Gunner Shaw 8.5K Victoria 2009

Gunner, gunner....I sure give it a gunner. What a total different experience for this race!! It sure was a wet and cold day. Ray and I teamed up with 20 other Lions Gate Road Runners (LGRR) to compete with the Prairie Inn Harriers (PIH). The PIH sure put out a good race with well-marked course and let's not forget the huge puddles, shoe-sucking mud and a lake for everyone to frolic before the finish.

Puddle 1 was quite stinky and cold and my feet were numb from it. As soon as my feet warmed up, here comes Puddle 2 which was a muddy one with a huge fallen tree to jump over. I took it slow going through this one and was praying that my shoes stayed on. It turned out fine. After this, the trail was filled with never-ending small puddles and mud. The last 3 hills at the end before the finish were unexpected. It wasn't the hills that worried me, it was running through the edge of Thetis Lake toward the finish that got me wet for the '20th' time but I guess it was good in a way. It sure cleans off the mud and dirt from my shoes. An LGRR member was caught in the act of splashing water at another member as she was approaching the finish. She was soaked but nonetheless, it was fun. Some racers actually slipped and fell into the water. They decided from then on, they might as well go for a quick swim. Interesting choice...not me, I sure tried to keep dry and mud-free as much as I could. As you can see the photo on the left here, I still have a pretty clean jersey compared to Ray's :)

We had a chance to change into our dry clothes just before the awards ceremony. The post race food and refreshment was pretty good. There were a couple hot items like hot chocolate and chicken noodles and regular stuff like cookies, oranges, gatorade, water, etc.

Race results are posted here. I finished with a time of 58:21 and Ray did a fast time of 40:05. Although the LGRR didn't win any of the categories, we sure came together and showed our team spirit. According to the LGRR president, we had the best turn-out of about 20 members this year. Next week, there will be about 20 PIH members coming to do the Gunner Shaw in Vancouver. Congrats to all Gunner finishers!!! Stay tuned for my upcoming first Marathon this Sunday, Dec 6th. Wish me luck!!

Haney 2 Harrison Relay Race

A couple years have gone by and here we are again doing the H2H race. It's definitely one of those races that is always wet and yucky!!! A friend of mine mentioned to me that H2H should be called H2O instead. You know...it's true!!

Our team was called Team Trailer Trashed Resurrected with Terry, Anne-Marie, Sean, Heather, Mary, me, Ray and Mark doing legs 1 to 8 respectively. We reunited our team from 2 years ago which was called Team Trailer Trashed. With trashy clothes and mullets, we sure stood out from all the other teams. It was so much fun to be in this team because we played hard and raced hard too!!!

Ray had an awesome finish time of PB 57:05mins (13.47km) for Leg 7. Great effort even though it was a torrential downpour for this leg. Other legs weren't too bad with the rain. I was lucky enough that it stopped raining for my leg (Stage 6). It made me a happy camper in that respect but unfortunately, I didn't get to my exchange quick enough to tag Mary for my stage. Because the timer at the Exchange suspected that I didn't swipe my chip to start my leg, I had to run back to the mat to start my time. It cost me 2 mins which the result showed a finish time of 1:18:42 with an average pace of 6:01mins/km. According to my Garmin, my finish time was in fact 1:16:02 at an average pace of 5:41mins/km for 13.34km.

Despite of the finish time, I felt good out there especially the last 7km. The first 6k, I did feel some pain on the side of my right knee from my IT Band which I injured 4 weeks ago from my marathon training. I am currently training for my first marathon coming up on Dec 6 in Sacramento, CA. It is nerve-wrecking everytime I think about it. With the injury I am taking it real slow. I understand that time isn't what I'm going for but it's the feeling of accomplishment that I'm aiming for after I finish the marathon. Wish me luck!!!