| Location: Garson - Sudbury,ON,Canada Member Since: Apr 20, 2013 Gender: Male Goal Type: Other Running Accomplishments: I ran my first marathon in 1998: "The Friendly Marathon" in Massey, Ontario. I was 32. I had never raced in a shorter event, and I trained really poorly - ended up running it in 4:00:30. After that, I gave up running for the most part for 6 years. I got into karate a bit more seriously, until I got my knee kicked out and had ACL surgery. Then I became a 'fair weather runner' and started to run half marathons every so often. As a priest, entering weekend races always meant having to book a holiday, so it just didn't happen much. My holidays were primarily focussed on various canoe and kayak trips.
At some point, I started training more consistently, and started to think of myself as a runner. I guess doing that in your 40's is better than never doing it at all. I even started to wonder if I had it in me to qualify for Boston. Well, I did. First time didn't count, I suppose, since I didn't make the "cut". But the second time was a charm, and on my sixth Marathon, run in Chicago in 2015, I beat my BQ by almost 6 minutes. And now, running a BQ is routine for me, not that I have any desire to run Boston again.
Through it all, I've made tons of mistakes - and have had lots of injuries to show for it. Hopefully, now that I'm in my late 50's, I'm a bit wiser and can use that to my advantage to continue running for a very long time.
My PRs:
5k (12 run): Guelph, ON. October 10, 2016 (50 yrs.) 20:10
10k (10 run): Collingwood October 5, 2013 (47 yrs.) 43:37
Half Marathon (25 run): Cleveland May 18, 2014 (48 yrs) 1:33:08
Marathon (12 run): Ste-Jerome, QC October 3, 2021 (55 yrs.) 3:22:10
Ultras (5 run):
Run for the Toad 50k Trail September 30, 2017 (51 yrs.) 5:31:23
Niagara Falls 100k June 17, 2018 (52 yrs.) 12:26:30
That Dam Hill 24 hours September 15-16, 2018 Completed 100 Miles in 23:20:44
Sulphur Springs 50 mile Trail May 25, 2019 10:37:27
Haliburton Forest 100 mile Trail September 7-8, 2019 26:46:27
Pacing my sister in her 1st Half Marathon. Short-Term Running Goals: After a broken right foot in 2022 in the later stages of a marathon training cycle, then adjusting to a 1/2" heal lift in my right shoe to compensate for a leg length discrepancy, and then a left plank plate rupture in the late summer of 2023, I had to decide: go fast or go long. I opted for long, for this year at least.
May 2024: Sulphur Springs 50 Mile Trail (revisiting it after 5 years)
July 2024: Limberlost 54KM Trail
September 2024: Haliburton 100 Mile Trail (also revisiting it after 5 years).
Everything this year is really focussed on the Haliburton 100 as my key event. After that, and depending on how things go, I'll reevaluate. Long-Term Running Goals: Run until this old body of mine won't let me run any more. I was inspired in the Spring of 2016, watching the start of the Ottawa Marathon. Near the back of the pack was an 'old man', running with his walker. I loved it! I thought ... there's me in 20 years. Maybe.  Personal: I am a Roman Catholic priest of 30 years, ministering in the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie. I spent 8 years ministering in the small town of Wawa (where I helped establish the annual Blackfly Run) and 9 years in Sault Ste. Marie. I have been in the Sudbury region now for 13 years. Currently I Pastor 2 small Parishes: St. John the Evangelist in Garson, and St. Bernardine of Siena in Skead, covering the area just Northeast of the city, surrounding the Sudbury Airport. |
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| Brooks Glycerin 13 Treadmill Miles: 6.00 | Triumph ISO 3 Treadmill Miles: 74.50 | Saucony ISO Triumph 4 Miles: 76.00 | Brooks Glycerin 13 Miles: 11.00 | Brooks Cascadia 11 Miles: 4.00 | Nike Zoom Vomero 13 Miles: 28.00 |
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| | Skead Road; 9:04 pace. I was aiming for 8, but wisely cut it back. I'm still sore; no need to push it at this point.
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| Brooks Glycerin 13 Treadmill Miles: 6.00 |
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| | Goodwill Road; 8:55 pace. I was limping at the end ... that right groin is really screaming at me. I may need to take more time off.
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| Triumph ISO 3 Treadmill Miles: 6.00 |
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| | That right groin area is still giving me trouble, post Ultra, so I took yesterday off and ran a VERY SLOW pace of 9:35 on Goodwill Drive this morning.
I'm going to have to go slow and easy for a while. It's now down to a dull ache, and I'm not limping. so I'll take all that as a positive.
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| Saucony ISO Triumph 4 Miles: 4.00 |
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| | Goodwill Road; 9:07 pace. Still working through the right groin achiness, but I'm optimistically going to say that it's not as bad today.
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| Brooks Glycerin 13 Miles: 5.00 |
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| | Goodwill Road; 9:10 pace. Groin - still ouch.
Saw my first black bear of the season. It crossed the road in front of me about 100 meters ahead. Then, about 10 seconds later, a second one followed it. Nice to see. The second one looked quite a bit bigger, so I thought maybe it was the mother and the first one a yearling. Or maybe it's just because I was closer to the second one, it looked bigger.
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| Triumph ISO 3 Treadmill Miles: 4.00 |
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| | Goodwill Road; 8:56 pace. No bears today; just a Hare.
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| Brooks Glycerin 13 Miles: 6.00 |
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| | Radar Road; 8:45 pace. Light rain and humid. Groin - no change. But I was glad to go the extra distance. Second half was 20 seconds/mile faster.
Oh, and I registered for the Haliburton 100. That's a Canadian Shield style trail race - typical Northern Ontario geography - near here (about a 5 hour drive) with a 30 hour cut off. It's on September 7/8. I must be nuts.
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| Triumph ISO 3 Treadmill Miles: 10.00 |
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| | Goodwill Road; 8:23 pace. A little faster than I should, but my legs just wanted to move.
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| Saucony ISO Triumph 4 Miles: 6.00 |
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| | Radar Road; 8:24 pace. 20 seconds/mile faster on the last 5 miles.
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| Triumph ISO 3 Treadmill Miles: 10.00 |
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| | Radar Road; 8:15 pace. Actually, 8:30 out and 8:00 back. Too fast. After the first mile, I tried to reign it in. But I'm too wired, I think, to slow it down.
Dark night of the soul, and Led into the time of Trial stuff. You'd think that St. Louis winning the Stanley Cup (Hurray), the Raptors winning the NBA Championship (Double Hurray!), and the Blue Jays winning a game (A Very Rare Hurray), all in 2 days, would help. Nah. Yesterday was a particularly bad day on SO many levels. Today, I just needed to run.
Ah well. Fortunately, that's where the running helps in spades. Just gotta try to slow the pace a bit. After all the rain we've had, the running surface was nice and soft for running. It felt good.
As to the groin pain - a noticeable improvement. Still achy, but not screaming pain any more.
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| Saucony ISO Triumph 4 Miles: 10.00 |
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| | Comments(1) |
| | Radar Road; 8:39 pace.
After 3 weeks, I know I'm not fully recovered from Sulphur Springs, but it felt SO good to get a somewhat decent long run in.
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| Saucony ISO Triumph 4 Miles: 14.00 |
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| | Radar Road; 8:48 pace steady. Gorgeous day!
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| Saucony ISO Triumph 4 Miles: 14.00 |
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| | Goodwill Road; 8:55 pace.
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| Triumph ISO 3 Treadmill Miles: 6.00 |
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| | Radar Road; 8:51 pace.
I hurt. Not a bad hurt. Just a "I started doing my strength work again after 5 weeks of doing none" kind of hurt.
Back to 120 plyometric jump squats and 180 heal drops, 3 times/week.
The advantage of not doing them for a while is finding out which muscles they work. That would be the quads, hamstrings, glutes, hips and calves.
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| Saucony ISO Triumph 4 Miles: 10.00 |
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| | Radar Road; 8:28 pace.
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| Triumph ISO 3 Treadmill Miles: 14.50 |
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| | 12 mile run on Radar Road; 8:37 pace.
Then home for an hour, and then my partner picked me up and we went to run the Miner's Mayhem - third year in a row for our team. That was just over 4 miles of hills, mud and obstacles. We ran it in 1:03:06 - a 15:17 pace for the 4.13 miles. So, not bad.
We named ourselves the "Sole Survivor's", because NOBODY else from our previous years teams could join us this morning. So, Sonya and I ran it ourselves. Just a fun event - although challenging in its own way. I've run this event 5 times now - 3 on a team and twice solo - so I now have a collection of 5 hard hats - the reward at the finish line.
Oh, on my 12 miler, a Marten crossed in front of me - about 20 feet ahead. It ran out of a marsh, onto the pathway, stopped, turn and saw me, and then continued across the path into the marsh on the other side. Way cool - they are rare to see like that.
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| Brooks Cascadia 11 Miles: 4.00 | Saucony ISO Triumph 4 Miles: 12.00 |
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| | Radar Road; 8:49 pace.
Trying the Vomeros again. Last time was version 10. They do feel plush on the feet.
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| Nike Zoom Vomero 13 Miles: 16.00 |
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| | Goodwill Road; 8:56 pace.
100% humidity, but only 16C/60F, so bearable.
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| Saucony ISO Triumph 4 Miles: 6.00 |
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| | Comments(2) |
| | Radar Road; 9:06 pace.
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| Triumph ISO 3 Treadmill Miles: 10.00 |
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| | Radar Road; 8:51 pace.
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| Triumph ISO 3 Treadmill Miles: 14.00 |
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| | Radar Road; 8:58 pace. I would have liked to have gone further, but I had a morning funeral and ran out of time.
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| Nike Zoom Vomero 13 Miles: 12.00 |
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| Brooks Glycerin 13 Treadmill Miles: 6.00 | Triumph ISO 3 Treadmill Miles: 74.50 | Saucony ISO Triumph 4 Miles: 76.00 | Brooks Glycerin 13 Miles: 11.00 | Brooks Cascadia 11 Miles: 4.00 | Nike Zoom Vomero 13 Miles: 28.00 |
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