BMO 8K, 2014

I decided to head over to Vancouver on May 3rd to do the BMO 8K around Stanley Park. I had never done any of the BMO races (8K/Half/Full), and this year I had 3 friends running the half and 2 doing the full so it seemed like a good race to do. I will also admit that when I saw last year's winning time in the 8K was ~28:30 I had extra incentive to do it seeing that I had just run 28:32 the week before (as part of the TC10K). The 8K is a large race (with almost 2000 registrants), but doesn't seem to get the elite runners. Probably because there is no prize money or complimentary entries! The timing of the 3 races worked out well for me to be able to get up early and cheer on the half marathoners, do my race, and then cheer the full marathon runners. Unfortunately it was a rather rainy day which wasn't nearly as fun for spectators or runners.

I got up at 7:30am and headed out into the rain to cheer on my 3 friends doing the half marathon. They were all in good spirits at the 10K mark where I was cheering despite being drenched (and one suffering from nasty blisters). I paced two of them for a few kilometres before turning around and going back to my room to change into a dry set of clothes and shoes! I jogged 3K up the seawall to the start of my race.

At the start line there was a huge turn out and I saw a friendly face - Marilyn - who I had run the first few K's of the TC10K with the week before. I knew she would be the heavy favourite to win the women's race, and mentioned wanting to run sub 28 minutes (which was also a goal of mine!). As we started one guy (Drew) took off and opened up a big lead, then there was a group of about 5 runners behind him, and then me and Marilyn closely following them. Around 1.5K Marilyn overtook me on an uphill, which gave me a bit of motivation to pick up the pace. The first 2K had been run in 3:32, 3:37, but I sped up noticeably and ran the next one in 3:25.

Around this point in the race (3K) I noticed that Drew had faded and the group of 5 had caught him, and I was suddenly on the back of the lead group. Another guy - Tyler - who I had picked out from the start as looking strong took the lead and I quickly tucked in behind him. I was feeling really pumped up at this point and thought "what the hell - let's go for it!". I picked the pace up some more and pulled along side Tyler and said something like "Let's go!". I slowly opened up a small lead on Tyler and the lead cyclists (and motorcycle) stayed just in front of me honking their horns at all the half marathons who were walking at this point to make way for us. It was quite the royal treatment!

I got to halfway still in the lead at 13:55, having run my fastest K in 3:21. I thought perhaps sub 28 was a possibility! But the final kilometre of the race is a gruelling uphill finish along West Georgia so it wasn't going to be easy. I knew Tyler was still close behind me as I could hear the half marathon walkers cheering for him very soon after I was past them. By around 5K I was definitely starting to hurt, those fast K's had taken a toll on me, and I could feel my legs and lungs burning in very unpleasant way. Just hang on was all I thought. The course winds around quite a lot, and I faded a bit through 5K and I had just run my slowest K in 3:42 (17:37 for 5K). Luckily I got a second wind and picked up the pace back to 3:31, 3:32 until the bottom of the hill at 7K. I was so drained at this point that I shoulder checked a few times to see how close Tyler was - and he wasn't far behind. But the nice cyclist who was leading me said "Don't worry, you got this".

Up the hill towards the finish I was hurting a lot, but now also knowing that it would take an amazing effort by someone to catch me, and even if he did I knew I had enough for a sprint. When it finally levelled out at the top I put in a decent sprint and broke the tape in an official time of 28:43, winning the race by 11 seconds over Tyler who had just held off Matt by one second who neither of us knew was there. It turns out that the race was purposefully long at 8.15K, and so my official 8K time was 28:20, a new PB (excluding my ~28:10 from the Sun Run last year), and also the largest race I've ever won (~1450 finishers).

After chatting with other runners for a few minutes, I tried to get out of the finish line area but it was a zoo. So many people, and very poorly organized so it took at least 5 minutes just to find the way out - which of course was the farthest point away from where I was headed - back down to Beach Ave to cheer on my marathon friends. Luckily I was able to jog the 2K over the hump back to Beach Ave and made it just in time to see them go by. All in all a great day!