Sandcastle City Classic 10K Race Report

Oddly enough, it is only the second time that I've ever done a 5K one day followed by a 10K the following day. However, it was the 23rd time that this "race warhorse" - as I was affectionately referred to (and it was better than saying "clydesdale" too) - has done races on back-to-back days.

The Sandcastle City Classic 10K was held in White Rock, British Columbia, which is just north of the U.S.-Canadian border. It was the 9th race of the Timex BC Racing Series and hosted by the local Semiahmoo Sunrunners running club.

I got to the apartment last night at 1 a.m. Pacific time and didn't get to sleep until about 3 a.m. However, I was up, showered, shaved and out the door by 6:30 a.m. for the 40-minute or so drive to White Rock. It was cool (12 or 13 degrees Celsius) and enough for me to wear my long sleeved Penn State racing shirt; however, an hour and a half before the start of the race it was raining rather steady and it made me wish that I had brought my hat and NYC Marathon racing jacket from the apartment.

The course was a point-to-point and we were ferried out to a local elementary school, which served as the starting point staging area. (This little school, Crescent Park Elementary School, takes its sports seriously as they school running records posted. Some of them still stood from 1977 and 1978!)

I had no idea what the course was like prior to except what I saw on the drive out. One good thing -- the last kilometer was going to be flying downhill; however, that meant there had to be some uphills on the course. I didn't take the time to ask any further. I figured that I'd try to take as much advantage of the downhills as I could and muster through the uphills.

My pre-race goal was to run as aggressively as I could without reaggravating the IT band on my right side and try to break an hour (my last 10K was 1:01 and change during Brenham's Blue Bell Fun Run). I basically, minus a handful of seconds, succeeded!

With my goal being an hour and there being 10 splits, it meant that I needed to do 6-minute kilometers or better. As I got started running, I realized that a 5:48/per would yield a 58-minute 10K and a 5:54/per would produce a 59-minute.

The splits looked like this (6.98-second difference between when the gun went off and when I crossed.):

Kilometer 1 -- 6:04.03
Kilometer 2 -- 5:39.43
Kilometer 3 -- 5:41.87
Kilometer 4 -- 5:51.93
Kilometer 5 -- 5:55.02 (29:19.26 - 6.98 = 29:12.28)
Kilometer 6 -- 6:44.21
Kilometer 7 -- 6:40.12
Kilometer 8 -- 6:20.43
Kilometer 9 -- 6:22.47 (55:26.49)
Kilometer 10 -- 4:49.69 (7:46/mile!)

Final -- 1:00:16.18 - 6.98 = 1:00:09.20

I knew that I didn't want to go out too fast (as I always do), but an uphill in the first kilometer helped keep that basically at an even pace. The next four (4) kilometers, which included getting water past the 4-kilometer mark, were slightly downhill, but you could see that I was starting to tire a little bit. I felt pretty good about turning in a 29:19 5K, but with the uphills in front of me I didn't know whether I'd have enough to get through whatever hills were there and break an hour.

I knew I had given away the 1-hour mark in the 6th kilometer, but I didn't realize that the inclines were going to continue all the way through midway of the 9th kilometer. I thought that I might be able to turn in a sub 6-minute kilometer in kilometer 9, but it wasn't to be.

I looked at my watch as I passed the 9-kilometer mark and saw that I needed a 4:34 to break an hour! Wow! Instead of telling myself there was no way that I could do it, which I've resigned myself to do in the past, I tried to give it all that I could. I ran a last kilometer of 4:49 that equates to a 7:46 mile - but it was a controlled downhill. I say controlled in that it wasn't too steep to really tear up the quads.

So there you have it! (The club that put it on really designed a nice course, had two water stops, controlled traffic well, had excellent post-race food and it was a chip timed race. Not bad for $24 Canadian although with that amount there was no T-shirt.)

When the official results are posted online, I'll update this report!

Update: Ugh! I moved the chip from my ankle, like the triathletes, to my shoe and oddly enough, it didn't pick it up. I think that I was between these people:

207 83/117 F 14/23 F3539 59:53 9:39 1285 Anne Hales Vancouver, BC
208 84/117 F 3/5 F5559 1:00:17 9:43 1119 Edna Matthew Surrey, BC
209 125/142 M 7/9 M--20 1:00:17 9:43 1329 Spencer McHaffie Surrey, BC

The reason I say this is because I passed a woman with a youngster that had developed a side stitch and they had to slow down and walk.

In fact, what I think really happened is that myself and another female runner both didn't register. There was a woman who finished about 7 or 8 seconds ahead of us (that I was hoping to catch but couldn't) and I think that is "Anne Hales". It is odd that they would have missed two, but we crossed at the same time.

Update2: No, I'm not only "Johnny Run" but now I'm known as Spencer McHaffie too! Lorraine Davidson with Champion Chip Canada indicated that they gave me the chip for #1329. My gun time was indeed 1:00:17 and it appears that I finally beat a Wade -- Steven Wade of Langley, BC who finished in 1:03:18.