I arrived at the race site in Brampton at the Heart Lake Conservation Area about 1:15 before race start. It was chilly outside, but I knew it would warmup slightly and be perfect running conditions by race start - not too hot, not too cold.

I had done my normal pre-race eating rituals - 1 bottle of Sustained Energy (330 cals, 73g carbs) and a bagel (so I wouldn't be hungry) - about 3 hours before race start. For sprints (which I consider an 8k run), I'm a big believer in that I really won't need any carbs in my stomach as most of my fuel will come from stored glycogen. So, the tank was topped off - time to run!

My warmup consisted of 15 minutes total with 5x30 sec race pace accelerations with 3 min jogging in between. It was here that the first "out of shape/have a cold"alarm bells went off. Even on the "jogging" sections of my warmup, my HR was middle to high Z3! My accelerations were near my LT but I didn't feel that I was pushing too much. I put it down to the fact that I still felt a bit miserable from a cold I'm just getting over, and that I'm only 2 weeks into my next training year having been off almost entirely the last 3 months.

After my warmup I went back to my warm car to relax and visualize for 5 minutes before walking to the start line. My visualization focused on starting out conservative, then getting into a groove and holding. I knew the pain would come, and probably early, but I would focus on holding a constant effort and not worry about pace - particularly with this being a trail run with lots of ups and downs.

With a few minutes to go, I jumped out of my car and jogged to the start line. I would estimate 2-300 people were doing the race. The race director informed us that the course was an out-and-back (yes!) and that it was a bit muddy so for us to take care. After a brief countdown, we were off!

The first km was pretty easy with alot of adrenalin flowing and a predominantly downhill grade. But I knew that meant the last km would hurt. I went through the first km in 4:39 - way too fast! And my HR was absolutely buzzing ... it was over my old LT (172) for the entire split ... not a good sign.

The course leveled off into more annoying smaller bumps in the trail in the 2nd km and I was able to get into my groove. I hit the 2km tree marker with a split of about 4:49 ... much better. But my HR was still racing and I actually saw a 181 on the dial! Wow, don't think I've ever seen that. But I was now in a zone so no worries. Just let the HR lie where it will and keep pushing.

Kms 3,4 (turn around) then 5,6 are a real blur. Lots of massive, muddy, momentum-killing uphills and not enough downhills (seemingly) to recover. I had noticed that from about 3 km on nobody was passing me. When I hit the turnaround I made a mental note to myself "no-one passes me from this point forward". I was passing people left, right, and centre which was very confidence-boosting. I guess lots of people had started out too aggressively. The split time for these 4 kms was (I think) 23 min+ - a terrible split. But methinks that the distance was a little longer than 4km and/or I guess those hills just killed me.

Towards the end of the 6th km I had a group of 3-4 guys pacing off me. I said to myself "none of these guys are gonna pass me especially after they've used me for a few kms". As I approached the 7km marker I knew I had one big hill to do, then a stretch to the finish line.

I took the last hill conservatively, knowing that a surge would come from the pack of guys at the top of the hill just waiting to pounce on their tiring pacemaker. I picked up the pace with about 20% of the hill to go and dropped them momentarily.

With about 400m to go, one of the guys was able to catch and pass me. I was pissed. No way was this guy going to beat me though. The end of the course is weird in that it loops such that just when you think you're going straight at the finish line you must do another short 200m or so section. I think this fricked the guy up as he started to fade coming into the home stretch. So, I really focused on form and I passed him right at the line - but not before we got into a sprint 50m out. I hit the wire at 42:31. Terrible time, but I was happy just to finish alive.

It was the best of times:

• Good to get out there and race.
• Kept constant effort throughout.
• Didn't die or finish last.

It was the worst of times:

• HR way too high based on RPE.
• Splits way too slow.
• Could I have chosen a harder course to start my year off with?

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