I get to run leg 5 every time at the K-100. You know, I take that as a compliment, even though it’s a wicked hard run. It has a difficulty rating of 10 out 10. If the team trusts an old guy like me to run the most demanding stage of the race, I must be doing alright. Or it could be I’m easy to convince… not everyone enjoys that leg 5!
Leg 5 is Hard
It’s not a walk in the park. Check out the details:
START: 0.5 km south of Mist Creek at the Pickle Jar Recreation Area
DISTANCE: 17.6 km
DIFFICULTY RATING: 10
FASTEST RECORDED TIME IN 2006: 1:04.07
PACE: 5:52 per mile
DESCRIPTION: This is the toughest leg of the relay. It’s hilly with a number of segments at a 7% grade. The runner will gain 450m over the length of this route; 250m are packed into 6.8 km. The runner will be truly tested on Canada’s highest engineered road. The road peaks at Highwood pass, 2206m above sea level. The surface is new asphalt. Watch for wildlife.
Rainy Day
This year, the relay had plenty of rain. I stayed with my friends in a hotel and Calgary the night before. I have to say I am glad I didn’t camp in Longview, like we usually do. It was pretty wet there!
Central Alberta was the team I ran for, and we placed 4th overall, and 3rd in the Open category. A very respectable result. The team consisted mostly of guys half my age or younger, and they did a fabulous job. It’s great to see there is new and upcoming talent!
Two of my friends ran for Red Deer Alumni, and they started at 6am. At that time, there was a bit of rain for the first couple of stages, but not too bad. By the time I ran leg 5 just after noon, there was no rain at all and hardly any wind either. Perfect conditions, in other words.
My hope was to break 1:12 on leg 5, since I felt my running is going better that last year at this time, when I ran 1:12:50 something. I surprised myself with a 1:09:23, which I think is quite respectable for a 42 year-old guy! Still, I was only 5th fastest on that one – unreal. As a comparison, I have run 1:17 on this leg in the past, and gotten 5th place then too.
The rain came back on leg 8 and 9, and it got pretty muddy at the end! I took a lot of photos along the way, but I had to stop when the rain poured down as I don’t have have a weather sealed lens.
It was great to see so many runners and familiar faces out there – great job!
Photos from K-100
I included some scenery photos too. See the photos I took on Flickr.
Results K-100 2012
All results are available here.
Leg 5 results – top 5 runners
1 Murphy, Taylor 1:06:09
2 Pryce, Carl 1:06:51
3 Brown, Dave 1:07:52
4 Deere, Jeremy 1:09:03
5 Renman, Robert 1:09:23
