A competitive field and great weather made the 2010 edition of the St. Albert 10 Miler a fun event. This was also the 25th anniversary of this race. The sun was shining and everyone was enjoying this great run.
I had a good race, and finished in 55:41, which gave me 1st place in my new age category, 40-49. I ran the race my usual way; starting conservatively and tried to maintain all the way to the end. I ran with Brian Torrance a fair bit of the way, and he really helped me up that first long hill after 7 miles. Thanks so much for that, Brian! It really helped me a lot, since I’m usually weak up the hills.
We caught up to a runner (Russ McLellan), whom we had been trying to chase down for a long time. When that last hill came with about 2 miles to go, Brian fell back a bit, and I lost some ground to Russ. With less than a mile to go, it’s all downhill to the finish, and at that point I managed to pass Russ and I got some good speed going down that hill. That lead to my 1st ever 1st place finish in this new age category.
My time was about 20 seconds slower than last year, but that’s okay. I’m older. 🙂 Plus, I was more fit last year, since I didn’t have a 2 month break from running due to an achilles injury, which was the case this year.
I went up to St. Albert with Gerhard, Erin and Brendan. Brendan got a 10 minute PB on this course, great job Brendan! Both Gerhard and Erin are currently having injury problems, unfortunately. I hope they both heal up soon. There are many races coming in May and June.
Next on the list is Vancouver Half-marathon for me. Brendan will run the full marathon there, and judging by his current fitness, I am confident he will go under 2:40 in that race. The man is getting fitter every year, it seems.
Great work on your first 40+ run! If you think about it while you are in Van, look up the group that is running with the Marathon Man, Martin Parnell. The committee has allowed Martin to have a large group run and finish all together at the end of his Marathon. Send me a note to my email and I’ll send you the pdf poster for the event… it looks pretty cool!