The long and the short of walking
Two stories of two races, one short and one long, that WoW Power Walkers attended this past weekend.
Several of us went out to Bowmanville to participate in the 6th annual Alfie Shrubb 8K Classic. The race is held in honour of legendary Canadian runner Alfred Shrubb who held world records in every running distance possible at the turn of the century. If you want more details than you can possibly imagine about our hero, Alf, visit the website http://www.alfieshrubb.ca/
Apparently, Alfie believed in walking as cross training so the organizer, Al Storrie, is very committed to the walking contingent.
It turned out to be perfect racing weather - cool and overcast. Walkers started twenty minutes ahead of the runners. This meant that the bulk of runners were passing the bulk of walkers just before the 4k turnaround point. The race is set in rural Bowmanville affording us a relaxing pastoral view to the scent of lilac. The one hill was just taxing enough to give us something on which we could focus our mental energy.
At the ceremonies following the race, walkers were awarded first, second, and third prizes for male and female overall finishers. Yea! Congrats to Bob (second walking male) and Greg (third walking male) for doing WoW proud! Also, there was a mid-pack award for male and female in both the running and walking category. This is a new twist and a good one!
Other WoW Power Walkers faced a more severe test in southwest Ontario walking the 201 kilometre Westover Shore to Shore Relay. I've heard a few stories from the "Ped Antic" members of a gruelling 24 hours that included lonely gravel roads, extreme heat, thunderstorms, hail, and more. I'm hoping can encourage a few of them to post comments here so that we can be inspired by their tenacity, bravery, perserverance, energy, and madness!
Hearty congratulations (and a good sleep) are sent to WoW coaches Krista and Jane as well as WoW walkers LeeAnn, Sarah, Moira, Nancy, Jess, Irene.
Labels: Race review
posted by Wow Power Walking Founder @ 10:24 PM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
I had a really interesting weekend out at the Shore to Shore Relay, I learned a lot about what I can do as a walker and how my body responds in certain conditions, including sleep deprivation. Who knew that I could set a personal best for a 300m sprint to the finish after doing my last leg of 9km - I pushed hard to the finish line and looked down at my garmin to see that I was doing a 5min 35sec pace!!!!! And I felt GRRRREAT!! It was also a really neat experience to see how people interact with each other when in a confined environment, I have developed a stronger relationship with those that I already knew and have a better friendship with those that I only knew through classes or had just met.
I have quite a few great stories and some really terrific memories to take away from this weekend. There were many spontaneous dance parties that would erupt on the back country roads when a good song came on the radio – we would crank the volume and all the people traveling in the van would jump out and shake our booties at the racer coming up.
We faced many challenges including bad weather (okay, I know you say there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing – but this was torrential downpours, lightning, hot, muggy conditions and it was constantly changing!) At one point Irene was out for a long stretch and there were big dark black clouds closing in on her, and then it suddenly started to rain, she turned to our van and said ‘I don’t think I’m in Kansas anymore!’ We also faced sickness, one of our teammates took ill in the middle of the night, but was able to walk and felt much better by the end of her leg. And we city walkers were faced with the hardest obstacle – walking on gravel roads! Sometime to keep in mind for any future backroad races – we definitely need to train on gravel roads, it is so much harder to get the same speed as on paved roads.
jess, ped-antic agent #004
Thanks Jess,
Some of the pics from your weekend should be up on the website soon. It looks like it was lonely out there except for your crew in the support van.
Way to go!
Lee
We could not have done it without our fearless driver (and coach, DJ, massage therapist & googlemap) Jennifer Stewart, who is also a Wow gal who opted to remain behind the wheel on this one. She's my new hero.
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