Running for the joy of it in 2025

Back to the Capreol x-country ski trails this morning.  2 loops of about 1 hour each; 11:21 average pace.  The blackflies and mosquitoes have awaken!  Not so bad when running, but walking up the steep hills was a different story.

9:02 pace on a gorgeous day. 10C/50F.

A bit sluggish this morning, but picked up the pace a bit towards the end; 9:28 pace average.

Tough slog today; my leg muscles were just not firing; 9:39 pace.

Legs had a bit more life this morning, although still somewhat heavy; 9:29 pace.

Crazy heavy out there.  Just 16C/61F, but 100% humidity.  No wind.  Heavy fog.  It felt like running through water with a blanket over my head; 9:45 pace.

Back to the Capreol Ski Trails one last time.  Same temperature as Saturday, but humidity at 85%, rather than 100%.  Made all the difference in the world.  Mosquitoes were pretty bad when walking up the hills.  11:20 pace.

9:38 pace.  Clear, coolish and humid. 

Had myself checked head to toe yesterday by a Dermatologist; mother had melanoma, and I am in the sun a lot.  Long story short, she said I'm low risk for skin cancer.  So, all good there.

Pouring rain.  20C/68F with 100% humidity; 9:35 pace.

Another run in 100% humidity.  A very slight breeze, which helped.  I sure hope it's not like this on Saturday; 9:40 pace.

A shakeout run before tomorrow's event.  20C/68F, again with 100% humidity.  It will be a tough run if the humidity stays high tomorrow.  10:11 pace.

So, I chose this race because it didn't require me to take any time off.  North Bay is a 90 minute drive.  Based on last year's results, I was thinking I could run the Half in about 3 hours, giving me lots of time to get back to Sudbury for my Saturday night Mass.  Fortunately, I was right.

This is the 3rd year for this race on the North Bay Trails at Canadore College.  Pretty technical, with mostly single track, and lots of roots and rocks.  One loop is 7km, so you could run that, or twice that, or thrice that (which I did). 

The weather turned out pretty much perfect.  Around 16C/62F with 83% humidity at the start, and 20C/68F with 69% humidity at the finish.  All three loops started at the same time, so it was pretty much looking at the feet of the person in front of you for the first 2 miles or so.  Tough, on a technical course.  It was much nicer on the last 2 laps when I was alone, when you could see the trail ahead of you.

There is 2,362 feet of elevation on the Half Marathon course, so that just added to the challenge.  A significant portion of that comes in 2 significant climbs.  The first is a quarter mile distance, and the second just shy of that.  On my 3rd lap, I tripped and fell at the top of the climb, just as I was starting to run.  Nobody saw it (so no shame) and there was no injury.  Just a lot of dirt on me.

Despite my preference to run alone, it should be noted that the mosquitoes and deer flies were a bit of an issue on the 2nd and 3rd laps.  I'm thinking that on the 1st lap, there were more bodies for them to choose from.

So, despite having to 'run with the crowd' on the first lap, all 3 laps were pretty consistent.  1:00:03, 1:00:55 (filled up my handheld), and 59:23 (was able to pick it up for the last quarter mile).

All in all, I was happy with my results.  Turns out I was 20th of 31 runners overall, and 14th of the 19 males.  I won my age division (60-69) only because I was the only runner in that division.  In fact, I was the OLDEST runner on the course (ouch).  If you drop it to anyone over 50, there were only 3 of us, with one female included.  So, I'm guessing this is a young person's game.  Still, I came in first in what I'm calling the "Master's Division".  

Worst part of the day?  Driving the 90 minutes home.  It sure would have been nice to be able to walk it off longer.  This run club puts on a road race in the Fall.  I'm thinking I might run it.