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FrogMan · 05-13-2014, 02:06 PM

Race report
Le Défi du Tour du Lac Beaport
October 20th, 2013
Lac Beauport, Quebec, Canada

Prologue commentary
"Défi" translates straight to "Challenge" and "Tour", well you know. So this could have been translated loosely as the "Tour around the Lake Challenge"

It WAS supposed to be a 6km loop around a local lake with race distances of 6, 12, or 18 km. I say WAS because they had to change it with about 6 days notice because of some road construction that were cutting off one lane of the local road. On race day, they take one lane of the local road for runners and the other is for cars going on a one way around the lake. Because of the construction, there would have been no way for cars to come and go at all so they settled for a 3km stretch on the north side of the lake that runners would go out and back, making it 6km in length. Once for those running the 6km, twice for the 12k'ers and 3 times out for the other 18k'ers.

This being my first Summer at running, I didn't feel ready to do a half marathon but I felt like 18k would be all right. In retrospect now, I think I could have done a half, but I'm happy with my decision to sign up for this 18k. The race in itself is pretty small. Overall, looking at the official results, I count about 750 entries, for all three distances. Only 96 runners finished in the 18k race.

Going into this, and up to last week, I had not realized how hilly this course (either the original or the revised version) would be. Indeed, they call it a "Challenge" and it really was.

Training
I used a modified Hal Higdon intermediate 2 half marathon schedule to train for this race. Modified in two ways: (1) I cut some of the mileage because I didn't feel it was safe to run the kind of mileage it was asking for given where I was on my usual weekly mileage and also because I was training for a slightly shorter race than a half marathon and (2) since I signed up late for it, I used only the last 5 weeks of his 12 weeks program. Looking back at it, I liked his 5 days a week schedule that works in some speedwork with easy runs and plan on using some of his other training programs in the future but had I decided earlier that I would do this race, and knowing how hilly it would be, I would have done more hill work. Live and learn.

Saturday, Sunday morning and pre-race
Saturday was rough. I started feeling the beginning of a headcold I was afraid would latch on for over a week now. You know, itchy sinuses, dull headache, some muscle soreness that comes from nowhere, in my case between my neck and right shoulder, although I had not lifted anything last week. Where I had to go to get my bib was in downtown Quebec City but dang stupid road construction (seems to be a theme around town!) made it a crazy adventure to get there and back, what with the headache, I was not feeling good about the next morning. My oldest son also had a hockey game at 5:30 that afternoon, killing any plan of simply having a light quiet dinner and relax all evening. Ended up having a roast beef sub at Subway just before his game. Could have been worse, could have been better...

Woke up on Sunday fairly rested after what I thought had been a good night sleep. Cold had not gotten worse and other than what had become a usual dull headache and some stuffy sinuses, I didn't feel too bad. Took a sudafed and a couple tylenol before breakfast and felt quite okay from then on out. I say "what I thought" had been a good night sleep cause my wife said I probably ran half my race overnight. She said I shuffled around a heck of a lot under the sheets.

Since parking spaces would be restricted around the start/finish area, we'd been instructed to park at a nearby ski resort and that we'd be shuttled in by school buses to the race site. This resort is maybe only 2km from race site so not a very long bus ride but still a bit special, especially since my wife, two sons and mother-in-law were coming to cheer me on but they had to take a later bus since the first few were reserved for runners. Boarding the bus alone made it weird for me.

The whole setup is very nice though, especially with the tree's in their autumn colors. I had two photographers for this race. While our 16yo son had the nice Canon camera I thought it was a good idea to leave our 9yo have our old Kodak Easyshare camera with a couple set of spare batteries. He had a blast.

Here's a pic of the mountain around the ski resort that he took...

Other than the nice way, what struck me as I got out of the car was how cold and wet it was. We left home to a cloudy sky but no rain and dry pavement and got there, about 40 minutes away from home to a rainy, windy, cold kind of a place.

Don't know what I was saying there but this is a pic of me before the race, tell me I don't look cold...

Here's me warming up, you can see the lake in the background

Another from the warmup, that's my wife in the foreground. She looks cold doesn't she? Poor darling...

It really was a miserable day for supporters, and for racers waiting for the start. I ran a VERY easy kilometer to simply get the blood flowing and not only warmup the muscles but simply warm up my body...

My fueling plan was fairly simple. I wanted to take one pouch of some sunkist fruit candies every 20 minutes. These are not your traditional fueling options but I had used them a couple times on long runs so I knew they'd work. I wore my hydration belt because I trusted drinking from my bottles more than from them little cups they pass you on the race. Thing was, the hydration belt could only hold two of these pouches on the outside pocket. With it being all rainy and everything, I didn't want to put anything inside with my phone that was also my music source for the run. I then devised the following teamwork plan and told my 9yo son he'd have the job of feeding me one of these pouches on each of my two passes back in front of them. He was happy to be able to help.

The race
We finally go to the start. I'd looked at last year's times and figured my expected time would put me at about the bottom of the top tier or runners so I took place accordingly. It was about right as i didn't feel jammed at the start and wasn't passed by a ton of runners either.

Here's to give you an idea of what the 3km stretch looked like:

As you can see, it starts fairly flat although there's a slight downhill at 500m followed but I reasonable uphill for 600-700m than a long dowhill for almost 1 km. We'd then reverse course to head back in, facing that long battle uphill for 900m or so just after you turned around the big orange traffic cones. That long uphill was a legbreaker. Here's a closer look at what I have dubbed loose lace hill (anecdote coming later)

As for overall conditions, it was raining for most of the race and it was especially windy at times, mostly when we hit the higher up North spot on the course where you can see that we were passing closest to the lake. At that spot, there was no cover from trees from the wind blowing from the lake and sometimes the rain would pick up and really splash you in the face. It was quite an experience...

Loop #1, (Start to 6k)
I felt very good right out the gate. The couple days off before Sunday had really rested my legs and the first couple kilometers felt unforced, kinda helped by the downill a bit. I had set my watch to show me the overall average pace for the run instead of my usual setting at "current pace". Last Sunday when doing my test run I'd realized that the current pace would vary wildy from downhil to uphill and back down and I had no idea how good or bad it was going overall. With the average pace for the run, I at least had an idea of how good/bad the race was going. First time I looked at the watch was about 600 meters in and my pace was at 4:32 per km (7:18 per mile). I would hold that pace for my first 6 km.

It was going so well, I had given an approximate time of my coming back to my wife, and had set a song on my playlist to match my seeing them, but I was running way ahead of it that the song started mayb 300m after I'd left the turn back out. Not only that, but they completely missed me looping back around! My wife said she actually thought I'd be turning closer to the start/finish line and wasn't looking at the right place, but she also said she didn't expect me back as quickly.

Time for that 6k: 27:17 (4:33/km, 7:19/mile)
time for the 3k out: 13:18 (4:26/km, 7:08/mile)
time for the 3k in: 13:59 (4:40/km, 7:30/mile)

Loop #2, (from 6k to 12k)
I was kinda bummed to have missed them but wasn't sure if they were not just there and I couldn't see them. I tried scanning what little crowd there was and couldn't find their face and I'm usually good at that. I also hadn't taken any of the sunkist pouches yet, hoping to get one from my son at the turnaround. I dug one from my hydration belt and that's when "A little Party never killed nobody" from Fergie came on, that song I wanted to have playing when I'd see my wife's face. It's a song she'll be dancing hiphop on for their next group choreography and for some reason, it always gets me going. It sure did and I picked up the pace, or at least didn't let it drop too much going downhill.

This time around, the big Loose lace hill did a bigger number on my legs, and my shoes were soaking. That's also when noticed the lace of my left starting tocome untied. Not completely but I kept an eye on it. Legs were burning at about the 10k mark, coming atop that long hill but I pushed on. Average pace was now hovering around 4:38 or 4:40 per km (7:27-7:31) and I was still happy with that. Heart rate was held in check at aroudn 158, but the legs, as usual were the limiting factor.

Kep scanning the crowd as I was coming back to the turnaround and there they were, with my Matthew right by the side orchestrating the perfect handoff of a small sunkist pouch. I get misty eyed simply recalling seeing his face. I'm a big softie...

Time for that 6k: 28:27 (4:45/km, 7:38/mile)
time for the 3k out: 13:55 (4:38/km, 7:28/mile)
time for the 3k in: 14:32 (4:51/km, 7:48/mile)

My average pace after 12k was 4:39/km (7:28/mile) a mere 2 seconds off my best 10k pace on a VERY flat course.

Loop #3, (from 12k to 18k)
Leaving my fans from the turnaround I felt good but had to fight the dang little voice inside that wanted to tell me that there was STILL 6km to be run... Every little uphil was now tougher but I didn't feel any cramping coming. I kept monitoring my left lace but it had not gotten worse since I'd first seen it untie a bit. Then, just as I started going down the big downhill, the other shoe felt loose. Yeah, of course, the other lace had become pertty much completely untied, thus the Loose Lace hill name! There was no way I was gonna stop midway down so I checked my footing and tried to make sure I wouldn't simply fall down and at the pylones stopped to tie my show cause I knew there was no way I could safely run back the last 3k with the right shoe untied. But my of my, the effort it took to start back up that hill!!! Really, that was a low point of the whole race. At some point up that hill, I thought I was simply running in place, not going up AT ALL. I swear, you'd have told me "hey you're going backward man!!!" and I would have believed you. But then I looked at a slightly older man with a bright yellow jacket that was just in front of me and he wasn't getting away from me so I figured "if Ì'm not going up, then he isn't either, plow away dude, plow away" And I did. Then I saw the 16.5k mark on my watch, only 1.5 to go, then 17, then I could see the finish line and I tried pushing but got passed by a couple fellas. Kept them in my line of sight but couldn't get back to them

Here's my sexy face on a final push:

Here's about to cross the finish line and attemps a Olu hop (more later):

Time for that 6k: 29:18 (4:53/km, 7:51/mile)
time for the 3k out: 14:22 (4:47/km, 7:47/mile)
time for the 3k in: 14:56 (4:59/km, 8:00/mile)

Chip time for the race: 1h25m49s, 4:46/km, 7:40/mile

Final results:
22n overall out of 96 entrants or top 22.9%
6th out 22 in Men 40-49 or top 27.2%

VERY happy with these results. When I started training for it, my goal was an average pace at about 4:45 per km but that was before realizing it would be that hilly of a course, I'm satisfied with 4:46 per km and with the race being 18k, I now know I could run a full 21.1 half marathon.

Also looks like the faster 40-49 runners all signed up for the 18k. Had I decided to do the 12k, I would have place 2nd out of 26 with my straight 12k (i.e. without any pushing)!

Right after the race, rocking the badass gloves!

Wife told me to smile, apparently I don't smile much when I'm gasping for air. Again rocking the badass gloves

That was my first bling in a race. That first 10k I did back in August didn't give out medals to finishers.

I also got a bottle, you know the metal type with a sort of latch on it.

After race
I was ok for maybe 5-10 minute then it got real cold, and wet! Feet were spongy as heck.

Waiting to get some after race snack:

Today, I'm pretty sore on some spots I hadn't been sore in a while. Hammies are screaming, calves are sore, shins & ankles ouch. Mostly the pounding of going downhill for the calves, shins and ankles and uphill did the work on the hammies. We'll survive and live to run another day.

Now what?
Well, racing season is about over around here. There's an indoor marathon with distances of 10k, HM and marathon that's to be held in Quebec City on December 8 but that's too soon to my liking to be properly prepared for a half marathon. Might sign up for the 10k but the half, expecially will go to next May. Would like to do my first half outdoors and not around an indoor track...

Outtakes/extras/bloopers!
So, you wanna laugh? Here's my try at a little hop, not jump, and a near faceplant as I cross the finish line. I'd almost call my hop more a stomp cause my feet stomped the ground pretty hard there

attempt at a Olu hop

- YouTube

If you're still reading, thanks! And big thanks for all the help and support you guys provide!
============================

I never followed up on that indoor race, as you'll see in a future installment...

Thanks for reading folks!

FM

05-13-2014, 02:06 PM	#38
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	Race report Le Défi du Tour du Lac Beaport October 20th, 2013 Lac Beauport, Quebec, Canada Prologue commentary "Défi" translates straight to "Challenge" and "Tour", well you know. So this could have been translated loosely as the "Tour around the Lake Challenge" It WAS supposed to be a 6km loop around a local lake with race distances of 6, 12, or 18 km. I say WAS because they had to change it with about 6 days notice because of some road construction that were cutting off one lane of the local road. On race day, they take one lane of the local road for runners and the other is for cars going on a one way around the lake. Because of the construction, there would have been no way for cars to come and go at all so they settled for a 3km stretch on the north side of the lake that runners would go out and back, making it 6km in length. Once for those running the 6km, twice for the 12k'ers and 3 times out for the other 18k'ers. This being my first Summer at running, I didn't feel ready to do a half marathon but I felt like 18k would be all right. In retrospect now, I think I could have done a half, but I'm happy with my decision to sign up for this 18k. The race in itself is pretty small. Overall, looking at the official results, I count about 750 entries, for all three distances. Only 96 runners finished in the 18k race. Going into this, and up to last week, I had not realized how hilly this course (either the original or the revised version) would be. Indeed, they call it a "Challenge" and it really was. Training I used a modified Hal Higdon intermediate 2 half marathon schedule to train for this race. Modified in two ways: (1) I cut some of the mileage because I didn't feel it was safe to run the kind of mileage it was asking for given where I was on my usual weekly mileage and also because I was training for a slightly shorter race than a half marathon and (2) since I signed up late for it, I used only the last 5 weeks of his 12 weeks program. Looking back at it, I liked his 5 days a week schedule that works in some speedwork with easy runs and plan on using some of his other training programs in the future but had I decided earlier that I would do this race, and knowing how hilly it would be, I would have done more hill work. Live and learn. Saturday, Sunday morning and pre-race Saturday was rough. I started feeling the beginning of a headcold I was afraid would latch on for over a week now. You know, itchy sinuses, dull headache, some muscle soreness that comes from nowhere, in my case between my neck and right shoulder, although I had not lifted anything last week. Where I had to go to get my bib was in downtown Quebec City but dang stupid road construction (seems to be a theme around town!) made it a crazy adventure to get there and back, what with the headache, I was not feeling good about the next morning. My oldest son also had a hockey game at 5:30 that afternoon, killing any plan of simply having a light quiet dinner and relax all evening. Ended up having a roast beef sub at Subway just before his game. Could have been worse, could have been better... Woke up on Sunday fairly rested after what I thought had been a good night sleep. Cold had not gotten worse and other than what had become a usual dull headache and some stuffy sinuses, I didn't feel too bad. Took a sudafed and a couple tylenol before breakfast and felt quite okay from then on out. I say "what I thought" had been a good night sleep cause my wife said I probably ran half my race overnight. She said I shuffled around a heck of a lot under the sheets. Since parking spaces would be restricted around the start/finish area, we'd been instructed to park at a nearby ski resort and that we'd be shuttled in by school buses to the race site. This resort is maybe only 2km from race site so not a very long bus ride but still a bit special, especially since my wife, two sons and mother-in-law were coming to cheer me on but they had to take a later bus since the first few were reserved for runners. Boarding the bus alone made it weird for me. The whole setup is very nice though, especially with the tree's in their autumn colors. I had two photographers for this race. While our 16yo son had the nice Canon camera I thought it was a good idea to leave our 9yo have our old Kodak Easyshare camera with a couple set of spare batteries. He had a blast. Here's a pic of the mountain around the ski resort that he took... Other than the nice way, what struck me as I got out of the car was how cold and wet it was. We left home to a cloudy sky but no rain and dry pavement and got there, about 40 minutes away from home to a rainy, windy, cold kind of a place. Don't know what I was saying there but this is a pic of me before the race, tell me I don't look cold... Here's me warming up, you can see the lake in the background Another from the warmup, that's my wife in the foreground. She looks cold doesn't she? Poor darling... It really was a miserable day for supporters, and for racers waiting for the start. I ran a VERY easy kilometer to simply get the blood flowing and not only warmup the muscles but simply warm up my body... My fueling plan was fairly simple. I wanted to take one pouch of some sunkist fruit candies every 20 minutes. These are not your traditional fueling options but I had used them a couple times on long runs so I knew they'd work. I wore my hydration belt because I trusted drinking from my bottles more than from them little cups they pass you on the race. Thing was, the hydration belt could only hold two of these pouches on the outside pocket. With it being all rainy and everything, I didn't want to put anything inside with my phone that was also my music source for the run. I then devised the following teamwork plan and told my 9yo son he'd have the job of feeding me one of these pouches on each of my two passes back in front of them. He was happy to be able to help. The race We finally go to the start. I'd looked at last year's times and figured my expected time would put me at about the bottom of the top tier or runners so I took place accordingly. It was about right as i didn't feel jammed at the start and wasn't passed by a ton of runners either. Here's to give you an idea of what the 3km stretch looked like: As you can see, it starts fairly flat although there's a slight downhill at 500m followed but I reasonable uphill for 600-700m than a long dowhill for almost 1 km. We'd then reverse course to head back in, facing that long battle uphill for 900m or so just after you turned around the big orange traffic cones. That long uphill was a legbreaker. Here's a closer look at what I have dubbed loose lace hill (anecdote coming later) As for overall conditions, it was raining for most of the race and it was especially windy at times, mostly when we hit the higher up North spot on the course where you can see that we were passing closest to the lake. At that spot, there was no cover from trees from the wind blowing from the lake and sometimes the rain would pick up and really splash you in the face. It was quite an experience... Loop #1, (Start to 6k) I felt very good right out the gate. The couple days off before Sunday had really rested my legs and the first couple kilometers felt unforced, kinda helped by the downill a bit. I had set my watch to show me the overall average pace for the run instead of my usual setting at "current pace". Last Sunday when doing my test run I'd realized that the current pace would vary wildy from downhil to uphill and back down and I had no idea how good or bad it was going overall. With the average pace for the run, I at least had an idea of how good/bad the race was going. First time I looked at the watch was about 600 meters in and my pace was at 4:32 per km (7:18 per mile). I would hold that pace for my first 6 km. It was going so well, I had given an approximate time of my coming back to my wife, and had set a song on my playlist to match my seeing them, but I was running way ahead of it that the song started mayb 300m after I'd left the turn back out. Not only that, but they completely missed me looping back around! My wife said she actually thought I'd be turning closer to the start/finish line and wasn't looking at the right place, but she also said she didn't expect me back as quickly. Time for that 6k: 27:17 (4:33/km, 7:19/mile) time for the 3k out: 13:18 (4:26/km, 7:08/mile) time for the 3k in: 13:59 (4:40/km, 7:30/mile) Loop #2, (from 6k to 12k) I was kinda bummed to have missed them but wasn't sure if they were not just there and I couldn't see them. I tried scanning what little crowd there was and couldn't find their face and I'm usually good at that. I also hadn't taken any of the sunkist pouches yet, hoping to get one from my son at the turnaround. I dug one from my hydration belt and that's when "A little Party never killed nobody" from Fergie came on, that song I wanted to have playing when I'd see my wife's face. It's a song she'll be dancing hiphop on for their next group choreography and for some reason, it always gets me going. It sure did and I picked up the pace, or at least didn't let it drop too much going downhill. This time around, the big Loose lace hill did a bigger number on my legs, and my shoes were soaking. That's also when noticed the lace of my left starting tocome untied. Not completely but I kept an eye on it. Legs were burning at about the 10k mark, coming atop that long hill but I pushed on. Average pace was now hovering around 4:38 or 4:40 per km (7:27-7:31) and I was still happy with that. Heart rate was held in check at aroudn 158, but the legs, as usual were the limiting factor. Kep scanning the crowd as I was coming back to the turnaround and there they were, with my Matthew right by the side orchestrating the perfect handoff of a small sunkist pouch. I get misty eyed simply recalling seeing his face. I'm a big softie... Time for that 6k: 28:27 (4:45/km, 7:38/mile) time for the 3k out: 13:55 (4:38/km, 7:28/mile) time for the 3k in: 14:32 (4:51/km, 7:48/mile) My average pace after 12k was 4:39/km (7:28/mile) a mere 2 seconds off my best 10k pace on a VERY flat course. Loop #3, (from 12k to 18k) Leaving my fans from the turnaround I felt good but had to fight the dang little voice inside that wanted to tell me that there was STILL 6km to be run... Every little uphil was now tougher but I didn't feel any cramping coming. I kept monitoring my left lace but it had not gotten worse since I'd first seen it untie a bit. Then, just as I started going down the big downhill, the other shoe felt loose. Yeah, of course, the other lace had become pertty much completely untied, thus the Loose Lace hill name! There was no way I was gonna stop midway down so I checked my footing and tried to make sure I wouldn't simply fall down and at the pylones stopped to tie my show cause I knew there was no way I could safely run back the last 3k with the right shoe untied. But my of my, the effort it took to start back up that hill!!! Really, that was a low point of the whole race. At some point up that hill, I thought I was simply running in place, not going up AT ALL. I swear, you'd have told me "hey you're going backward man!!!" and I would have believed you. But then I looked at a slightly older man with a bright yellow jacket that was just in front of me and he wasn't getting away from me so I figured "if Ì'm not going up, then he isn't either, plow away dude, plow away" And I did. Then I saw the 16.5k mark on my watch, only 1.5 to go, then 17, then I could see the finish line and I tried pushing but got passed by a couple fellas. Kept them in my line of sight but couldn't get back to them Here's my sexy face on a final push: Here's about to cross the finish line and attemps a Olu hop (more later): Time for that 6k: 29:18 (4:53/km, 7:51/mile) time for the 3k out: 14:22 (4:47/km, 7:47/mile) time for the 3k in: 14:56 (4:59/km, 8:00/mile) Chip time for the race: 1h25m49s, 4:46/km, 7:40/mile Final results: 22n overall out of 96 entrants or top 22.9% 6th out 22 in Men 40-49 or top 27.2% VERY happy with these results. When I started training for it, my goal was an average pace at about 4:45 per km but that was before realizing it would be that hilly of a course, I'm satisfied with 4:46 per km and with the race being 18k, I now know I could run a full 21.1 half marathon. Also looks like the faster 40-49 runners all signed up for the 18k. Had I decided to do the 12k, I would have place 2nd out of 26 with my straight 12k (i.e. without any pushing)! Right after the race, rocking the badass gloves! Wife told me to smile, apparently I don't smile much when I'm gasping for air. Again rocking the badass gloves That was my first bling in a race. That first 10k I did back in August didn't give out medals to finishers. I also got a bottle, you know the metal type with a sort of latch on it. After race I was ok for maybe 5-10 minute then it got real cold, and wet! Feet were spongy as heck. Waiting to get some after race snack: Today, I'm pretty sore on some spots I hadn't been sore in a while. Hammies are screaming, calves are sore, shins & ankles ouch. Mostly the pounding of going downhill for the calves, shins and ankles and uphill did the work on the hammies. We'll survive and live to run another day. Now what? Well, racing season is about over around here. There's an indoor marathon with distances of 10k, HM and marathon that's to be held in Quebec City on December 8 but that's too soon to my liking to be properly prepared for a half marathon. Might sign up for the 10k but the half, expecially will go to next May. Would like to do my first half outdoors and not around an indoor track... Outtakes/extras/bloopers! So, you wanna laugh? Here's my try at a little hop, not jump, and a near faceplant as I cross the finish line. I'd almost call my hop more a stomp cause my feet stomped the ground pretty hard there attempt at a Olu hop - YouTube If you're still reading, thanks! And big thanks for all the help and support you guys provide! ============================ I never followed up on that indoor race, as you'll see in a future installment... Thanks for reading folks! FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...