I headed down to Halifax early Saturday am. Stopped at Suzie's Cupcakes and got cupcake for after the race. It was called "Sweet & Salty". I called it delicious!!
I stayed at Cambridge Suites which is really nice, and close to the start line. Got there around 1pm, but the room wasn't ready yet, so I parked the car and headed out on foot.
First stop was race packet pick-up. It was fairly painless. The expo was underwhelming. Heard John Stanton (founder of Running room) speak, and picked up a few pointers.
Went to MEC to look at hydration packs for trail running. Didn't get one. Went to TAO. Got nothing. My heel was acting up a bit so I went back to the hotel. My room was ready so I just relaxed in the room for the rest of the afternoon. Plus it rained.
Met Nancy, Paul, James and Angie for dinner at Boston Pizza. Had the chipotle bacon penne. Was tasty. Spent some time afterwards hanging out.
Went to sleep at about midnight, which is normal for me. There was some commotion happening in the hallway for a lot of the evening so I put in my ear plugs. Had a good nights sleep. Up at 6am. Had some coffee and breakfast. Evacuated... The heel was feeling pretty good.
Met the gang at their hotel, The Prince George. It was really chilly this morning. The forecast was calling for temps of 16C which is getting up there. It wasn't anywhere near that, more like 6C. Perfect.
Saw the guys off on their race, the 10K, then got lined up for mine. Saw some fellow SWNDHA workers, so I wished them well. The race started at 9:25am. Marathoners went out at 9am, 10K started at 9:10, then the HM. Last year was a bit different set up and I remember that there were a lot of walkers that we had to run around, but it didn't seem that bad this year.
The race got bottle necked about 100m into the race so my pace was down for the first bit. I didn't really have a plan, I decided that I would just run and see how I felt. I was going for a 1:50 goal time, but really wanted to get a PB. The heel was feeling great, no stiffness like during my training runs.
About 4-5K I started getting a pain in my gut. Not like a "Oh great, I'm gonna be the guy who craps his pants" cramp, but different. I focused more on my breathing and it resolved. I think I was running a bit faster than I was supposed to. Around 7.5K, I could smell bacon! There were gals sitting out on the porch eating what appeared to be BLT's. Made it to 8K in 40:00 and 10K in around 50:00. 5:00/km which is on pace for a 1:45:30 finish time. At that point, I was quite sure I would get my 1:50 goal. Well, I might as well go for the PB right??
I'd say the first 11K of the race is a net downhill. The first major climb is at around the 11.5-12K mark in Point Pleasant Park. I think it's called Serpentine Road. It's where I lost my mojo last year. I did lose some time in this part of the race. At 12K my time was 1:00:35.
Honestly, at this point I could no longer do math in my head to see how I was for pacing. For the next 5K, I just glanced at my Garmin and if the pace was 8:24/mile then I was good. (that's the pace needed for a 1:50 finish) Miles? Huh? Yeah, I train using miles. Not sure if it's wise or not but it's a mental thing for me. Ten miles seems like it's less than 16K. I know, stupid right.
The next part of the course, from 13K to 18K is a very gradual uphill.
At 17K, I'm not exactly sure what my time was but I knew that if I added 20 minutes to the current time, then that would approximate my finish time. I didn't worry too much about that pesky 0.1K at the end, I figured I'd run the last K faster anyway.
My calves started feeling twingey around the 18K mark. Gah! Thankfully, they kept relatively quiet. from 18K to 21K is mostly a gradual downhill, with the exception of on very large downhill. And the last 0.1K is UPHILL!!! Ugh!
I honestly don't remember much about the last kms of the race. A guy came up beside me and said something like "not much further now" or something or other. I agreed. We ran beside one another for a bit. I guess I must have passed him. He came up to me afterward and told me so. I did pass a lot of people in that last couple of kms. I guess that has always kind of been my strategy. Save a bit for the end. There were not a lot of km markers toward the end of the race. Well, I didn't see them anyway. I knew my GPS was a bit off so it would have been nice to know how far there was left to go. I think there was a marker at the 20K mark, but there didn't seem to be a lot between 13 and 20. I didn't take a lot of wa ter/gatorade at the aid stations. They get so back logged and people just come to a dead stop which is really annoying. I avoid them if I can. It was quite cool today, so I wasn't sweating profusely. I'm not used to hydrating much during training runs anyway, and I didn't want to upset my stomach. Or lose too much time.
The crowds were AWESOME!! I gave some kid a high five, LOL! Our bid numbers are personalized so people are screaming "GO IAN!!" It was so cool!
Clock time was 1:46:09 Chip time was 1:45:46. pace 5:02/K. 221st place. A personal best. Yay me!
Now it's time to eat that cupcake...
My splits. They're a bit off. I think the Garmin was a bit off today. It read 12.96 miles when I crossed the finish line...
Mile 1: 10:08
Mile 2: 7:43
Mile 3: 7:41
Mile 4: 8:01
Mile 5: 8:34
Mile 6: 8:00
Mile 7: 8:21
Mile 8: 7:54
Mile 9: 8:22
Mile 10: 8:19
Mile 11: 8:03
Mile 12: 7:42
Mile 13: 6:53
