Jerry Ziak at the NACAC Cross Country Championships in Trinidad
Fellow community runner Jerry Ziak represented Canada at the NACAC Cross Country Championships in Trinidad. Jerry wrote a race report about his experience in Trindad.
Hello Everyone,
I’m now back in Vancouver after my whirlwind trip to Trinidad for the North American, Central American, and Caribbean Cross Country Championships on Saturday, and I just wanted to send out a big thank you to all the all the individuals who pitched in financially and to help me get there and supported me in general throughout my journey to this event. I would also like to thank DDs Pizza for hosting my fundraising dinner two weeks ago, Forerunners and the Vancouver Falcons Athletic Club for their generous donations, and my sponsor Mizuno for keeping me running comfortably in the latest shoe and apparel technology.
Although I was only there for 3 full days (since both Wednesday and Sunday were both 20 hour travel days) it was a fantastic trip and an incredible racing experience. There were 3 full teams representing Canada at these Championships (Junior men and women (19 and under) and Senior men (over 19) and all three teams had strong races, placing 2nd behind the Americans in all three categories (full results at http://www.ttnaaa.org/~results/2012/nacac_xc/).
The conditions were unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in cross country. The Canadian cross country experience is usually one of pouring rain, mud, and 5 degree temperatures. At this race the course was dry and hard, the sun was beating down on our heads while we were running at the hottest time of the day (4:30 start for the Senior men), and the temperature with the humidex hovered at 37 degrees. It was the only cross country race I’ve ever competed in that had a water station set up at the start of each 2 km loop! Fortunately, these conditions were anticipated and my 10 days of heat preparation before I left (wearing up to 6 layers of clothing) seemed to prepare me quite well for the discomfort to come.
My plan was to go out conservatively at the back of the pack and move up as the race went on. There are always runners in any race who go out too fast regardless of the temperature but on a day like this I knew the consequences of this common mistake would be greatly amplified. So, according to plan, I started out nice and relaxed on the first 2 km loop and sat back in about 20th place in the 32 person field. I was hoping to increase my pace as the race went on, with the goal of finishing in the top 5 but, unfortunately, even with my conservative start, I found that the best I could do was simply maintain my pace. This was still good enough to carry me past 8 of my competitors to an 11th place finish, but it was a frustrating (and very painful) experience to be putting so much effort into simply not going backwards.
I’ve been going back and forth in my mind about whether I’m happy or disappointed with this race, and the truth is, I’m both. I wish I could have been faster on the day and placed higher than I did, knowing that there were people ahead of me who I’ve beaten before and wanting to contribute to the highest possible finish for Team Canada, but I also know that I gave it everything I had on the day. There were some injury problems that I suffered in the month leading up to this race that prevented me from doing some of the faster workouts I would usually do in preparation for a race of this caliber but, although I can explore training solutions that may prevent this from happening again in the future, this wasn’t something I could do anything about once I toed the line and waited for the sound of the gun. All I could do was run my best possible race at that moment and I’m really happy that I did exactly this. As I was running I thought about how proud I was to be representing Canada and all of you in my local running community and this really did help carry me forward as I fought for every possible place.
Thank you all again for your support and encouragement!
Cheers,
Jerry
If you are interested, you can check out photos from the race here
For those of you who haven’t seen Jerry in awhile, he’s number 23 and wearing the white cap.
Hello Everyone,
I’m now back in Vancouver after my whirlwind trip to Trinidad for the North American, Central American, and Caribbean Cross Country Championships on Saturday, and I just wanted to send out a big thank you to all the all the individuals who pitched in financially and to help me get there and supported me in general throughout my journey to this event. I would also like to thank DDs Pizza for hosting my fundraising dinner two weeks ago, Forerunners and the Vancouver Falcons Athletic Club for their generous donations, and my sponsor Mizuno for keeping me running comfortably in the latest shoe and apparel technology.
Although I was only there for 3 full days (since both Wednesday and Sunday were both 20 hour travel days) it was a fantastic trip and an incredible racing experience. There were 3 full teams representing Canada at these Championships (Junior men and women (19 and under) and Senior men (over 19) and all three teams had strong races, placing 2nd behind the Americans in all three categories (full results at http://www.ttnaaa.org/~results/2012/nacac_xc/).
The conditions were unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in cross country. The Canadian cross country experience is usually one of pouring rain, mud, and 5 degree temperatures. At this race the course was dry and hard, the sun was beating down on our heads while we were running at the hottest time of the day (4:30 start for the Senior men), and the temperature with the humidex hovered at 37 degrees. It was the only cross country race I’ve ever competed in that had a water station set up at the start of each 2 km loop! Fortunately, these conditions were anticipated and my 10 days of heat preparation before I left (wearing up to 6 layers of clothing) seemed to prepare me quite well for the discomfort to come.
My plan was to go out conservatively at the back of the pack and move up as the race went on. There are always runners in any race who go out too fast regardless of the temperature but on a day like this I knew the consequences of this common mistake would be greatly amplified. So, according to plan, I started out nice and relaxed on the first 2 km loop and sat back in about 20th place in the 32 person field. I was hoping to increase my pace as the race went on, with the goal of finishing in the top 5 but, unfortunately, even with my conservative start, I found that the best I could do was simply maintain my pace. This was still good enough to carry me past 8 of my competitors to an 11th place finish, but it was a frustrating (and very painful) experience to be putting so much effort into simply not going backwards.
I’ve been going back and forth in my mind about whether I’m happy or disappointed with this race, and the truth is, I’m both. I wish I could have been faster on the day and placed higher than I did, knowing that there were people ahead of me who I’ve beaten before and wanting to contribute to the highest possible finish for Team Canada, but I also know that I gave it everything I had on the day. There were some injury problems that I suffered in the month leading up to this race that prevented me from doing some of the faster workouts I would usually do in preparation for a race of this caliber but, although I can explore training solutions that may prevent this from happening again in the future, this wasn’t something I could do anything about once I toed the line and waited for the sound of the gun. All I could do was run my best possible race at that moment and I’m really happy that I did exactly this. As I was running I thought about how proud I was to be representing Canada and all of you in my local running community and this really did help carry me forward as I fought for every possible place.
Thank you all again for your support and encouragement!
Cheers,
Jerry
If you are interested, you can check out photos from the race here
For those of you who haven’t seen Jerry in awhile, he’s number 23 and wearing the white cap.
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