Race Report: Oliver ‘Wine Capital of Canada’ 10K

Saturday me and Danielle headed off on a 3 hour road-trip southeast to the teeny, tiny town of Oliver, B.C. so I could run my first race of the 2010 season and my second 10K ever!

We stayed with my Grandpa, who parks his motor home in Oliver in the winter. The winters are much milder there then FSJ

Oliver is an insanely small town. It doesn’t even have a Tim Hortons (this is weird in Canada)! It has a population of about 4,500 people and there main industry is wine. There are a bunch of wineries around Oliver and Liane recently did a great review on them all. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to visit any of them. Next time!

The night before the race we had steak and baked potatoes with my grandpa and then just kind of hung out around the campground. Danielle tested out a product for me that I was sent to review, watch for a giveaway in a few weeks

The race didn’t start until 10 AM, so I didn’t have to get up at an ungodly hour to go to the start line, thank goodness.

I didn’t have too high of expectations for this race as I’ve been having a lot of shin pain lately, but I did want to try and PR if I could. My previous 10K PR was 1:00:53 but that was on a very hilly course so I thought I could probably do it. I wanted to negative split so my plan was to hold about a 9:30 pace the first three miles and aim for a 9:00 pace the last three. The race was a nice out-and-back along this little river/canal. I just wish it had been sunny that day!

Miles 1-3

Mile 1: 9:08 - I have chronic starting-out-too-fast syndrome.

Mile 2: 9:27

Mile 3: 9:16

I felt pretty good these first three miles, it was along a paved path and I was just kind of cruising and feeling awesome. The wind was at my back so that definitely helped. Took a brief 20ish second walking break at the first aid station and other then that I ran the whole way.

An artistic feet photo that Danielle took! I really like this photo.

Miles 4-6.2

Mile 4 - 9:12

Mile 5 - 9:31

Mile 6 - 9:16

Mile 6-6.23 - 8:20

These last 3.23 miles is where it got tough! When we hit the turnaround point the wind was blowing strong against us, which really messed up my pace. The last couple of miles were also ran on sand/grass so that slowed me down a lot!

I started running alongside these two girls the last couple of miles and stuck closely behind them.

Until the last 10 metres or so when I sprinted past them! I always go ALL OUT at the end of races! Anyone else do that?

Overall Garmin Stats:

Distance: 6.23 miles

Time: 57:42

Average Pace: 9:16/mile

PR SUCCESS!

After showering and having lunch with my Grandpa we headed back to Kamloops but we had one very important destination in mind on the way: Tickleberry’s in Okanagan Falls! I’d heard amazing things about the ice cream and homemade fudge!

I went with a kit-kat ice cream cone and two pieces of Brown Sugar fudge to take home for me and Eric! Yum!

And our last stop before finishing up the long drive home was Skaha beach in Penticton. Fun fact: My family used to rent a house on this lake every. single. summer for two weeks! We would go boating and sea-doing for the first week of our vacation and the second week me and my brother would go to Okanagan Hockey School! I have some amazing memories of summers in Penticton!

It was overall successful, fun and relaxing weekend! I’m super-glad I got to spend some time with Danielle because she is moving back to Newfoundland (read: other side of the country) tomorrow!!