Island Race Series: Hatley Castle 8km

The race is put on by FrontRunners, a local Victoria running store. They have a great system set up and RaceDay Timing Services have organized the chip timing in the race.  The combination of both companies organizing the race keeps the most fluid and efficient coordination. I enjoy when both these companies come together.

The Hatley Castle is a legendary location for a race, not to mention a National historic site and  BC heritage building. The Castle was commissioned by the Dunsmuir family in 1908, James Dunsmuir was one-time BC Premier and also BC lieutenant governor, in addition to being a wealthy coal industrialist. The castle was purchased from the family in 1939 and has been a military college and now, starting in 1995, as Royal Roads University. A truly beautiful campus in a castle, ocean front and surrounded by huge Douglas fir trees and a temperate rainforest.

  The Hatley Castle 8km race has by far the most hills of the Island race series. I don't know the overall elevation change, but as you can see below, it has significant hills (for a road-race) from sea-level to the top of the ridge.  My plan was to pace easy into the first 5km which was well into the top of the biggest hills and then rip the last 3km.  It worked out for the most part, but it is hard to reign it in when runners are passing on the uphill!
If you see in the map below it is somewhat like a large rectangle, but in actual fact it seems nothing like it.  I found the last 2km on the double track trails very relaxing and like a mountain path.  I ended up fighting for 2nd place at the end but first place (Geoff Martinson) was more than 90 seconds out in front. A great race!

The Value of Training

A recent trip to Royal Roads Univeristy to watch the Hatley Castle 8k running race I spotted an interesting "motivational message" posted on a huge billboard in the old military college gym. In my mind, it describes the process and benefit of everyday consistency in training.... and that is the true victory to carry forth into the future. It keeps my head up during the long hours of training that goes into the dark and wet times of the year.
Our training schedule was set out before us and we have to follow through with confidence that this will get us in shape for the summer racing series. A big part of this winter work is keeping the motivation and positive atmosphere going.  The past two weeks our coach(s) have gone to a training camp in California and we were given planned workouts each day but it is our own ambition to complete it with vigor.  To the most part the work was completed with excellence due to the fact the group of athletes I train with are very individually motivated personalities.
 I have felt after some long hard and wet workouts like I just want to crawl up in a ball and sleep for three months. I, however, often realize I need to quickly shower and go to work because I have patients booked long into the evening. At the end of these long days when I get home from work I realize I'm f#%*ing exhausted that I have a smile on my face for all the things I was able to accomplish. Luckily, I thoroughly enjoy my job!  So, in the end of it all, I hope I'm getting faster and more technically proficient at rowing.

The next important time-frame to work towards is the third week of March with the RADAR erg testing sessions and an on-water time-trial in early April. Till then, we will get true value for our training.