Hugh A Campbell Memorial 8kRun Race Recap!

From PEI RoadRunners website:

"This run is a Memorial run in remembrance of Hugh Campbell who was a runner back in the thirties and forties on PEI and throughout the Maritimes. His specialty was 5 mile races where he competed and won several races. "

This evening's 8k run fit perfectly into my training schedule (which has admittedly gone off-track since my knee "injury" a few weeks ago). Not only did it fit in the schedule well, it was really close to home, which was a nice change from driving 45 mins to Charlottetown for a 30 minute race! 

The guests staying in Cottage 2 are runners from Ottawa, so I told them about the run and they were pretty excited to give it a try. It was great to go to a race here and have someone to talk to; usually I just wander around smiling awkwardly at people who look kinda maybe familiar!

Some of you will note that I'm wearing Kipper colours. Turquoise shirt, navy shorts, yellow socks.Not intentional.

The race was along the Princetown "Road" for about 2k, and then turned onto another paved road for 2k and then back. I put "road" in quotation marks because it was more like an almost-washed-out clay trail. Beautiful, but hard to run on. The last km of this dirt road was a huge downhill... which was awesome... going in that direction! Not so much on the way back.

I started out feeling pretty good, but I went out too fast (arg, as usual!) and was panting by the end of the first km. I used gravity to get me down the big hill so I could catch my breath and felt ok after that. The 2k from the corner to the turn-around seemed to last for-ev-er. I waved at Jenny from Cottage 2 as she passed on her way back, paused for water at the 4k mark, and headed back. Not long after I turned, I passed Jenny's husband Marco headed toward the water station. 

I was SO relieved when I saw people walking up that hill. This hill is like the mother of all hills. I'm glad I wasn't the only one walking it! There was one little downhill and then another up. And then the glorious finish line! My Garmin finish time was 50:04, but the official time will be a few seconds more (50:24 I think) because I paused my garmin at the water station. After the race, they had hot dogs, bananas, granola bars and ice cream with strawberries. I had a banana and water, but I REALLY wanted some ice cream. Didn't have any lactose pills so I skipped it. 

My toes are absolutely killing me. They look normal, but my toenails feel bruised. Especially on my second toe.

Distance: 8.12 km
Time: 50.04 Garmin time
Average Pace: 6:10/km

Splits

1 - 5:24 - too fast!
2 - 5:33 - Downhill
3 - 5:54
4 - 6:18 
5 - 5:58
6 - 6:07
7 - 7:56 - LOL! That hill was HUGE
8 - 6:17
Last 0.12 - 0:37

Janet (RunMan's mom) was there taking photos, so when she posts them, I'll put one on here, as well as the official result.