So a couple of weeks ago I wrote that I was planning on running a half marathon and had a two-week plan to get myself ready for it. In truth, I had been running more than just two weeks before the race, but it was pretty inconsistent and I wasn’t actually specifically training for anything. The two week plan was to specifically prepare myself for this race. I wrote out a plan… and then changed it the next day! After talking to my “running guru” (actually just a colleague who has a lot of running experience), I completely revised my plan to take his advice. My workouts included some 7-minute intervals at just above race pace, some 2-minute intervals, a tempo run, a steady-state run and the standard long, easy run. I did a lot of stretching and foam rolling to try to keep my legs loose and limber during the two weeks leading up to the race, and I found myself feeling pretty good in the days before the race.
Kim and I flew to Kelowna on Friday after work to stay with her parents over the Thanksgiving weekend. On Saturday morning, we drove down to the race expo to pick up our race packages. I thought it was pretty cool that they had a big crate of apples for people to pick from, but Kim laughed at me when I took a photo (apparently random apple crates are common if you’re from the Okanagan ;). I spun the Running Room wheel that shows up at pretty much every big race expo in Canada and won a pair of socks (score!), then Kim and I went for an easy, 20-minute run along the waterfront to stretch the legs. Later that afternoon I had just the right amount of day-before-the-race-homebrew, and we got to bed at a decent time to make it down to the race site for the 7:45am start.
It was a chilly start, but we knew the temps were supposed to climb into the teens by noon-ish so we dressed appropriately and dealt with a bit of a chill in the air before the race. That’s a really tough part about running in the fall – you start cold, but then get really warm once you get going. It can be difficult to dress appropriately! Anyway, after wedging ourselves into the starting area the race got off right on time. The route starts off in downtown Kelowna and makes its way north through some older neighborhoods and some industrial areas before looping back around to the start/finish area and scooting right past it to head south before looping back again. Kind of like a big figure-8! This course was flat, flat, flat! I don’t know if I’ve ever run on a course this flat before. Definitely one to keep in mind if I want to try for a PB time. Besides being flat, it was a pretty nice course. There were quite a few turns along the way but volunteers and signs were always there to point me in the right direction. My favourite part was probably running through a nice little neighborhood just south of the start/finish area in city park.
Before this race, I had run 3 “official” half-marathons before. In every one of them, I went out faster than I should have and ended up in a world of pain by the end of the race and doing everything I could to make it to the finish line. That’s not great for the confidence, so my strategy for this race was to start slower than I thought I could run and then pick up the pace after the half-way point if I felt good. A strong finish is what I was going for, and a negative-split would be even better.
From the beginning I kept checking my watch over and over to make sure I was pacing correctly and not getting caught-up in the excitement. 4:40/km was my early race goal and I did a pretty good job of sticking to that pace, no matter who may have passed me. When I hit 12km, my legs still felt pretty good and I convinced myself to wait until I hit the 13km mark before picking up the pace. 13km came and I still felt good so I went for it! I picked it up a bit so that I was running roughly 4:25/km. This still felt good but because of my past experience I was hesitant to push it any more than that. I hit 18km and though I was working harder my legs still felt good so I upped the pace again. I ran my last two km’s at 4:10/km pace – definitely working hard but I could sustain it and my legs still had enough for a sprint to the line at the end. My chip time (this is what I’m going with!) was 1:35:57, which makes this race my second-fastest half marathon! It wasn’t a PB, but I can definitely take a personal victory from finishing strong and having a big negative-split. That’s a confidence builder for sure, and next time around I think I’ll try for the elusive sub-1:30 time.
So it was a good day for me, but is nowhere near the race that Kim had. I’ll let her tell that herself though!
It’s pretty late in the year, so it is unlikely there will be any more races for me in 2013. It’s time to start thinking about next year and having a bit of fun in the off-season!