Pioneer 8k - January 11th

So Coach Noa thought it would be a good idea for an ultra runner to run an 8k as a fitness test. Well I jumped on it without hesitation and figured "oh yeah, my ultra training will transfer somewhat decently over to the 8k." Well I was in a for a treat.
Heather and I headed out to Central Saanich to find the race which turned into a little bit of an adventure but her quick eye spotted one of our customers from the store behind us, so we just watched where he turned and soon enough found the place.
After a quick warm up I did some strides and my "Runners prayer" before the gun, and we then we were off. It honestly felt like I was running a 400m race. I felt like I was maxed out from the gun. I immediate got a stomach stitch but kept pushing forward. My goal for the race was not to get beat by Cheryl Murphy or any of the other women. And trust me, in this star studded, olympic athlete field, this was a prety lofty goal. I passed the lead female around 500m and began my charge forward. I caught up to Nick Walker and we ran together for pretty much the entire race. Mark Nelson passed me around 4k and I tried to go with him but I was toast. I was toast at 1k so I basically was just hanging on. At around 5k, I ask nick what our time was. 16:40. Great I thought, this is perfect pace. I was hurting beyond anything comprehendable but I figured it was just about gutting it out. After the turn around at 6.5k and could see the remainder of the field and the lead females who werent that far behind me. I kept pushing along with nick and he threw in a surge which got us caught back up to Mark Nelson and Chris Barth. After turning down the road towards the final portion of the race with the little uphill, I realized "maybe my ultra training is really working" I felt great cruising on the uphill and I had passed Nick and Chris and was hunting for Mark. The final 150m's is all uphill and Mark and I gutted it out and literally killed each other for the fight to the finish. Mark ended up taking it by a second. 27:23 was my finishing time. 28th overall and 4th in my age group. I saw Coach Noa after the race, gave her a big hug and told her "Never, ever, make me do that again!" She laughed and said at least not until next year. After the race was over I had some downtime to really think about how I felt about it (hence why this blog post is a little late). I realized how difficult it was but how much fun it was at the same time. I'm not sure what my next race is but I hope its long and with lots of trails :-)