Turbo Blog

In my little part of the world there aren’t many local runs to test your fitnees. The largest in the city takes place in late April and is called the run to end MS. This is attended by about 300 local and some out of town runners each year. It has a 5k, 10k and half marathon to choose from. In addition it also has a kids run to finish off the day.

I like to do the 10k as it was the first race I did back in 2003 to mark the beginning of my fitness comeback (such as it is). This year was a tough year with a strong headwind on the way out and unseasonal heat on the way back. Most runners sturggled to finish with a time close to what they thought they were capable of. I was happy with my 41:28.

This brings me to my new personal best I set this weekend. The other “race” in the area is the fund raising day for the Cornwall Children’s Treatment Centre.

Blog de Phil's Trophy

It has just about everything you could think of to raise money. The activities include a bike a thon, rock a thon, horse back riding, swim a thon and 5 and 10k runs. They are organized as races by they are lacking in the organization department.

I completely knew this when entering but had a hidden agenda for taking part. My friend Blog de Phil did the race last year and finished first. For his efforts he received a beautiful trophy that looked like the Heisman Trophy. A have to admit that when I saw that trophy for the first time I was jealous. I had to do the race the next year to get it.

I toed the line along with a small group of local runners this weekend and flew through the course in a time of 15:39 and finished first! Too bad the course was really only 4.2k. The 10k course was also short by 1k also with the winner of that race finishing in 28 min. and change. He was usually a 33 min. runner and was not amused. So now I have to wait for a phone call where I will be told where to pick up my trophy and apparently come to some awards dinner.

If anything, it was real ego boost to run a really fast 5k time. Hey, I’ll take it when I can get it.

The multisport club that I belong to had a really cool event today. It was Victoria Day weekend and to celebrate the Queen’s birthday we had a 5km catch up race. All runners started according to their age group and the time differences were set based on what a average person of that age group would run.

I am in the 35-39 age group and was the second last to leave. Our fastest runner is only 16 and somehow he got to leave a few seconds ahead of my group. I wanted to keep him in sight for as much of the race as possible and set out at a really fast pace.

I usually check my splits during races to gage my performace but this time I didn’t even think of it. I just ran.

In the end it paid off. I set a personal best of 18:24 and felt great right to the end.

My wife shaved almost 2 minutes off her PB and finished with a time of 26:43.

The only award that was given out was to the first person across the line and he received a crown to being the king of the 5 km for the Cornwall Multisport Club.