Banff WinterStart 5mile Night Race…

… wins hands down for the best use of an underground parking garage. and a canoe.

Results here.

Before the race:

After the race, it was like a rave in there! SOOO much fun!

 

Big Rock Beer sponsored the event. They were giving away copious amounts of ‘Gopher’ Beer.

The Canoe.

The race was an incredible adventure. It is freaking BLACK out once you leave the townsite of Banff (about 600meters into the race and then it’s all by feel. I had a headlamp so for me it was ok, but most didn’t. Mind you, they weren’t barefoot. It was snowing at the top of the Tunnel Mountain hill, but only raining at the bottom.

My Data speaks volumes about how I felt during the race (Incredible). The 4th K was straight up the hill, the 5th was straight down. Look at my avg heart rate tho. I was PERFECT in my plan. Same cadence, same effort, let the pace be whatever it needs to be. Over a minute per km difference. But look at the heart rate! No wonder I was able to put my fastest km in on the last km! I am pretty sure I used 98% of my effort this race, and it felt perfect. I even had a sprint finish to avoid getting chicked. (No one wants to be beat by the barefoot Guy). I ran every step, even sprinting some, I Roctane Gu’d in the start corral, which probably kicked in at the 6k mark. I used to save myself for the final 100m, as any more kicking then that and I’d be done. Now I am starting to kick at the 2k left mark, as I know I can keep up the cadence. That is an amazing feeling, to know I can hold a faster pace at the end of a race… I am really looking forward to see what I can accomplish next year. Time to start training. Oh, yeah. I have another half marathon next weekend first. Gonna rock that one too!!!

The conditions were just fine for barefoot, temp about 40f, wet pavement, feet feel as good as they have felt in months! I am going to miss barefooting. I say that because we are supposed to get a serious shot of winter starting Monday. Bout Time. (we plow snow in the winter, so there's that)

Here are the official results. 350 out of over 1000, I like that.

Here are the rest of the photo Highlights. I have a FUN start line video of me gaggling on about how exciting the race is (and it hadn’t started yet) but I am on a mobile Internet stick, so I will post that video tomorrow when I get back home.

Barrie is Kelly’s Husband, this was supposed to be his first race ever, but he ended up with a calf injury… sucko. He posed like Captain Morgan instead.

 

Kelly still hasn’t gotten the hang of smiling wildly at all times when I am around, as the camera is always shooting. And thanks for bringing me a Roctane GU.  I have about 250 GU’s at home, but forgot to bring 1. Kelly rescued me.

It’s getting Crazy outside!

I wasn’t the only bear runner.

 

A good picture of my Mom and I before the race.

 

Ally! See Kelly!? she gets it!

Heading toward the start

 

Looking toward the start, *WooT*

 

Looking back. There were almost 1100 finishers in this race!

 

Gratuitous foot shot.

Startline giddy me, and wildly smiling Kelly. See, isn’t that better!

 

This was pretty much my view the entire race.

And at times it was like this.

and also this.

My Mom got me just before the finish line on her blackberry. Or we think it might be the Loch Ness monster. I have translated the photo for you, based on what she told me was there. I have no reason to think she would just take a random picture and tell me it was me, do I?

Kelly finishing (she is the blur on the left side)

Dave is in the Black vest crossing the line on the left side. Thanks for the use of your hotel room as a bag drop!

Here is Jen (who will see this blog for the first time after, Joanne, emails her the Link. Also, Daren!

 

I have to include Marco too! At every race he sees me, I have a shot like this of him!

See, here at the Harvest Half as well!

See you at the next one Marco! And I’ll see all of you LATER!

Gawd I love to run. Oh the Race Camera Dude took some shots of me before the race, so we’ll see what comes of that.

• Don’t forget my contest
• Don’t forget we have lots of run stuff for sale (we ordered more Gingerbread GU, as well as Mint Chocolate)

Barefoot mileage since June 29th : 243.3km

VFF mileage since July 7th : 78.7km (12 on trails)

Shoe mileage since SOBF (start of barefoot): 5km (25:30 5k race PR on July 1st)

And here is just another picture of our mountain paradise. See DW and DS down by the river there?