Race report – Ottawa ½ Marathon
May 25, 2014
Finish time: 2:02:55 Breakfast: instant oatmeal, orange juice
Hydration: Fuel Belt w/Nuun (1 tablet between 2 flasks)
Nutrition: handful of Honey Stinger chews and one orange slice
Less than a year ago, I wandered into a local discount sports
store. They were having a sale on running shoes. I was at a point where I was
trying to make some healthy changes in my life, so I decided this was an opportunity
to replace my current shoes. The ones that had given me 17 years of faithful,
though infrequent, service. “What kind of runner are you?” the helpful store
employee inquired. Instead of responding with “The kind who doesn’t – unless they’re
being chased by someone. With a weapon.” I looked her in the eye and admitted
that I may, or may not, ever actually run in these shoes. Maybe I’ll take a
Zumba class. Or something. But if the mood ever struck me to actually, you know,
run – that I’d like to be able to do that too.
Turns out I did do some
running in those shoes. I also bought a road bike. And some goggles. I’ll spare
you the details for now – fast forward to May 25th. On this particular morning, I found myself getting
ready for my first half-marathon, along with over 31,100 like-minded people. I
saw small groups of team-gear clad athletes running on Laurier Bridge to warm
up. Are you kidding me? We’re about to run over 21 km! Reminiscent of the
duathlon I did last fall, I glanced around and took cues for dynamic stretches
and warm ups (that didn’t involve actual running) from people who looked like
they knew what they were doing. I headed to my corral early, as I wanted to
glue myself to the 2:00 hr continuous pace bunny. My plan was to follow him as
far as I possibly could. I wasn’t sure if my “break 2 hours, at least by a few seconds” goal was even
realistic – my best-laid training plans were interrupted by a brutal flu in
April, followed closely by a week off to resolve some knee pain. Plus, my last
long slow run took me 2:15 to run 18 km. Was it even possible to cram over 3
more km into a time 15 minutes quicker? What the hell. Figured I might as well
go for it, and find out.
As our start time approached, the crowd got denser. Before
long, I was packed in a sea of people (a sea of shoulder blades, really – from my
short-statured viewpoint) that extended in every direction. As our group
approached the start line, someone accidentally stepped on my shoe and pulled
it halfway off. With thousands of people surging behind me, I hopped forward on
one leg to get my shoe back on, thinking “Don’t trip. Don’t trip. For the love
of God, don’t trip.”
The energy at the start line was fantastic. We set off down
Elgin Street to cheering crowds and pumped up music. I stuck close to the pace
bunny, conscious of the danger of going out too fast. Called out and waved to
my Mum and my kids as we moved onto the Queen Elizabeth Driveway. Felt great
for the first 10 km, enjoying the enthusiastic spectators with witty signs, and
the live music. “Hey, that’s a 10k personal best!” I exclaimed happily to the
pace bunny after glancing at my watch. “This is just the warmup,” he smiled.
Then the hills started.
In my training, I kept my cadence and perceived rate of
exertion constant – which meant going slightly slower uphill, and faster
downhill. Our diligent pace bunny kept his pace, already an aggressive one for
me, constant regardless of the terrain. I managed to stay on the bunny’s tail
(so to speak) almost to the Museum of Civilization on the Hull side. But he
gradually began to slip away, as I started to question the wisdom of signing up
for a race where I would have to do this AFTER a 2 km swim and a 90 km bike
ride.
The crowds reappeared as we made our way toward Colonel By
Drive. At this point, many people were walking. One girl weaved unsteadily to the side of the road. “Slow
down,” my brain suggested. “Walk. Stop. This sucks.” “The faster you run, the
faster this will be over,” I insisted. I felt kind of off, like I should either eat or drink something, or I should really NOT eat or drink anything. I
swished the remaining mouthfuls of Nuun water from my flasks and swallowed. So
far, so good. I spotted my girls (with the awesome sign they made for me) and Mum again at the Pretoria Bridge, and managed to run over and give them a kiss. The final push up
Queen E toward the finish was, or at least felt, uphill. Almost there. Almost
there. Don’t leave anything in the tank. I raised my arms and crossed the
finish line, my race over. Surprisingly, I had the presence of mind to stop my
GPS watch within half a minute or so. I was happy to see that I had come in so
close to my goal time. Closer than I had hoped for or expected.
Oh, and I ran this race in a new pair of shoes. Turns out I’m
a runner who pronates a little, but I prefer a neutral shoe that is light,
cushioned, and has between 8-11 mm of drop. You know, in case anyone asks.
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