albert is a small community just outside Edmonton, Alberta - sort of 
north-ish Canada.  We've been enjoying spring in the last few weeks, even 
getting a few 20C days!  Bushes getting ready to flower, trees getting 
ready to bud.  But the veteran Canadian knows who is in charge weather-
wise, and it ain't us.  Here's what we woke to this morning:

http://members.shaw.ca/lornesundby/running/snow1.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/lornesundby/running/snow2.jpg

Yup.  No one in these parts even thinks of planting their garden until 
after the May long weekend.  The risk of a dump of snow persists even 
after that date (until about, oh, roughly July 6).  So we had 4 inches of 
snow on the ground and it was still coming down, 20 kph wind, 0C.  Lovely 
weather for a 10-mile run.

This is a tough course.  It's a figure-eight that starts in the river 
valley and climbs out (and back in) twice - miles 0 to 2 are mostly 
uphill as are miles 7 to 9 - about 90 feet of elevation change.  The 
bonus - the last half mile is a steep downhill.  So really, it's a 9.5 
mile race followed by a downhill stumble into the finish line.

I was running the race as a tune-up/check-up for my spring goal half 
marathon on May 18.  My logic was to use this 10-miler to test (a) could 
I hold the half goal pace for 10 miles (aiming for a time of 1:10) and 
(b) did I think I could hold it for 3 more miles?

The start was chaotic with the race director shoveling the street of all 
things. The usual assortment of clothing choices on a cool day.  
http://members.shaw.ca/lornesundby/running/crowd.jpg

This is what we had to run in mostly.  
http://members.shaw.ca/lornesundby/running/slush.jpg  It's not bad 
because your feet are soaked within the first 30 seconds and they can't 
get much wetter after that.

This is some running geek just before the start:  
http://members.shaw.ca/lornesundby/running/geek.jpg

The race itself was uneventful.  I splashed my way through the crowds at 
the start and aimed for 6:50-7:00 miles on the flats, faster downhill and 
slower uphill.  It's hard to settle into a pace for very long because of 
the terrain.  I've run this race 4 times and used it for training runs at 
least 30 times, so I'm accustomed to where you can speed up and where you 
have to slow down - it's a definite advantage.

The race course crosses just past the start at around 6.5 miles which is 
where my wife and friend were to take some photos.
http://members.shaw.ca/lornesundby/running/6mile1.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/lornesundby/running/6mile2.jpg

The toughest two hills come just before the 8 mile marker and then right 
after the 8 mile marker.  I plodded up those steadily if not slowly and 
found that I was ahead of pace by 9 miles which allowed me to make my 
goal time easily.  In reality, I deliberately held back from mile 6 on, 
saving myself for the tough hills at the end.

The finish "sprint" (I'm in the middle): 
http://members.shaw.ca/lornesundby/running/finish.jpg

My final time was 1:09:03, well inside the 1:10 objective (61st overall 
out of 600+ runners, 24/101 in my age group - the winner was in at 
54:00).  It tells me that my Red Deer objective is probably reasonable 
given the conditions of this race and how I approached it.  BTW, the 
1:09:03 is my new PR for this distance/race by nearly 6 minutes, from two 
years ago.  And I won a door prize - $100 worth of fitness classes which 
I awarded to my spouse.

A fine day all round.

My splits

mile 1 - 7:03 (up)
mile 2 - 7:20 (up)
mile 3 - 6:38 (flat)
mile 4 - 6:56 (flat)
mile 5 - 6:36 (down)
mile 6 - 6:45 (down)
mile 7 - 6:50 (flat)
mile 8 - 6:51 (up)
mile 9 - 7:23 (up)
mile 10 - 6:40 (down)
-- 
Lorne Sundby