Ready. Set. Run!

A few months ago, when I knew I was going to be spending 2 weeks in Calgary for work, I did a little research to see if I could find a race while I was in a different city.  Luckily for me, Scotiabank Calgary Race Weekend fell right smack in the middle of my trip, and I decided to sign up for the half, strictly to keep me motivated after the Vancouver Marathon I ran on May 1^st.

After being disappointed by my race in Vancouver, I stopped looking at the race in Calgary as a fun motivator, and started training.  My previous PR was 2:00:53 (remember that number), almost exactly a year ago, in Prince George.  I wanted sub-2:00.  There were no A, B and C goals.  I needed to run sub-2:00.  

For the month of May, I ran tempos, intervals and long runs on pace to meet my goal.

When I arrived in Calgary, two of the new staff (I’m here doing training) decided to run the half as well.  I was excited to have the company, but concerned about the distraction.  I made my goal known, and was clear that I would be going for it.  No. Matter. What.

Package pick-up went smoothly.

The night before the race, I was having dinner at my cousin’s place.  She knew I was running the next day and is a runner herself, so she made us some yummy pasta with roasted veggies for dinner.  Perfect.  I was back to the hotel early and in bed by 10:30.  I was meeting the other two runners from work at 5:45 in the lobby.

We got to the start line via C-train with plenty of time to spare.  Bag check was easy, and the porta-potty lines moved quickly.  Pretty soon, it was time to line up at the start.  The marathon and half marathon started at the same time, and we all stood around the 4:00 marathon mark, waiting for the gun.

As soon as we were over the start line, we were split up.  There was a lot of weaving in and out, and the course started on a downhill. I knew I was going too fast, but I also knew there was a long, slight, steady climb coming for a good part of the first half of the race.  One guy sprinted by me in completely bare feet. I saw him later and he was not looking very comfortable, but then again, neither was I.

The first km flew by, and we were on familiar ground from my runs on previous visits to Calgary.  I quickly lost my long sleeve shirt and tossed it to the side rather than tying it around my waist.  I didn’t want it to be bugging me for the next two hours.

I knew I needed to hit around 5:38/km pace to meet my goal comfortably, but I also felt that I had sold myself short by starting out too slow in Vancouver.  I looked down a few times and noticed that my pace was about 10 seconds too fast, but I tried not to worry about it.  My legs were feeling good.

 Around the 5K point, I had a weird light-headed feeling for a few minutes.  I remembered I was carrying my water bottle, and took a few gulps.  I was really putting a lot of pressure on myself and knew I needed to relax.

At 7K, I took a quick walk break to take a Gu.  The walk break was what I needed to settle into the race.  At this point I was on 17^th Ave and there was a bit more crowd support.  I didn’t know anyone on the sidelines in this race, but I love reading the signs!  This was a good distraction and I enjoyed this section. 

At this point I was running around the 1:55 pace bunnies, but they were running a faster pace and then taking walk breaks.  I hadn’t trained that way and just wanted to run, so I didn’t worry when they passed me, as I would just catch up on the walk breaks while I kept running.

10 to 14K was a slow, steady climb.  I didn’t feel like I was going uphill, but I was looking forward to the walk break at 14K for the next Gu.  First I had to pass the halfway point.  There was a man with a stop watch yelling out split times.  I was 58:xx.  I thought I had more of a buffer going, and looked down at my Garmin to double check.  Then I realized he was going from the gun, and I was at least a minute behind that.  Phew!

At 14K, I took a little walk break for another Gu, and then looked forward to the turnaround.  I didn’t know exactly where that was going to be, and it felt like it was never going to come.  I was feeling tired.  I didn’t know if I had started out too fast, or just wasn’t ready to hold onto this pace, but I knew it was going to be a struggle to the finish.

I saw both of my co-workers running in the other direction before I got to the turnaround.  That was a bit tough to take, as they had both predicted that they would be slower than me.  One of them was flying way ahead (in brand new minimalist shoes), the other was about a minute ahead of me.  I knew I couldn’t let it get me down, and that even though it was a race, I was only racing myself.  I decided to be happy that they were having good races and kept pushing.  

I had written my 5K, 10K, 15K and 20K split times on my hand, but it had been a cold morning and I was wearing gloves.  By 15 K I had sweated them off.  Between 15K and 20K, I was trying to do mental math to figure out how much time I could afford to walk. My legs were tired, but I kept trying to push.  The more I tried to push, the more I was starting to feel like I was going to vomit.  

I took a few walk breaks through water stops and grabbed Gatorade, hoping it would give me just a little more energy.  Since the turnaround, the course went along a single road, before turning to go uphill.  I knew the course ended with an uphill, and I thought this was it!  Then we turned another corner and went up another hill.  I knew I’d taken one too many walk breaks, so I was really trying to keep my pace up on the uphill.  

That’s when I really felt the vomitous feeling.  

Hand to the mouth.  Giant, full body convulsion burp.  We were near the finish so there were a lot of people on the sidewalk.  Everyone took a full step back in unison.  No vomit came up, and I laughed at the crowd reaction, and got a few cheers. 

I rounded the final corner and could finally see the finish line.  I looked at my watch, just as it rolled over 2:00.  It was really hard not to give up here.  I had just almost thrown up on a family of spectators, and I wasn’t going to meet my goal, but I kept running.

I crossed the finish line and stopped my watch. 

2:00:53.

The EXACT same time as last year. 

Arg. 

Double arg.

I found my coworkers, who both had great races.  We got some food and found a place to stretch.  I was really grumpy for about 10 minutes.  While it is frustrating to not have gained speed in a year, at least I wasn’t getting slower – which is how I felt after the marathon a month earlier.  It had been a beautiful day for a race, I’d been feeling good for the majority of it, and I’d only spent a month training for this pace.  In that month, I’d recovered from a marathon, and spent a week tapering for this race.  I’ve been sleeping in a hotel for a week, worked 7 days straight, and had had trouble sleeping all week. Can I add that Calgary is 500 metres higher in elevation than where I live?  (A week was probably long enough to adjust to this, but I really wanted to feel better).

I checked the race website for the official results obsessively for the next 24 hours.

It’s official.  I have a 4 second PR, and I’ll take it.

2:00:49

5:43/km pace

Sorry to have such a long post without photos, but I have a slow connection at the hotel, and uploading will take forever!