Victoria Firefighter Trail Race June 16
Is summer really here? 4 days of sunshine in a row must be a new record! Yesterday was picture perfect conditions for the annual Victoria Firefighter Trail Race at Elk/Beaver Lake. The field was small, about 45 runners, but the energy was high and the prizes were AWESOME! It was about as good as you could get: local venue, inexpensive race fee ($18 without T shirt), free post race food and tons of great prizes! Everyone who raced got a prize (ranged from Frontrunners swag bags with jerseys or new shoes to gift cards for Blue Fox and The Keg) and my gift card to the Keg did not last more than about 6 hours… I need to do more races like this!
The morning started at 0830 with Danielle and Rosheen coming over to our house for juice and a muffin, (or in my case, turkey bacon as well!) After some food in our tummies, we made our way over to the start line at the Beaver Lake parking lot. Kitt was volunteering, us chickies were warming up. The kids 1km race was so cute (except for the one poor kid who got lost and ended up running a 10km lap instead!) Our race started shortly after with the route going counter clockwise and took a turn right into the hilly side trails before settling out onto the normal track at the lake’s edge by the boathouse. Poor Danielle, she’d never been around Elk Lake before (or done a 10km for that matter!) and I had promised her up and down that it was going to be pancake flat! I think she’s forgiven me though. As usual, Rosheen was off with the front pack and Danielle and I made our way in the middle. The first 4 km hurt (as it always seems to lately!) but soon we realized we were actually exceeding our goal of 5:20/km and keeping a 5 min/km pace (for us that’s fast!) and thought we could hang onto it for a while. Initially this was supposed to be a training run for me so I could pace Danielle on her first longer trail race but she was game and it became a race. The shady parts of the trail were the perfect temperature but the sunny sections were brutally hot! It was good incentive to finish as fast as possible and jump into the giant sprinkler they had set up at the finish line.
We played tag with another woman from km 5 to 8 but then passed her and tried to reel in another couple that stayed about 50m out of our reach till the end. In the last kilometer we found Rosheen running back to see us and then we knew we were close. Danielle (she’s gonna be a great runner and I am so proud of her!) and I stepped it up and managed to run hard for 500 m, sprint the last 100m to the line. Danielle and I crossed it together and then walked right into the glorious sprinkler!
Finish time? 56 min 15 sec for roughly 11 km. Not too bad!! 10 months ago my fastest 5km averaged 5:20/km and I was gutted when I finished. This time I was roughly 5:10/km, felt solid, maybe could have even done it a little faster, recovered super quick and felt like I could have done another slow lap. It’s all one step forward! I ran up the observatory on Saturday morning with Rosheen and felt nice and solid the whole way up. Much to my astonishment it took me 12 minutes - my fastest ever in 2006 was 14:30. I LOVE this getting fitter thing!!
Next on the race list? Mt Doug Gutbuster short course on Sunday July 6th!