Cedar 12k Race Report

The Cedar 12k is a classic race. With a tough uphill finish, this race is a good test of where one's fitness is at. Before the race I saw my coach Dan, who is near the same ability as me. I decided to amend my race goal to beating Gary or Dan, whichever one would make me happy ha! The race started but instead of the usual "kill yourself" 3' k, everyone actually settled into a pretty nice pace right off the bat. I decided to stick with the main pack of runners that included Gary and Dan, and for the next 3 km we just put it into cruise control. I think we started to slow down a bit too much for Gary's liking however, as he moved to the front and started to push the pace a little more. After that, most of the guys kicked it into gear and the pack split apart a bit.

Dan decided to go with the first pack that broke off, and Gary and I stayed back. They seemed to be going just a bit too hard to sustain. Still, it was hard to let Dan go that early in the race. Around 5km Bob Reid yelled out to Gary and I our times for the split, and I remember thinking "crap that is fast", but I wasn't worried because I felt amazing. I concentrated on shortening my stride, since I knew Gary would keep the same pace throughout the race. We hit the 8km marker around 30 minutes, which is not much slower than my pioneer 8k time. I still felt amazing, and I was starting to think I could actually beat Gary for the first time. Around 9km we started to hit the first of the final hills to the finish. I felt bad that I had basically tagged behind Gary for most of the run, so I decided to take the lead on the first hill. At the top of the hill, Gary started to slow, and I just held my pace expecting him to catch up. At that point, Lucy Smith told me that I wasn't that far back from Dan, so I decided to kick it up and try to get him.

It feels so much better chasing someone than being chased. If Dan was not ahead of me, I would have been concentrating on Gary behind me. But trying to chase Dan made me feel so good. I have never felt so strong at the end of a race. With 1k to go, I turned to look for Gary, but I couldn't see him. I couldn't beleive it! I ran through the tape in 45:42, slicing a solid 5 minutes of last year's time.