Renew the Love and the 401
Sorry folks, I guess it has been a couple weeks since that
last blog so here we go. Topics for this blog post; work, post 10k, 401 recap, for the love of running. Hold
on tight. So the past few weeks have
been super busy with work. I have been
doing some really nice work lately. This
past week I built a great deck and pergola.
It has to be one of the most impressive things I have built to
date. Check it out.
I was super happy with it. Lots of attention to detail in
the herringbone corners and the posts beams and trim. The Homeowners
loved it. All is good!
So back to the week after that 10 we talked about in the
last blog. Holy hell folks that hurt. I
hurt for a full week. The legs were just
beat up, I was able to keep working out and keep the mileage up it just took longer
into warm-ups to get the calves working.
I didn’t get back to feeling normal until the Saturday after, which was
basically just in time for the 401 distance series to get started.
So onto the 401 distance series. 5000 on the Wednesday night down there in
London. High quality deep fields on a
good night with only a little wind. So I
found myself in the second heat, with a great pack of guys. One of the first times in my life folks I ran
smart, hung out in the pack rolling 71...laps.
And as I felt myself naturally move up on a guy I went around and found
myself right behind a guy in second with just over a 1k to go. I was feeling great, I actually thought to
perhaps make a bit bolder move and take the lead with 800 to go but hesitated
and then the leader made a bit of a move and I was just trying to hang on. I rigged up a bit in the last 500m, ok
perhaps got a bit ugly. I ended up
running 14.54.07 just under a 6 second PB.
That last 100m hurt, I don’t really recall much thought I held it
together better, but apparently I got to the line and just flopped over. Left
some of my stomach on the Western Turf and called it night. Check out the race here, Heat 3...
It still hasn’t sunk in to me that I am a sub 15 guy, that
was my biggest fear going into that race that I would not break 15 again and
everyone would say I was a one hit wonder like Aqua or Hanson. Then when I was loading the video I saw it
was 15.40 long. I said to myself “damn I wont even see myself finish” I am excited.
In the words of Ricky Bobby “I wanna go fast”
Early this spring when the list of races came out and we
were told to fill out when we would like to race I put in the Speed River
Inferno column “if shit gets crazy John Mason 1500m” Suggesting that if pig could fly or if it
snowed in june that I John Mason would spike up for a 1500m. You see folks I have not raced in a 1500
since grade 12 at the county meet. My PB
would be 4.29 with an unofficial PB coming in a 3000 later that summer in 4.25. But after that 5k I was pumped to see what I
could do in the 1500, knowing it would for sure be a PB. I really had no idea how this 1500 would
feel, nor did I have a clue how to run one, but I knew there was less than four
laps so it couldn’t be that bad. So boom
the gun goes and I find myself in the mix of a 1500, there were a bunch of French
guys, some high school lads. Hey ever
wonder why French people always look so fit? All of them, even if they are not,
those Frenchmen looked 10x as fit as me on that line. Anyway, were off first lap was good 63 and
then things settled in a bit and we went through 800 in 2.11-2.12. You see before my warmup I told Taylor Milne
that if I broke 4 min I would do something to the track and that he would have
to clean it up. So through 400 knowing
my lack of closing speed Milne yell “gotta go johhny you need some money bank”
Through 800 Milne now getting worried by the slowing pace yells “really gotta
go you need more money in the bank” Any who from there on I took the lead and
started to push, I realized the was less than 2 laps left and I hadn’t started
to hurt yet, so that was new. I don’t know
the rest of the splits but so hot shot high schooler had more wheels than me
and I ended up second in 4.01. It was
good enough for a post race interview with DST, probably should have put a
shirt on. Ladies eat your hearts out
Full race is here
This racing a bunch has been fun, I like it, a lot. I haven’t been taking it too seriously . I think that has been good. Last fall I put a lot of pressure on myself
to do well, you kind of have to do well when you only work part days so that
you can be better. If I wanted to be
average or mediocre I would have a full time job and do this running on the
side. But I want better. So one night
this spring having coffee with a friend,
I told said friend how I needed to get my shit together and be
better. Said friend told me to not
stress over it so much, enjoy it, do it for the reason you do it because you
love it. This friend explained that I
really was doing things right and that I had to get better. So I have tried to apply that, all races this spring I have showed up just
in time to warm up and do my own thing. I haven’t thought about paces or time,
or watched splits, I have just gone out and raced, and so far its going
well. I was thinking about this today on
my long run. I was in the Dundas Valley
trail system. This set of trails is
incredible, some serious rolling hills that go on forever. I could have easily run for hours there
today, I was planning to go out for 90 + minutes and ended up getting back to
the truck just under 2 hours. I love it
in those trails, just love it.
I got to thinking the other day that there are three type of
people in the word. There are wrench
people, vise grip people, and people that don’t know what I’m talking about.
You see wrenches are designed for nuts and bolts, they are cut to the correct
size for a specific nut/bolt. They are
well crafted, take skill and knowledge to quickly grab the correct size from
the tool box. Vise Grips or Locking
pliers are a handy man special, they are adjustable, they also do a half ass
job, they can round off the corners of a bolt and make one heck of a mess. Dont get me wrong vise grips have made many a
field fix on the farm and can get the job done.
So in life you have three options you can be a wrench, you
can be a set of vise grips, or you can be an average tool. Either way stay safe out there folks
John
Dude, you gotta let me know when you come to Dundas Valley
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