Liftlock Classic 10K

Sunday morning was a cold one. When I arrived at the Lions Club for the Peterborough Liftlock Classic it was only 5ºC. After getting my bib and T-shirt I sat in the car to stay warm until the 9am start time. At about 8:50 I spotted John and got out of the car. I told him I wanted to pace off of him because I was aiming for a time like he got in Lindsay. As we headed to the starting line I felt like I was missing something. I realized I didn’t have my timing chip. I quickly picked up my chip and put it on my ankle before hastily making my way back to the start. I made it to the line in time to hear that the race would be two laps and that we would be starting at the same time as the 5k runners. That may have explained why everyone ran so fast at the start of the race. There was a short stretch of gravel not long after the start that didn’t slow me down too much but I knew I had to encounter it 3 more times in the race. I found the race to be psychologically more difficult than The Milk Run because of the looping of the course. There was a short but fairly steep hill at the Quaker parking lot driveway. Since we would be coming down it just before the final stretch, I decided to let myself go and carry the speed right to the finish. As I reached the bottom of the hill I passed John and heard him yell “I knew you were going to do that!”. I finished just a few seconds before him at 47:08. It was a slower time for him compared to The Lindsay Milk Run, but it was still a best time for me so I was happy.

Since The Lindsay Milk Run I have been running Monday night Pub Runs and Tuesday night track workouts fairly consistently. I can now run barefoot on the track for the whole workout. In the last few weeks I’ve tried to add in some longer runs. A couple of those longer runs have been on the gravel path in Jackson’s Park. The gravel still slows me down to not much faster than a walk, but I can now run the full trail from Parkhill bridge to Ackison Rd. and back (9k). I’ve now registered for the Warkworth 8 Miler. It looks like it could be challenging for me since it is the longest race I’ve run and looks like it has a lot of gravel and rough trails. With the training I’ve been doing I should be able to do it, but we’ll see.