Alfie Shrubb

The result of this race was a very pleasant surprise. In the morning I was thinking about just running it. My legs were feeling tight and the back of the calves a little weird. However, as the morning progressed I started to feel better. I had a real hard time staying positive. I think I was a little worried about how the results would turn out. It is only 3 weeks after my last marathon. I met the Whitby Tigers at the school, we chatted for a bit and then I went with my wife and kids to the start line. I don't know what the heck I was thinking leaving for a 4km warmup with just over 25 minutes to go before the race... I got back and barely had time to stretch. I would have preferred to have done some strides, but oops.

Jessie came up to me to wish me good luck just before the race was to get started. That was so cool! Thanks. I get into a mode where I just concentrate on the race sometimes and today was it. For the first km I felt OK. There were about 15 people out in front of me. Johny the jogger passed me and I thought OK, just settle in here don't get too worked up. 3:25 at the first k marker, ooops way too fast? I kept going at what seemed a reasonable pace by feel. Then a few people started to drop off, I thought OK with these short races I find I finish in a relative position to where I am at early in the race. I was happy with where I was. Then the hill at 2.5km, it slowed me down a little. Over the hill and down the other side, at this point we caught up to a number of walkers. It was difficult to pass Johnny, I tried a couple times. I felt strong but didn't want to push too hard, so I backed off so I didn't knock anyone over. Just before the half way point I passed him. I was starting to feel the legs now, but I thought I can still keep going. Now came the really fun part. All the Whitby tigers that were in the race could see me coming back, everyone of them cheered me on. I wanted to say thanks, but I kept my concentration focused. THANK YOU all for your support. I had to keep going now, I had to do the best I could in this race. That hill though really got to me coming back. I was breathing fairly hard at the top. On the way down, I concentrated on my stride making sure that I was landing with my feet beneath me not in front. My breath seemed to come back a little and I just tried to hang in there. I actually thought "my it's going to be tough to break 32 minutes". About 300 meters or so from the finish Rob and Amanda were cheering me on. Rob said the closest guy is about 25yards back. I actually slowed down thinking I was ahead enough, just ride it in. I was starting to hurt pretty bad. I heard some footsteps and just pushed as hard as I could, about 10m out from the finish line I gaged, I was trying to hold back the puke! Then just at the finish line I actually puked, but kept it in and swallowed it! I had no idea what my time was!
I went to my wife got my training shoes on, then went back to meet the gang near the finish. They congratulated me and asked about my time. Chris thought I may have been under 30 minutes, but the chip time was 30:11. I am very happy with that. I met Ed Whitlock, the famous runner that ran a 2:54 marathon at age 73! What a treat. Thanks to Chris for letting me know that he was there.
Now what does this mean for future training... I think more of the same, increasing distance, marathon pace (according to Jack Daniels' VDOT ) and then some thresholds. I didn't loose speed, I've gained it back and then some.