Sunday – 830am

Distance: 21.1km
Time: 1:49:43

Huzzah. 95rd overall, 11th in my age category. I’m very happy about this. It’s been a great experience and I’m glad it’s over.

Michael said a lot of what I was feeling in his post. I especially agree about #17 starting to feel terrible and very especially agree that the wind/hills were bad through 18-20 and super very especially agree that the jog in the last 2 km was almost a deal breaker.

Thanks for reading. Like Michael says, there will be more to follow on this blog (it just may not be 100% running based).

Mission Accomplished

Well, it’s all over!  We battled through some cold windy weather to finish the half marathon.  I did it in 2hrs 2min.  I would have really liked to be under 2 hours, but it just wasn’t in the cards.

Here’s a mini diary of event as I recall:

Start: feelt pretty excited.

1km: did this in about 6 min.  A good pace, still felt fine.

4 km: Peter took off.  I stayed with him for a bit because I thought he was just trying to get out of a crowded pack of runners.  I was wrong. He was just running faster than me.

7km: First rest station.  Felt pretty good.  I was on what I thought was a good pace.  I ate a powergel and had a small cup of gatorade while I walked for a minute.

8-13km: This section was a little tough.  It is sort of the vague middle part of the race.  I felt generally ok, but tired, and wasn’t into the ‘hey, I’m almost there’ part that makes it a bit easier.  At one point I felt crowded, so I jumped out into the road and sprinted for a few moments.  Around 13km it becomes a bit easier to stay motivated because the kilometer count down is on.

14km: I spot a porta-potty ahead.  I need to pee, so I sprint ahead and jump in.  I was pleasantly surprised by how easily I was able to sprint.

15km: 2nd rest station.  Had some powergel and two waters.  I walked for a minute.  It was pretty hard to get going again.  For a few minutes I had some cramps, but they went away pretty quickly.  I was a bit more troubled by the hills.  There were a lot more hills than I anticipated.  None were particularly steep, but there were a lot of them.  London is pretty flat and I’m not used to this.

16km: Some left knee pain.  Feeling tired, but mentally preparing myself for a strong push tot he finish.  I forget my exact time, but a sub-2hour run seemed very possible.

17km: OK, this is were it got tough.  I was pretty happy because 4km left didn’t seem like that much.  At this point I had to really concentrate on running and not just sort of plodding.  I was reasonably successful.

18km.  Very unhappy.  I had a sore knee.  It was very windy.  I really had to imagine happy thoughts of finishing to keep going.  The idea that I should walk for a while entered my head.  I checked my watch and a 2hour time still seemed possible.

19: Pretty miserable.  Turned the last corner a knew I was getting close.  I really tried my hardest to run fast, but the wind really picked up and really slowed me down.  I felt that I was close to the finish line, but thought that it seemed too close. ….

19.5 ish. There was a bonus loop through a parking lot.  I was pretty unhappy to see this diversion when I could see the finish line on the horizon.  I gave the police and marathon staff a disgusted look to let them know how I felt.  I wonder how often they got that look?

21: Through the loop, and headed for home.  I was very, very tired at this point and sadly watched my watch click to 1hour 59min and knew I wouldn’t make it.  I turned the corner and saw my cheering section.  I gave them a wave, and they cheered me on.  Lifted by this, I was determined to finish well.  I spotted a guy ahead of me who had passed me around 16km.  I immediately ’sprinted’ as hard as I could to get ahead of him.  Again I was surprised how well I did.  I ran to the end and beat him easily.  I could hear a guy shout ‘That’s it, you can do it! Race right to the end!’.  It really pushed me.

Finished!!! I did it, they gave me a medal and some kid mumbled something which I eventually figured out meant ‘please give me your time chip.’  I grabbed some water and went to see my family.

I wish I could have done it a bit faster.  Three times in the race I was able to pretty easily run much faster than everyone around me.  I need to work on my overall speed. It is pretty obvious that I could run faster if I just worked a little harder on the mental part of running.

I spent the rest of the day with Eleanor.  We went out and did some shopping to get ready for the baby.  Now, (8hours after the race), I’m a bit stiff and my right knee is sore.  I’m going to stretch a bit and then ice it.

What’s next?  At this moment I’m definitely on a high about the whole experience.  Running a full marathon seems really, really, really, really hard, but I’m up for a half again.  Now that I’ve done it once, I’d like to try again so I can get a better time.  I think I’ll try again in the fall.

Thanks very much to everyone who supported me in this.   I won’t name names here, but a lot of people gave me some good advice and encouraged me when I had doubts.  Thanks!

ps.  As mentioned yesterday,  this blog will continue in one form or another, so stay tuned.

at the end

Well, the big day is almost here. I’m a little disappointed with how I finished my training. I had a lot of other things going on in the last few weeks so I didn’t really do my best.

Amy says that’s ok, because I’m supposed to ‘taper’ at the end. I’m not sure two full weeks (except for ultimate) counts as tapering, more like slacking I think.

Either way, it’s time to get this done. We’ve been building to this for several months. Hard to believe that it will be all over by 10:30 in the morning.

Earlier in the training, I’d optimistically thought that I could get to the point where I’d do the run in 1hr40min. Now I’m hoping for 1hr50 but realize that if I can do it in 2 hours it will be a success.

Thanks for reading everyone! Keep watching to see what happens to this blog next!

The Eve of the Big Day

The big day is finally (almost) here. Michael and I are sitting around listening to the Jays and waiting for bed. We’ve eating our spaghetti, and drank lots of water… visions of sugar-plums dance in our heads.

I’m confident I’ll finish, but I have no idea how long it will take. I’ve noticed that if I run at a pace for a while it’s hard to speed up. I’d like to finish in under 2 hours.

Michael says it’s time for me to stop blogging because he has important things to share with the blogosphere.

Good night.

You win!

Ok, I give up.  You’ve won the training/blogging portion of this project.  I’ve gotten really, really lazy over the last few weeks.

I have been running and playing ultimate, but I haven’t been doing as much as I should.  Once I realized that I could do the half marathon, my motivation dropped.  I haven’t had anything really interesting to say about my runs, so I’ve been silent.

Other than the occassional run, I haven’t done anything that significant as far as training goes.  Unless you count disc golf.  I’ve been playing 2-3 times a week this month.  If this was a throw a disc and then chase it for 21km race.  I’d win for sure.

Ok, that’s it for now.  I’ll post something thoughtful and reflective a day or two before the race.

Friday – 7am

Distance: 5km

Breakfast’s call was mighty, so I took it easy this morning and only did a 5k. Breakfast ended up being as mighty as its call.

One more long run this weeekend and then I cruise to race-day.

Wednesday – 7am

Distance: 10.3922 km

Not much to say, except that I’ve now run over 400 km since November. Wahoo.

Tuesday – 7am

Distance: 10.7933 km
Time: 56 minutes

I really didn’t want to finish this morning. This was run #3 in 6 days which is a bit much compared to the couple of weeks prior. That combined with a bit of dehydration from not drinking as much water in proportion to the amount of turkey I’ve been eating made for a bit of stiffness.

I’ll put in a couple more this week and then an 18-20km run this weekend. Next week I’ll be taking it easy with a couple of 6km’s leading up to the big day on Sunday.

I stopped by the shoe store and picked up a couple gels and gabbed with the clerk about when to replace shoes. I thought my shoes would be ok for like 200000k (my car is doing fine at that milage). Apparently more like 400-800 is normal depending on “whether or not I run like an elephant”. Yikes. I just added up the total of all my runs and I’ve gone 390.217 km. Hopefully they last a bit longer!

Sunday – 830am

Distance: 9.49 km
Time: ??

Another beautiful run by the lake, and then home for a plate of leftover ham and pie. Long weekends are great.

Friday – 1pm

Distance: 16.4916 km
Time: ??

In Kingston this weekend, and I was reminded how great it is to live in such an incredible country. I mapped out a 15km route on gmaps but I only roughly knew the area so I spent a bit of time backtracking looking for paths. In one case what looked like a path from satellite view was in fact some train tracks (not a hazard I wish to take regularly). Then once I got to the waterfront rather than following the road (as planned) I started following whatever trail I could find. My 15km turned into (almost) 16.5km. I think this was the most beautiful run I’ve ever taken. The water on my right, running through parks… very nice indeed.