Two days since the half marathon and I finally have a chance to sit down and write about it in detail. Starting with Saturday and Saturday night because it's all one big package.
Saturday was cool and rainy right through the evening. The forecast for Sunday was sunny and 15 C but it was pretty hard to believe as we were shivering on the sidewalk in front of the store where we picked up the race kits. We met up with our Barrie friend there and went for a beer, at least two of us (one of the two being me) swearing that we would skip the run the next day if the weather was still crummy. Would we have? I don't actually know. If it was just showers, I would have worn my jacket and run anyway, most likely.
Anyway, after having such a good Around the Bay at the end of March, I wanted to stick to a very similar routine. That meant no fried foods for the two days before and no fish or seafood, either. Eating lightly on Saturday. And Quizno's for dinner, no later than 6:00 p.m., with DH and I sharing a 9-inch veggie sub and a veggie flatbread. We managed to go to bed fairly early - lights out by about 11:00 - and slept well. In the morning DH had his usual donut and coffee (only one donut because he was only running 5 km) and I had an energy bar, a bit of caffeine, and hot water. The race was at 9:30 a.m. so we got up about 7:00. That way everything has time to digest, we have time to relax, etc.
There were a few raindrops on the windows at 7:00, and when our friends arrived at our hotel room about 8:30 to drop off their stuff, they said there had a been a bit of rain on the way over. But the forecast was still for sunny weather, and it seemed to turn all of a sudden. We got to the race start shortly after 9:00 and it was sunny and about 10 C.
Prior to the race I met up with a guy from the Running Room forum, which was pretty cool. And a friend who wasn't running came down to see us off. The start line was in a slightly different place this year - up on the street instead of by the water - but still in the same general location. Amazingly enough, maybe because of meeting someone new and the distraction of introducing him, and hugging our other friend, my usual pre-race "I really don't want to do this feeling" never showed up. Nice. And then the bell rang pretty much on time and we were off!
From the beginning, it felt like a better run than the previous two years. In 2005, I started to get stomach cramps around the 3 km mark and had to walk a bit - actually considered a sudden downgrade to the 5 km race. In 2006, I had built back up to the distance while recovering from my hip injury but was kind of tense about doing that long a distance and getting injured again. This year things just felt better.
Which is not to say that they were necessarily easy - the hills are still hills and they are my downfall since I have never done enough hill training. But I was better prepared and plodded up all of them - no walking. In fact, with the exception of a few steps at each water break, I didn't walk any part of this course, also a big improvement from last year when I didn't want to take any chances and just walked the hills as soon as they felt tiring.
Not everything went smoothly, of course. I had heard a tip for drinking water while running - pinch the cup so it's like a spout and less likely to splash when you try and drink it. Okay - tried that at the 5 km water station. Water up my nose, water the wrong way down my throat - choke, cough, gasp - so much for that idea. May as well have walked to begin with...
I also made an effort to drink more - hit almost every water station, even if not for a lot. That wasn't so great - I could feel the water in my stomach, and actually hear it sloshing, and that was very uncomfortable. As a result, km 20 was pretty miserable - spent part of it just forcing myself along in a slow trot. Did manage to recover for a pretty strong finish - the crowds at the end were great. Plus I could see DH and our friends cheering me across and that always means a little extra energy :)
At the same time that it was a good run, it was somewhat tiring, moreso than a 21 km training run. Part of that is probably knowing that it's a race and being hyper-aware of how I'm feeling. Part of that was those wonderful hills. And I think part is also that my body "knew" I was only running a half and didn't bother preparing itself for a longer distance. All of which is to say that I couldn't have done 42.2 km at that speed on Sunday morning. Of course, I'm not planning to do 42.2 km at that speed at the end of May, either.
So, what speed? What was the time?!?!?
Well, there is some confusion over that. Although we were using chips, and they beeped as we crossed the timing mats at the Start line, only the gun times were posted. Fortunately I was wearing my cool new running watch, so I know my time from crossing the mat at the Start to crossing it at the Finish, and was using that as my "official" time. But then I heard today that the actual Start line was further back, and was not the timing mat, but that doesn't really make sense to me, especially since they're claiming the course has been certified. I did send an email tonight asking for clarification and am curious as to what the response will be.
Regardless, the results are: gun time - 1:44, and "watch time" 1:43:12!!! Given that my previous PB on that course was close to 1:48, I am ECSTATIC. Either time was beyond what I expected to do. The other very cool thing is that I finished third in my age category - something that has never happened before and will probably never happen again.
So it was, overall, a really good day. As always, once the run was over and we'd had a chance to shower (although this year they only had to wait for me), we went to a nearby pub for lunch and that beer tasted GOOD. Something quite cool was that my nephew came down to watch me cross the finish line, and came to lunch with all of us. He is such a nice guy and our friends enjoyed meeting him - hope he had a good time as well (seemed to).
Physically, I'm feeling quite good but being cautious. First run will be tomorrow morning. My hip itself is fine but there is some stiffness/discomfort in my IT band, so I'm treating that with ice and heat and will do some massage tonight. This weekend is a long training run - 32 km - the last big run before the taper - and after that I'm going to go for an ART session. I'm always afraid of an injury but am cautiously optimistic that everything is going to be okay for Ottawa.
In other news, DH ran the 5 K in about 26.5 minutes and felt well afterwards, which was/is great. He is planning to do the Half in Ottawa so needs to do some running between now and then. His calf feels okay so far, and he'll be running tomorrow to test it out.
Could write and write and write, but it's time to ice that IT band :)
Saturday was cool and rainy right through the evening. The forecast for Sunday was sunny and 15 C but it was pretty hard to believe as we were shivering on the sidewalk in front of the store where we picked up the race kits. We met up with our Barrie friend there and went for a beer, at least two of us (one of the two being me) swearing that we would skip the run the next day if the weather was still crummy. Would we have? I don't actually know. If it was just showers, I would have worn my jacket and run anyway, most likely.
Anyway, after having such a good Around the Bay at the end of March, I wanted to stick to a very similar routine. That meant no fried foods for the two days before and no fish or seafood, either. Eating lightly on Saturday. And Quizno's for dinner, no later than 6:00 p.m., with DH and I sharing a 9-inch veggie sub and a veggie flatbread. We managed to go to bed fairly early - lights out by about 11:00 - and slept well. In the morning DH had his usual donut and coffee (only one donut because he was only running 5 km) and I had an energy bar, a bit of caffeine, and hot water. The race was at 9:30 a.m. so we got up about 7:00. That way everything has time to digest, we have time to relax, etc.
There were a few raindrops on the windows at 7:00, and when our friends arrived at our hotel room about 8:30 to drop off their stuff, they said there had a been a bit of rain on the way over. But the forecast was still for sunny weather, and it seemed to turn all of a sudden. We got to the race start shortly after 9:00 and it was sunny and about 10 C.
Prior to the race I met up with a guy from the Running Room forum, which was pretty cool. And a friend who wasn't running came down to see us off. The start line was in a slightly different place this year - up on the street instead of by the water - but still in the same general location. Amazingly enough, maybe because of meeting someone new and the distraction of introducing him, and hugging our other friend, my usual pre-race "I really don't want to do this feeling" never showed up. Nice. And then the bell rang pretty much on time and we were off!
From the beginning, it felt like a better run than the previous two years. In 2005, I started to get stomach cramps around the 3 km mark and had to walk a bit - actually considered a sudden downgrade to the 5 km race. In 2006, I had built back up to the distance while recovering from my hip injury but was kind of tense about doing that long a distance and getting injured again. This year things just felt better.
Which is not to say that they were necessarily easy - the hills are still hills and they are my downfall since I have never done enough hill training. But I was better prepared and plodded up all of them - no walking. In fact, with the exception of a few steps at each water break, I didn't walk any part of this course, also a big improvement from last year when I didn't want to take any chances and just walked the hills as soon as they felt tiring.
Not everything went smoothly, of course. I had heard a tip for drinking water while running - pinch the cup so it's like a spout and less likely to splash when you try and drink it. Okay - tried that at the 5 km water station. Water up my nose, water the wrong way down my throat - choke, cough, gasp - so much for that idea. May as well have walked to begin with...
I also made an effort to drink more - hit almost every water station, even if not for a lot. That wasn't so great - I could feel the water in my stomach, and actually hear it sloshing, and that was very uncomfortable. As a result, km 20 was pretty miserable - spent part of it just forcing myself along in a slow trot. Did manage to recover for a pretty strong finish - the crowds at the end were great. Plus I could see DH and our friends cheering me across and that always means a little extra energy :)
At the same time that it was a good run, it was somewhat tiring, moreso than a 21 km training run. Part of that is probably knowing that it's a race and being hyper-aware of how I'm feeling. Part of that was those wonderful hills. And I think part is also that my body "knew" I was only running a half and didn't bother preparing itself for a longer distance. All of which is to say that I couldn't have done 42.2 km at that speed on Sunday morning. Of course, I'm not planning to do 42.2 km at that speed at the end of May, either.
So, what speed? What was the time?!?!?
Well, there is some confusion over that. Although we were using chips, and they beeped as we crossed the timing mats at the Start line, only the gun times were posted. Fortunately I was wearing my cool new running watch, so I know my time from crossing the mat at the Start to crossing it at the Finish, and was using that as my "official" time. But then I heard today that the actual Start line was further back, and was not the timing mat, but that doesn't really make sense to me, especially since they're claiming the course has been certified. I did send an email tonight asking for clarification and am curious as to what the response will be.
Regardless, the results are: gun time - 1:44, and "watch time" 1:43:12!!! Given that my previous PB on that course was close to 1:48, I am ECSTATIC. Either time was beyond what I expected to do. The other very cool thing is that I finished third in my age category - something that has never happened before and will probably never happen again.
So it was, overall, a really good day. As always, once the run was over and we'd had a chance to shower (although this year they only had to wait for me), we went to a nearby pub for lunch and that beer tasted GOOD. Something quite cool was that my nephew came down to watch me cross the finish line, and came to lunch with all of us. He is such a nice guy and our friends enjoyed meeting him - hope he had a good time as well (seemed to).
Physically, I'm feeling quite good but being cautious. First run will be tomorrow morning. My hip itself is fine but there is some stiffness/discomfort in my IT band, so I'm treating that with ice and heat and will do some massage tonight. This weekend is a long training run - 32 km - the last big run before the taper - and after that I'm going to go for an ART session. I'm always afraid of an injury but am cautiously optimistic that everything is going to be okay for Ottawa.
In other news, DH ran the 5 K in about 26.5 minutes and felt well afterwards, which was/is great. He is planning to do the Half in Ottawa so needs to do some running between now and then. His calf feels okay so far, and he'll be running tomorrow to test it out.
Could write and write and write, but it's time to ice that IT band :)
posted by Jogger Barbie | 7:54 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home