Registered for our first race of 2014!

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At the end of January I had marked my calendar with the date and time that registration for SeaWheeze half marathon opened. This is a race that has been on my radar since it first began in 2011 and it is clearly gaining in popularity. As soon as registration open I eagerly hit “refresh” and tried to register. However unexpectedly high demand crashed their registration system harshly. After spending longer sitting in front of my computer than it would have taken to finish the race, they finally announced (or admitted) they had to shut it down. Registration re-opened a week and a half later and the 10,015 spots sold out within an hour. Chris and I were both able to register.

The $128 CAD registration fee includes a pair of lulu shorts that they’ll mail to you in advance, as well as a weekend full of yoga as well as a post-race brunch and concert. I’ve heard good things and am very excited. The route goes through downtown Vancouver, along the world-famous seawall. Fingers crossed for no rain!

The route and elevation through beautiful Vancouver

The route and elevation chart through beautiful Vancouver

This is currently the only race I’m registered for at the moment. It definitely won’t be the only race of 2014, but it certainly feels good to finally have something  down on the calendar. At this point I don’t anticipate that this will be my “A” race for 2014, but it’s definitely a starting point. It’s time to start planning for the rest of the year!

Post Marathon Blues?

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It’s hard to believe that it’s been three weeks since the New York City Marathon. Those weeks have gone by so quickly. Often after a build-up to a race, there’s a bit of a let-down once it’s done. Since I first put my name in the lottery in 2010, I’ve been setting goals, thinking, and training for the race. Three years is a lengthy build-up for one single race. So, how does it feel now that it’s over?

Physically, it took my legs a good four or five days to feel back to normal after the marathon. My recovery probably would have been easier if we hadn’t spent Monday and Tuesday after the race walking everywhere and exploring New York City! Although I had the best of intentions to go for a swim, I suppose I was feeling lazy and took the following week after that as rest as well.  Back in Edmonton, we had family come to visit for the Remembrance Day long weekend and the weather turned quite poor (i.e. we have had over 60 centimetres of snow already this month!), so it was conducive to rest days!

It’s now what I would officially consider to be my “off-season”. The New York City Marathon was my “A” race for the year, and I definitely saved the best for last. Unlike previous years, at this moment, as I have absolutely  no goals, plans or races scheduled for 2014, I find myself approaching the next few months with greater uncertainty than in previous years. I’m a planner by nature (and by profession), and in the past I’ve either had at least an Ironman, 1/2 Ironman, 1/2 marathon or similar race already in mind. Often I’ve already been registered for them at this time. I have absolutely no idea at this point what 2014 will look like race-wise for me!

No, I don’t think I feel depressed or sad now that NYC is over. I have the best memories from New York and I still find myself thinking about the experience or looking at photos. Not only was the race an incredible experience, but Chris and I had such a phenomenal four days in the city that neither of us wanted to leave. After Ironman racesI have felt a bit sad after the excitement of the race is all over with, because you work so hard and have so much anticipation for one single day. But as I write this we’re three weeks away from our wedding, so I am also investing a lot of time thinking about that. Perhaps if we didn’t have the wedding to look forward to, I might feel a bit more bored and mentally let-down post-marathon.

So, although I’m not registered for anything, I’d like to put a few ideas down on paper. For the “off-season”, I would like to keep in shape by doing Sufferfest, Insanity, and T25 (Santa Claus??) DVDs. Once the snow is gone and it’s warmer outside (i.e. not until May in Edmonton), I would really like to improve my speed at the 5km and 10km distances. I would seriously consider running a few half marathons and possibly another marathon. Chris, I know what you’re thinking, and no, this doesn’t commit us to anything too far in advance, I’m just thinking out-loud!

Races I would really like to do at some point in the near future (although it’s probably not financially realistic to do them all in the same year):
Las Vegas Rock ‘n’ Roll 1/2 Marathon (November)
Sea Wheeze Half Marathon (August, but need to register in January)
Nike San Francisco Women’s 1/2 Marathon (October)

Races that I would definitely consider doing in 2014:
Melissa’s Road Race (10km or 22km – September, but need to register in February)
Edmonton 1/2 Marathon (August)
Kelowna 1/2 Marathon (October)
Challenge Penticton Relay Team (or 1/2 Ironman?) (August)

I would run the New York City Marathon again in a heartbeat and am contemplating tossing my name in the lottery again. I know Chris has a few running goals, and since we went to NYC for me to do a race, it might be his turn to pick a location. I sure hope he picks somewhere warmer than here!

The New York City Marathon

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Wow. I don’t even know where to begin. I honestly just had one of the best weekends of my life. I’ll try to cover off our vacation to NYC (the non-run portion!) in a separate post. We did so many amazing things in the city I should write them down so I don’t forget them all.

Before the marathon:

I did a quick run in Manhattan on Saturday morning and we went to package pickup/the race expo around lunch. Chris and I have been to expos before, but definitely nothing of this magnitude! I could definitely feel the excitement in the Javits Convention Centre, and it made me really start feeling excited for the race. I think we both enjoyed wandering around and checking out our favourite vendors. Chris bought me some cool Newton socks, which had the NYC skyline stretch around the ankle and we also did a quick walk near the finish line in Central Park.

Proudly Canadian!

Proudly Canadian!

In the spirit of carbo loading, we went to Eataly for a little pasta dinner the night before the race. We ate dinner at La Pizza & La Pasta (the Linguine al Pesto Trapanese was incredible!). It took an hour for us to get a table, but fortunately with a 10:55 AM race start time, and daylight savings buying us an extra hour of sleep, I wasn’t being too much of a stickler about ensuring our dinner was super early. I think we ended up sitting down for dinner around 6:00 PM, which by New York standards is senior citizen dining time. Normally, when Chris and I order two different meals, I always like his better. Not this time! I think we both liked my pasta better than his. I almost licked my plate.
Chris had caught a red-eye flight to the city on Friday night/Saturday morning, and after dinner he (quite understandably!) started feeling pretty tired. This worked out well for me getting to bed at a decent time. We went back to our room and I got everything organized for the next day. I laid out all of my clothes and packed almost everything I needed in the start area bag that I could bring to Staten Island. Some of things I packed in the bag included throw-away sweatpants, sweater and toque, mitten warmers (the kind that you shake and the packet gets hot), cheap gloves, Gu roctane gels, a fruit bar, almonds and walnuts and my favourite EFS sports drink that I planned to carry with me until I emptied the bottle. We also stopped on the way to the ferry terminal in the morning to purchase a People magazine and an extra bottle of water to add to the bag.

The night before I was super paranoid about my alarm getting messed up by daylight savings. Because it’s expensive to use out-of-country roaming, we both had our cell phones on airplane mode. Somehow they still knew that the clocks were set back and the alarms ended up going off at the correct time. I guess that’s why they’re called smart phones. Worst case, we probably would have just woken up one hour earlier than normal. We also had a wake-up call programmed just in case!

Who's that bum rifling through the garbage?

Who’s that bum rifling through the garbage?

We made it to the Ferry terminal around 7:30 AM. I wasn’t due to get on the ferry until 8:00 AM, so we had some time to kill and decided to wander around Battery Park. I was, of course, dressed in my hobo attire, which was quite amusing to Chris. I humored him by pretending to rifle through a garbage can.

Sniffer dog in the ferry terminal (taken by Chris after all the crowds had left!)

Sniffer dog in the ferry terminal (taken by Chris after all the crowds had left!)

It was pretty packed trying to get on the ferry. The boat had three levels and the top two floors were crowded. We were able to get a seat on the lower deck, where there was much more room. Our ferry was escorted across by several police/military boats and it made me feel more relaxed to see such high security. There were also several police (explosive?) sniffing dogs checking everyone who entered both the ferry terminal and the staging area at Fort Wadsworth. I was lucky to meet up with my friend Jane, who missed her own earlier ferry because the subways were too crowded for her to arrive on time! This worked out so well for both of us, to have someone to chat with to help quell the nervous energy before the race. Chris came with me for the ferry ride over, and he ended up staying on the ferry and returning to Manhattan after Jane and I got off.

Dressed like hobos on the Staten Island Ferry

Dressed like hobos on the Staten Island Ferry

It took a long time for us to catch a shuttle once we arrived in Staten Island. The lineups were at least  30 mins long, and we were probably on the bus for another 20 mins after that. By the time we arrived at Fort Wadsworth Jane’s wave was being called to staging. I gave her a big hug and she went on her way! She definitely didn’t have time to read the magazines she brought along with her. Looking back, I probably didn’t need the one I brought either – there were a ton laying around in the staging areas from people who had already discarded theirs (in true hobo fashion I could have just picked those ones up). But since we didn’t know what to expect, just knowing that I had a magazine I could read, if I was in fact sitting there for over an hour helped make me feel better in advance! So I really only flipped through a few pages, but it was still money well spent!

I was a bit worried it would be confusing at Fort Wadsworth, but the NYRR definitely knows how to host large crowds of people. The only real problem I had was finding my correct corral area, since the entrance to it ended up being behind a bit of a building. In retrospect I should have done a bit more exploring while I was waiting for my wave to be called. There were huge lineups in common areas for bathrooms, but there were a ton of portable toilets in the corral areas line-free. I ended up entering my corral around 10:30 AM, and the adventure began!

The Marathon:

What a spectacular starting location! Our corral filtered down from the blue staging area to one of the top sides of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. People were taking off their hobo clothes and throwing them everywhere! The clothing donation people must have had a major clean-up job to do.

The first mile of the race was unbelievable. Hearing “New York, New York” on the loudspeaker and seeing the gunboats still gives me shivers. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience (maybe more than once if I ever get lucky with the lottery again!). I definitely ran on adrenaline for the first few miles.

The crowds in Brooklyn were so memorable. The first few miles were PACKED. I’ve never run a race with so many spectators before.  I soaked it all in. The signs were amazing, and so, so funny, and the energy level was intense! I really enjoyed the different neighbourhoods within the borough. I could tell when we went through Mexican, Italian and Jewish areas, to name a few. I really enjoyed Brooklyn.

We were only in Queens for a mile or two. My Garmin kind of crapped out over the Queensborough bridge and lost satellite reception, which threw my pace and distance off a bit. This bridge was a killer. I suppose one of the disadvantages of going in to a race you’ve never run (or even seen) before is that you’re not mentally prepared for what you have to face. The Queensborough bridge seemed to go on forever. My legs were definitely starting to hurt at this point, and it started to become mind over matter. I do remember running in to Manhattan and seeing crowds on the side of the road lined 8, maybe 10, people deep. Total random strangers cheered for me. It makes me feel emotional to think about. The crowds were incredible.

I don’t remember much from the Bronx, other than seeing a grocery store that had some strange name. I think it was “Western Beef Grocery”. Seriously, for like a kilometre I recall thinking, “How strange of a name for a grocery store”. It kept my mind off the pain in my legs, so whatever. Back in Harlem I got lucky around kilometre 35. At the race expo, Chris had recorded a video message for me, which was displayed for me on a giant jumbotron at this point in the race. Even if the mental pickup only lasted a kilometre or two, it was amazing. I love that man.

During training I imagined myself running the final few miles through Central Park. What I imagined, and how I felt on race day were totally different. First, my legs were killing me, and second, I think my mind was totally just glazed over at this point. While I can remember running and what the scenery looked like, and how much pain my legs were in, I don’t recall at all if I was happy, sad, or what I was thinking. It’s so odd how you can just get in the zone.

My Garmin battery beeped at me that it was “low” with probably 30 minutes still to go. It’s super old and in total need of replacement, since it obviously can’t hold charge for much longer than four hours. For those of you with a Garmin, you’ll know that when this happens, the low battery message stays on the screen. Because of the way I have my screen set up, this meant I couldn’t see my current time. I didn’t think to just change the view (again my mind wasn’t working very well!). I knew I was close to my goal, but I wasn’t sure how close. The only other (non-ironman) marathon I had run was in 2010, and I did it in 4:56 hrs. This time around I knew I was able to go faster, but I didn’t know exactly how much faster. At the expo, I picked up a pace bracelet for a 4:20 finish time, thinking it was realistic for me to finish in the 4:20-4:30 hr ballpark. After the race, Chris later told me that he thought I was being optimistic picking up the 4:20 band, because of how much faster it was! My chip time ended up being 4:22:56 hrs, nearly 35 minutes quicker than my last marathon attempt. This was a huge PR, and I am incredibly proud of myself for achieving it!

I found out later that Chris ended up coming to Brooklyn and ran alongside me (but on the opposite side of the road) yelling my name for almost a kilometre, and I didn’t see him at all! I’m so bummed that I never saw or heard him, I totally could have used a smooch and a pick-me up at that point in the race. Sorry honey, I must have been focused and zoned in!

After the marathon:

Ouch. I was SO relieved for the run to be done. But I was also in an incredible amount of pain! I finished the race around 3:20 PM, and it easily took me 40 minutes to navigate my way out of the park and to my meet-up location with Chris (which was just outside of the runner-only area). This was probably the worst part of the day. There was plenty of herding and waiting that happened earlier (waiting for ferries, waiting for shuttle buses, waiting in corrals), but this was easily one of the most painful, leg shattering walks I’ve ever done.

Chris and I decided in advance that we would meet up at a Starbucks, located at Columbus Ave and 67th Street on the Upper West Side. We figured Chris would be able to use their free wifi while he waited, so he could check in and see how I was doing! I was so overcome with pain and emotion (well, mostly pain) when I saw him across the street I started to cry. A police office who was monitoring that intersection made eye contact with me, asked me where I was wanting to go (I told him across the street) and he was so kind and told me that I looked fantastic. I felt badly for Chris once I arrived. He was so excited for me, and for how much time I took off my marathon time, that my tears probably took away a bit of our celebration excitement. I was so thankful to have Chris there supporting me.

Post-Race Thoughts:

So true...

So true…

I saw this poster in the subway a day or two after the race, and it couldn’t have been more true (sorry, it’s a bit blurry)! While I was sad last year when the race was cancelled, I was way better prepared this year! In the race packages you receive a magnet which you can put your own time in to. I’ve had the blank 2012 magnet on our fridge since last year, and was finally able to add the new magnet to reflect my 2013 time! I’ll probably leave it on the fridge for awhile – I feel quite proud of myself when I see it!

New York City Marathon

The pain hasn’t quite left my legs, but I somehow still find myself wondering “what’s next”? This is somewhat humorous to me, since it was just a few days ago I hobbled in to Chris’ arms in New York City in tears after the marathon due to my legs screaming out in agony. At least for this week, I’m doing absolutely nothing. Not even taking the stairs up and down at work. Next week we’re hoping to start back up with the Insanity DVD’s, to do a bit of fine-tuning to our bodies in advance of our next big adventure – our wedding!

Proudly wearing the NYC jacket Chris bought for me!

Proudly wearing the NYC jacket Chris bought for me!

KT Tape – Is this all hocus pocus?!

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BEFORE (October 27, 2013):

Ohhhh! Perhaps I too can look as fit as the girl on the box!

Ohhhh! Perhaps I too can look as fit as the girl on the box!

Alright, so as I write this I’m one week out from the NYC marathon and I’ve had a bit of lingering hip and foot pain that has flared up recently. In the past I’ve had problems with my outer hips (often the piriformis, I accept the fact they can be weak), but the pain had gone away recently, which I attributed to the Insanity DVDs we had been doing (Thanks Shaun T!). This time I think it might be IT band related. The pain on the top of my foot began a week ago after my 23km run with Chris last weekend, and after eight days of stretching, ice and ibuprofen, it’s still kicking around. After some encouragement from some friends on Twitter, I figured KT Tape wouldn’t cause any further injury, and thus decided to try a $20 experiment. I picked up a box from my local drugstore and taping commenced shortly after.

So, using my expert self-injury diagnosis techniques, I followed the KT Tape instructions for “Top of Foot” and “IT Band Hip“. Top of foot pain seemed sort of the obvious one for how to treat. Coming up with the IT band hip one took a quick youtube search. I implicated my lovely finance as my expert taper for this experiment.

Apparently the different tape colours mean absolutely nothing. So I picked purple to match the shirt I am planning on wearing in NYC and it’s also one of the colours we selected for our upcoming wedding!

What have I learned so far? Well, from the photos, I probably need to repaint my toenails. Perhaps I shall give myself a pre-NYC marathon pedicure.

Chris focused on his job!

Chris focused on his job!

KT Tape Experiment 1

KT Tape Experiment 1

KT Tape Experiment 2

KT Tape Experiment 2

AFTER:

24 HOURS LATER:

So, perhaps I have un-sticky skin. Or perhaps we messed up with the stretch and then release part, but one of the ends of the tape on my ankle came off within like 20 minutes. Seriously. We unstuck it from itself (it folded over on another sticky part), and re-stuck it down. 24 hours later, it was still holding strong (probably thanks to a sock that I kept on). Some of the strips on my hip were also coming loose on the ends (but nothing disastrous). However, I hadn’t felt any significant improvement at this point.

ONE WEEK LATER (November 7, 2013):

So after the 24 hour period had passed my hip started getting really itchy. (Side note – How long are you supposed to leave this tape on for?!?!?) I didn’t last much longer past this point, before I had to take it off my hip (due to the sheer itchiness factor). For my hip, I gave up on this part of the experiment and ended up going to the chiropractor for active release on the Thursday before the marathon. I decided I would probably have greater benefit from painting my toenails, than from re-taping.

So, I ended up not running with the tape. Partially I was worried by how irritated the skin on my hip had been by it, and since I took it off during the week I didn’t get a chance to really run with it at all during training. At first I wondered if the scratches on my skin were from my fingernails, and trying to scratch the itchy spots, but I don’t think that was the case, as there are marks under where the tape was, in areas where my fingers couldn’t possibly have reached. I’ve never had any reaction to any form of medical tape before and had no issues with the tape on my foot causing a similar reaction.

Irritated skin from the KT Tape

Irritated skin from the KT Tape

Seriously, in the week since I’ve taken the tape off, some parts have even scabbed over. It’s horrible. Originally I thought “KT tape wouldn’t cause further injury”, which I suppose is true in the sense that it didn’t hurt my foot and it didn’t drastically cause further injury to my hip. However, I’m not sure I would recommend it based on the itchyness/scraped up hip factor alone, however since we have over half a roll of tape left, I might try it again. Or maybe Chris will test it out (if next season one of us develops an injury and we actually don’t forget that we have it hidden away).

Overall KT Tape Experiment = Probably not very successful for myself, but if it apparently works for other people (placebo effect?), so it might be worth trying if you have a mild injury! For any serious injuries, though always seek professional help.

I FINALLY feel like a runner!!!!

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I had always wondered if this feeling would ever hit me. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve definitely burned through my fair share of running shoe rubber over the past fifteen years, however for some reason I’ve never really felt like a runner. To describe training, I would always say I’m going for a run, however I suppose I always considered myself more of a “shuffler”, or a “jogger”. Last Sunday, that feeling changed.

Back in 2008, I recall very vividly sitting in a basement classroom at Western University with one of my graduate school colleagues. At this point in my life, I had just completed my first ironman – but no joke – I barely made it through that marathon (and my bike time was almost faster than my run). The friend that I was speaking with was/is an exceptional runner, and went on a year or two later to Boston-qualify. That one fall day, I remember sitting in the classroom telling her “I have a goal of someday running a sub two hour half marathon, but I’m not sure I can ever do it”. I felt slightly embarrassed by this goal, knowing how strong of a runner she was, but her response was a super cool and confident “of course you can!”

Chris and I arrived in Kelowna two nights prior to the Okanagan Half Marathon. We had our trip to Kelowna booked many months ago, to visit my family for the long weekend, but only decided earlier in the week we would register for the race. Chris ran with me in Melissa’s Road Race two weekends prior, and we were partly waiting to see how we felt after that before we made a decision about registering.

The day before the race my parents organized a pre-wedding “fiesta” for us. There was a ton of great food and booze. Probably too much good food and booze! If this was an “A” race for me, I probably would have made more of an effort to abstain (i.e. telling my Mom it’s not necessary to bust out the Limoncello after all the guests have left)! However, looking back I was approaching this more of a training run, and I’m not even sure I would have categorized it as a “B” race. So, bring on the martini’s!

I didn’t wake up on Sunday morning feeling incredible, knowing that was going to be the day I would achieve my goal. I didn’t even feel 100% on the morning of the race and I certainly didn’t go to the race with the intention of pushing myself too hard. I wasn’t hungover, but my stomach always seems to feel upset and nervous before a race. Regardless of all of the above, for the first time in my running “career” something finally clicked and I had an amazing race!

Chris and I made it to the start line with maybe 5-10 minutes to kill in the corral. Chris moved up to start around the 1:40 pace bunny and I settled myself in between the 2:00 and 2:15 bunnies. I didn’t really have a plan. I just wanted to go out and get my long run done, in preparation for NYC!

It was a perfect fall morning for a run. I started out running a comfortable, steady pace but I could see the 2hr bunny disappearing off in the distance. This didn’t really surprise me, since I’ve been dropped by the 2hr bunny in all of my previous half marathons.  I also didn’t really care that much, as I wasn’t approaching this race with a time goal in mind. After 10 minutes of running, most of the pace bunnies walk for one minute (the traditional Running Room 10′s and 1′s program). After their first walk break, I had caught up to the 2hr group and they took off and started running again. This leapfrogging happened again 20 minutes later. After their second or third walk break, I was ahead of them. I could hear the bunny tell his group to slow down since they were going too fast. This made me think…. if they’re going “too fast”, and I’m ahead of them, maybe I’ll run their pace for awhile and see what happens! So I started running with the bunny and the 2hr pace group, doing 10′s and 1′s.

The Okanagan Marathon course is flat and fast. I hit the 10km mark in City Park in 54:41min. Not only was this my fastest 10km split ever, but I felt strong! We headed to the south side of the bridge for the second half of the run. However, at 12kms, our bunny announced he was going to veer off to the bathroom, and for us to keep going. No sense in me stopping, so I kept running, along with a few girls who had also been running with him. We kept expecting the bunny to catch us, and I even looked back a few times to see if I could see him but he didn’t seem to be catching up. It’s funny, all I kept thinking was, that poor pace bunny, his time is going to be way off. Never once did I think that I was going faster than a 2hr pace and had essentially “dropped” him!

One of the girls who had been running with the bunny was a nice lady named Fran. We’d never met before, but I’m sure if we lived in the same city we would be good running friends. After the bunny went MIA, Fran and I stuck together, taking a few scheduled walk breaks and pushing each other on. We chatted a little bit, but mostly we were focused on having a great race and finishing strong!

Excited to see my Mom out cheering!

Excited to see my Mom out cheering!

I saw my Mom with about three kilometres left to go. I gave her a high-five as I ran past and had every intention of telling her how awesome of a day I was having, but I don’t think I ended up saying a single word. Fran and I agreed to take our last one minute walk break just after we saw her. We did a quick walk and then dug our heels in for the stretch to the finish! I was in the zone and totally determined at this point to finish in under two hours (for the first time ever)!

Fran had a really strong finishing kick. Stronger than mine, but I think I did a decent job keeping up with her. I was so excited to see Chris in the finishing chute, and I ended up finding him waiting right after I crossed the line. Lucky for me, he had been there waiting for about a minute. I don’t think either of us had been expecting me to finish sub 2 and I think we were both equally surprised. I couldn’t believe my time! My chip time was 1:55:58hrs! This was over eight minutes better than my previous PB – a 2:04:02 in the Ottawa Half Marathon in 2011. I shattered my previous personal best. Absolutely demolished it.

After meeting my sub 2 goal, for some reason, I finally feel like a real runner. No, nothing has changed at all from the week before the race to now. But I somehow feel validated. I’m so proud. Possibly prouder than I’ve ever been from a race before. Running has always been difficult for me, and to meet this goal makes me feel a huge sense of accomplishment! Chris had a pretty good run too! You can read his race report below.

Look how big my smile is! I almost wore my medal for the rest of the day!

Look how big my smile is! I almost wore my medal for the rest of the day!

As I write this, I’m ten days away from the start of the New York City Marathon. My results from the Okanagan 1/2 are a huge confidence boost going in to NYC. I’m so excited to run this once-in-a-lifetime marathon and will be sure to post a blog once I’m back. One thing to note: the New York Marathon will be my last race as a “Schwartz”!

Okanagan Half Marathon race report!

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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!

Melissa’s Road Race

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There’s a number of races I’ve had on my bucket list for the past few years. One of those has always been Melissa’s Road Race, held annually in September, in the incredible Banff National Park. When Chris and I moved to Alberta I knew it was a race we needed to sign up for. Fortunately this year the timing worked out perfectly with my training schedule for the NYC marathon, so one cold wintery morning in February when registration opened, I was on it!

At the end of September we drove the four hours down to Banff, leaving after work on Friday evening (the race was Saturday morning). We missed bib pickup on Friday night, so we had to go early to the race site on Saturday morning to pick up our bibs. Given that there was snow in the forecast we prepared ourselves for a potentially chilly run and tried to dress accordingly. Man, were we (and the weatherman) wrong.

Melissa's Road Race

The 22km race started at 10:40AM. Granted it wasn’t that warm while we were picking up our bibs or waiting to start, but boy, oh boy, I was smoking hot within the first kilometre or so after starting. In retrospect, I should have known better – it’s not as if I’m new to running and don’t know what’s appropriate to wear in different temperatures. I was wildly unpinning my bib, pulling of my jacket and tying it on my waist and stuffing my toque and mittens into any pocket that might fit them. It’s surprising nothing was lost! I ended up running with my jacket  tied around my waist for 20-some-odd kilometres. Check it out  below.

One surprising(ly sad) thing for me was that this was the first time my name has appeared in the women’s 30-something results  Every other race I’ve done thus far I’ve always been 29 and under! Sure, I know I had a big birthday recently and it shouldn’t come as a surprise, but it was still strange for me to see. I’m now in a way more popular, and definitely more competitive age category. Darn!

There was another first for me in this race. My lovely fiancé decided he would run alongside with me! Chris had been joining me and supporting me on some of my longer NYC training runs, so he had been prepared for the distance, but definitely not at his usual speed. Even without much training (he had been spending most of July and August preparing for the bike for Challenge Penticton!), Chris was definitely capable of finishing the race much faster had he gone on his own. So now that I’ve accepted that my running partner is destined to set a “personal-worst” for this distance, what did I do next?! I enjoyed absolutely every moment of it, and didn’t worry about slowing him down at all! It was his decision to run with me because he wanted to, and he could have easily gone ahead on his own if it bothered him. I loved running with Chris, my own personal pace bunny, having him to talk to and being able to help push me through if I ever needed an extra boost.

The race course had spectacular scenery and at the finish line there was doughnuts and beer for runners, plus a ton of awesome door prizes. Historically, Melissa’s sells out right away, so if you’re interested, set a reminder for that one wintery day in February when registration opens! It’s a race I definitely recommend.

Next up, the Okanagan Half Marathon this Sunday in Kelowna (sadly my personal pace bunny has already told me he’s going to be running his own race). After that, it truly starts to become taper time for the New York City marathon. I couldn’t be more excited!