In 2009, about a year into my running journey I stood amongst the throng of runners at the start of the Beat Beethoven 8km run in the pouring rain. The race announcer told us that the piece of music they were going to play was Beethoven's 5th symphony and that it was 36 minutes long. To beat Beethoven, all you had to do was hit the finish line before the music had finished.
"Run a sub-36 minute 8km? Not in my lifetime, no way I'll ever be able to maintain that sort of pace, that's crazy talk" I said to myself. My goal that day was to go sub-42 and I just missed, clocking 42:03.
Fast forward 2 years and I stood a lot closer to the front of the pack than 2 years ago and bounded up and down on the spot trying to stay loose, keep warm and control my nerves. "I'm going to beat Beethoven, sub-36 baby, I CAN DO THIS", I thought.
What a difference 2 years have made, this year alone I have bettered my best times over every distance I have raced. Now I am a believer, I can hit my goals and if I don't then I have a damn good try at it with no regrets. 36 minutes for and 8km would be tough but definitely attainable if I ran at a pace slightly faster than my 5km race pace.
The gun went off and I quickly got into my groove, I counted 13 runners ahead of me and just concentrated on holding a steady pace that felt hard but maintainable over 8kms if I was up to the challenge of keeping going when it got tough.
The race settled down pretty quickly, no-one had passed me and I went through the 1st km in 4:16, probably a little fast but part of the 1st km was downhill so it felt about right. The next 2kms were completed in 4:31 and 4:28 and I passed 2 runners as I hit the 3km mark. At the turnaround (this course is an out-and-back along the Ottawa River - see map below) I felt strong and kept up the pace with 4:32 for the 4th km.
Halfway split: 17:47
Turning around, I knew I had a great shot at sub-36. I'd just have to keep up the pace for the next 3.5km and then run the last 500m as hard as I could. I was sitting in 12th place and noticed another runner in the distance, he would stop and walk for about 10 seconds and then take off for about 800m and then walk again. I gained on him little-by-little over the next 2.5 kms clocking 4:36 and 4:39 for kms 5 and 6 respectively. I finally passed him with about 1.5 km to go but I was starting to struggle a bit. I managed to pick up the pace ever so slightly with 4:36 for the 7th km but the runner I passed cruised past me again. I was starting to get a stitch in my side but I all I could focus on was getting back past this runner and back into 11th place. The uphill segment just before the descent to the finish straight was hellish and I couldn't catch him. I was starting to feel that I had lost him but I found one last gear and hammered it as hard as I could pumping my arms for all I was worth and I surged past him with about 200m to go and didn't let up until I was over the line. I had a quick glance at the clock it was at 35 minutes and something, so I had beaten Beethoven and gone under 36 minutes.
4:10 for the last 1km, not exactly sure where I pulled that from, but it was definitely satisfying to step it up a gear even when I felt I was struggling.
Final time: 35:48 (18:01 over the second half), 11th overall, 3rd out of 15 30-39 year old men.
Now the focus is on keeping it going up until the New Year and then building my base for the Winterman Half Marathon in February. Hopefully I will be able to step it up another notch in 2012.
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