MILE

The sixth event of the Fall Classic is now complete and the series is drawing to a close with just the 500m swim and the brick left for the darkest, likely wettest days of November. Seth's preparations for Wednesday's mile began on Tuesday with a reminder alarm set in his phone- giving him 24 hours to prepare for the event. While he had been informed that a single day was a bit short to be able to prepare properly for such a challenge, Seth still managed to shave 16 seconds of his time from last fall, finishing neck-and-neck with Vince in 5:31.

An equally close finish was seen on the women's side with Katrina and Karin both finishing in 6:11. For any avid readers of this blog, apologies are made for recycled cartoons and images. It is extremely difficult to find new and exciting running related material on the internet. If the humor of some cartoons has worn off, the reader has likely been reading this blog far too often and should really look elsewhere on the internet, there is a lot of good content out there.

Our top three women's finishers were Jen Moroz in 5:41 and Theresa close behind in 5:46. Eliza was nipping at their heels in 5:49. Theresa has really improved her speed over the course of this past year, bringing her time down from 6:32 last fall. The only possible difference is her diet, and her position as VP Nutrition is clearly taken to heart. If anyone else would like to shave 45 seconds off of their mile time; just incorporate a few of these recipes into your diet : http://ubctriathlon.blogspot.ca/p/nutrition-blog.html Two or three servings a week of any of the recipes mentioned in the link would be enough to see results. Theresa has been seen eating entire 2 liter jars of orange-ginger cranberry sauce before swim practice and is rumored to have a full gallon of Lentil soup after every bike ride, so maximum benefits are only achieved with these massive quantities.

Despite spending three hours of his afternoon at the pool and swimming a hard 12 or 14k before the mile race, the club president still managed to run his fastest ever mile. A single apple and half a banana after getting out of the pool were all that was required for Nathaniel to fully recover and have his legs ready for the run. This should be a lesson to any club members who have been accused of taking point series events far too seriously- don't worry too much and good things can happen. Vince's highly structured, detailed, planned 4 week taper before his Iona time trial this past September now seems ludicrous. Nathaniel would have had the club record with his impressive 4:47 it should be noted. However, one other participant had attended an Ethnobotany laboratory earlier that afternoon while Nathaniel was exhausting himself at the pool. The lab dealt with "stimulating plants" and no fewer than 4 kinds of tea, Yerba Mate, 3 different roasts of coffee and cocoa leaves were served. The caffeine mixture was just barely enough to fend off Nathaniel's late charge from 1200-1500 meters, and despite failing a urine test after the race, the magic 4:47 barrier was broken by three tenths of a second.

The prize for most consistent runner goes to Barry, hitting 4:53 right on the nose as he did last fall, likely with the exact same lap times as well. Winston was a little off of his consistency game, having shed 3 seconds over the past year to finish in 5:18. Before anyone gets too excited about their results, I would like to point out that several types of Japanese vegetables have recently been reported to be running sub 4 minute miles. Humbling, I know. There are no reports of cycling or swimming vegetables yet so the sport of Triathlon is still safe for now. The club exec is however in touch with a Japanese farmer to see if he can lend us one or two of his radishes to lead some running technique clinics next spring. These sessions are planned for Wednesday nights and email updates regarding signup for these sessions will go out in early January.

ChrisB 5:01 Vincen 5:31 Jon 4:46 Barry 4:53 Nathani 4:47 Seth 5:31 Mirko 5:44 Ben 5:17 Crl 5:07 Brian 5:17 Perneet 5:16 Jordan 5:45 Winstoe 5:18 Marcus 5:48 Ryan 5:16 Victori 6:03 Katrina 6:11 Elise 6:08 Theresa 5:46 Sherry 6:55 Eliza 5:49 Lindsey 6:21 Lise 6:06 Emily b 6:13 Naly 6:26 Meghan 6:28 Karin 6:11 Jen 5:41 If your name was too long, letters were omitted to make the paragraph look more balanced.