Harry's Spring Run Off 8K - High Park, Toronto

This is my season opener for races. I love this race. It's a friggin challenging run. I use to laugh at my brother in law for training in High Park. After the first year I ran it 4 years ago, I stopped laughing. I've never really come across a route that challenging. The hill at 7.6km is just killer. My god. The one at 3k feels like it goes on for about a whole kilometer. The flatest bit is 4-5k. it's a nice piece. The rolling hills from 5-6 k are rolling but rolling up. At the 6k mark I was at 33min even. I managed to do the math... 11 more minutes for 2 km. I could probably do it if the 7k hill didn't exist. But it did. I had a quick break around 7 k just to let my breathing steady itself, then off again. I had a lady in a red shirt that I was trying to stick to, but I lost her when I walked. At the 4oo meters left to go mark was the base of the hill. I ran for about 200 meters and my lungs were screaaaaming. I had to walk - it was about 100 meters then I took off again. I could hear the crowds clearly now & heard my sister yelling ... I saw my sis/bro in law and niece at the beginning and then again just before the half way mark and just my sis at the 100 meter left mark. God did I ever need that. I dropped it into 5th and burned up the rest of the hill, around the corner and over the finish line in 46:23 chip time. 23 seconds better than last year. I'm working hard at not doing to deep a post mortum on this run. Trying ... But it gives me and idea of where I am at and where I need to work harder to improve. The one thing I did keep thinking that I'm going to have to change is " how the hell do you keep this up for 42.2 k?" I'll have to change it to " I CAN keep this up for 42,2 k" It's all good. Next race for me? I'm not sure possums what's in store for me this year. There are a lot of factors right now ... I just may focus on training & just wait until August to do the Midsummer Nights Run & then a couple of fall races. We'll see. Til the next post.