Training Run - July 7, 2001
It was a quiet Saturday morning in Deep Cove as a dozen runners gathered for the last group training weekend before next Saturday's race. Earlier in the week, word leaked out that 2001 Training Run leader Michael Wardas would not be around to lead the troops one last time on Saturday. This must have kept the numbers down.
The small group size reminded me of the early 90's when we first started taking groups out for training runs in the months leading up to the race. In fact, 12 runners would have been considered a large group in those formative years for the Knee Knacker.
The group unanimously agreed to shuttle back to Lynn Canyon in a couple of vehicles, so that we could basically cover the last quarter of the course. For some, that meant starting at Rice Lake on an 8-mile run for donuts at Honey's, back in the Cove. The more ambitious (and faster) amongst us decided to start about a mile further back on the trail, on Lynn Valley Road at the top of the Varley Trail. Rice Lake and the Varley Trail were not part of the original Knee Knacker trail, but it's nice to see that Honey's always was and still is!
I ran most of the way with Francine and George, and we were later joined by Gail and ultra-dog Bailey. It was nice to catch up with George and Gail who have been part of the Knee Knacker family for 10 years now. They were part of the army of 10 Coquitlam Coyote runners that Ernie Wilson managed to drag out in 1991, for what proved to be the first of many ultramarathons for most of that group. George and Gail have gone on to manage their own very successful race the past five years - the Diez Vista 50 Km, held every April.
The faster runners on this day started behind us, but began to overtake us by Hyannis Drive. The fastest sub-group was lead by Alex (third female finisher last year), with another almost as fast group lead by Ann. Women rule, it seems. In our group of four, Francine and Gail were the only ones entered in the race this year. The boys, me and George, struggled to keep up with our very fit and strong partners. It got me thinking that I needed to do another analysis of split times for the Knee Knacker race along gender lines.
The last time I did such an analysis back in '92, it was pretty obvious that the women kicked butt in the second half of the course on race day. It wasn't too scientific and we had a smaller sample size for the female contingent in those days, but the past few years about 25% of the field has been women. So, here's the story:
 | In 1998 (the last non-snow, i.e. fast, year), women in the race ran the second half an average of 8.5 minutes slower than the first. This represented a slowdown of just under 4% from the first half to the second half of the race. The men, on the other hand, slowed down an average of almost 20 minutes in the second half of the race compared to their first half times (representing a slowdown rate of almost 10%). Way to go, boys! |
| 1999 was the infamous "Year of the Snow". We expected (and encouraged) runners to go slow over the 6 miles of snow in the high country during the first half of the course. At least the women listened. They slowed down an average of just 2 minutes in the second half, for a slowdown rate of just over 1%. But, boys will be boys. Their slowdown rate was still around 10%, but their average times for the second half were about 21.5 minutes slower than their first half. |
| Finally, we come to last year - the "Year of the (Less) Snow". With the progression from 1998 and 1999, you might have expected to see the average second half time for women to be faster than their first half, i.e. negative splits. But, oh no - the women must have started taking lessons from the men last year (bad idea). They slowed down an average of almost 13 minutes, which is a slowdown rate of just under 6%. The men closed the gap by slowing down about 18.5 minutes each, representing an almost 9% slowdown rate. |
The moral of the story - don't get carried away with numbers and statistics when you're supposed to be writing a training run report :-)
Actually, I always used to tell the (mostly male) runners at the pre-race briefing to "Watch the Women" - they knew how to pace themselves properly. I'm not so sure after last year, so I'll have to wait for another year's worth of numbers to analyze before I pass final judgement.
Oh yeah, all dozen of us finished a pretty successful final group training run - even those of us at the back of the pack came in under 2 hours. My visualization was Honey's donuts at the finish, and it worked wonders for me. I hope you all find whatever visualization will work for you to achieve your Knee Knacker goals next weekend.
See you on race day!