Age Group Win at the Chelsea Challenge 10km

I noticed this race last year when I was driving the kids around Gatineau Park to look at the leaves that had changed colour. Traffic was stopped for a bit to allow the runners to get around the corner, and my immediate thought was, "what? a race, on thanksgiving Monday, in picturesque Chelsea, how come I didn't know about this?". I made sure to sign up this year and decided on the 10km distance.

The weather has been amazing lately, race day was no different, sunny, clear blue skies, maybe if one was being picky, it might have been too hot. I got there early, pinned on my bib, strapped on the timing chip and went through a very easy warm up, trying to familiarise myself with the start and what the finish straight would look like coming from the other direction.

The course for the 10km is a hilly loop with a big climb in the first half of the race and then rolling hills and net downhill in the second half.

They started the 5km and 10km at the same time and we were off, I had to make sure and not get carried away trying to chase the 5km runners who shot out of the blocks and were streaming past me. Soon enough they'd turned around to head back to their finish and I was left with what looked to be 6 runners in front of me heading towards the long incline. I knew I wasn't 7th as I knew that there would be some real speed demons who would be utterly out of sight by now, but I was more focussed on keeping my pace up the hill and then on 2 runners in front of me, "guy in blue" and "guy in white". Guy in white seemed to be struggling on the slope already, so I surged past him as I was wary of tucking in behind him and the unconsciously slowing to his pace. The surge took me past guy in blue and for the next few kilometers I could hear him breathing right behind me, but I seemed to put some distance between him as we headed down the hill towards the half way point.

First half of the race 23:21.

For the next 2-3 kilometers, guy in blue would catch up to me on the uphills and then fall back on the downhills. I had never raced like this in a race, usually I just race against the clock and then try and pick off random runners in the last kilometer or so, but this was becoming a bit of a race within the race. I didn't really know what the course was going to do next and had to decide on a strategy, his breathing sounded pretty laboured but I wasn't sure how much he had left in the tank. I decided that I had 3 options, continue as I was, but that might give him the edge in passing me in the finish straight, would I be able to respond? I could let him pass and then hang with him and try and pass him in the finish straight, or I could try and break him by surging on a downhill, but I wasn't sure what was still to come. In the end, the decision was made for me as he surged past me on a the steepest uphill we had faced so far. Initially he put about 15 meters between himself and I. I reeled him in a bit and hung on with him up until just before the 9km point and then he just took off, I couldn't match his speed but just kept pumping my arms running as hard as I could to the laneway that was the finish straight. I picked it up even harder when I saw 45 minutes on the clock, I was so caught up in racing that I hadn't really given my overall time any thought, now I was heading for a huge PB so I kicked as hard as I could and made sure to run right through the finish (rather than slow right down to the line).

Final time 45:22 (Second half of the race in 22:01).

I went over to guy in blue and we had a chat, congratulating each other for a good race. My Garmin clocked the 10km distance as being slightly short, but not by any significant amount.

I was very satisfied with a  personal best on a tough course but was then stunned to see that I placed first in my age group (Male 30-39). I was 16th overall and 13th male finisher, so maybe I caught a break and all the fast 30-39 guys ate too much turkey yesterday and didn't feel like a race today.