Ottawa Race Weekend 2012 1/2 Marathon
I've gotten the urge to start "documenting" my life again. So much has happened...and I'll get to that later. Right now, I'm sharing my first half marathon race. I had started this post in May and got extremely side tracked. Just found it as a draft so I decided to finish it off. I still can't believe that I actually finished a half marathon and in a pretty decent time for me:)
I picked up my race kit the day before the race. Stood in line for over an hour but it was worth having my bib and chip the day before.
Larrin drove me to the race. We got there in plenty of time to find parking and get to the start line. I found a quiet spot to calm my nerves and do some warm up and stretching. It was really important that I stretch out my calves and hamstrings since they seem to get tight after a while of running.
The start line was absolutely crazy. I pushed my way and just got in the middle of the pack. I had my phone with me so I texted a few people and took some deep breaths to relax. I am a bit claustrophobic but I new that the run was going to start soon so I shook those negative feelings off.
Finally the gun went and the race had started. It was probably a good 3 minutes before my section actually got to the start line. I heard the beep as I crossed the start line and knew my chip was activated and "my race" had begun. I turned my music on and started my endomondo app to track my pace.
It felt weird running down the middle of the street but very invigorating. There was lots of people cheering and my muscles and joints felt "young" and I was unstoppable. I knew this was just adrenaline and I needed to make myself slow down or I wouldn't make the 21.1K.
At the 5K mark I got some gatorade off the fueling station table. I remember trying to drink from a cup and run at the same time....didn't really work out for me so I made the decision that every 3km I would grab gatorade or water and walk and drink for 20-30s. I also had my fuel belt on and took a couple sips of water every km.
1K 5:51 min
2K 5:49 min
3K 5:59 min
4K 6:02 min
5K 6:07 min
6K 6:28 min
7K 6:05 min
8K 6:16 min
9K 6:09 min
10K6:27 min First 10 K average pace 6:09 min/km
My first 10K impressed me but I knew that the "easy" part was over. My goal from this point was to try and keep my min/km under 6:30. And then I saw "the climb" ahead. It was a super huge slow inclining hill, or at least it looked super huge. I put my head down and kept moving ahead. The 11th and 12th Ks were hard. I believe I took a gel that I had brought at this point and I seemed to have another surge of energy. At just over 13K I crossed the bridge into Hull, Quebec. It was pretty cool running in "two provinces".
At the start of my 15th K I knew I was running out of steam so I ate my protein bar, drank some gatorade and walked for a bit. My legs felt okay but I felt a bit depleted. To finish the race my goal was to try and keep my min/km average under 7:00 min.
I saw Larrin at the 18K mark. He was so worried that he had missed me. He asked me how I felt and I told him "Good". I did feel alright at this point, but I was starving; I knew I was running out of fuel. I had 1/4 of my protein bar left so I ate it and washed it down with gatorade. It wasn't enough.
The last 3K were obviously the hardest as you can see by the lovely pic on the left. Every bone and muscle in my body hurt at this point especially my hips. I knew I wasn't going to finish in under 2hr15min but I kept telling myself "two hours and a teen minutes"...that's all I want. "Two and a teen, two and a teen".
16K 6:29 min
17K 6:59 min
18K 7:03 min
19K 6:55 min
20K 7:25 min
21K 6:59 min Last 6 km average 6:58 min/km
I was finished and so glad. After I got my medal and found Larrin my legs were stiff but I wasn't sore. We walked back to the car and I stretched a bit.
Overall, I was so happy with my experience. It was a great accomplishment for me and I feel like I really committed and put forth the training effort to achieve my goal. If I ever run another long race like this I know that I will have to pay more attention to fuelling my body. I needed more and I needed to start with the gel and protein bars sooner.
Final results:
Chip time: 2h:18m:16s
I picked up my race kit the day before the race. Stood in line for over an hour but it was worth having my bib and chip the day before.
Larrin drove me to the race. We got there in plenty of time to find parking and get to the start line. I found a quiet spot to calm my nerves and do some warm up and stretching. It was really important that I stretch out my calves and hamstrings since they seem to get tight after a while of running.
The start line was absolutely crazy. I pushed my way and just got in the middle of the pack. I had my phone with me so I texted a few people and took some deep breaths to relax. I am a bit claustrophobic but I new that the run was going to start soon so I shook those negative feelings off.
Finally the gun went and the race had started. It was probably a good 3 minutes before my section actually got to the start line. I heard the beep as I crossed the start line and knew my chip was activated and "my race" had begun. I turned my music on and started my endomondo app to track my pace.
It felt weird running down the middle of the street but very invigorating. There was lots of people cheering and my muscles and joints felt "young" and I was unstoppable. I knew this was just adrenaline and I needed to make myself slow down or I wouldn't make the 21.1K.
At the 5K mark I got some gatorade off the fueling station table. I remember trying to drink from a cup and run at the same time....didn't really work out for me so I made the decision that every 3km I would grab gatorade or water and walk and drink for 20-30s. I also had my fuel belt on and took a couple sips of water every km.
1K 5:51 min2K 5:49 min
3K 5:59 min
4K 6:02 min
5K 6:07 min
6K 6:28 min
7K 6:05 min
8K 6:16 min
9K 6:09 min
10K6:27 min First 10 K average pace 6:09 min/km
My first 10K impressed me but I knew that the "easy" part was over. My goal from this point was to try and keep my min/km under 6:30. And then I saw "the climb" ahead. It was a super huge slow inclining hill, or at least it looked super huge. I put my head down and kept moving ahead. The 11th and 12th Ks were hard. I believe I took a gel that I had brought at this point and I seemed to have another surge of energy. At just over 13K I crossed the bridge into Hull, Quebec. It was pretty cool running in "two provinces".
11K 6:58 min
12 K 6:43 min
13K 6:16 min
14K 6:17 min
15K 7:07 min Next 5 km average 6:20 min/km
At the start of my 15th K I knew I was running out of steam so I ate my protein bar, drank some gatorade and walked for a bit. My legs felt okay but I felt a bit depleted. To finish the race my goal was to try and keep my min/km average under 7:00 min.
The last 3K were obviously the hardest as you can see by the lovely pic on the left. Every bone and muscle in my body hurt at this point especially my hips. I knew I wasn't going to finish in under 2hr15min but I kept telling myself "two hours and a teen minutes"...that's all I want. "Two and a teen, two and a teen".
16K 6:29 min
17K 6:59 min
18K 7:03 min
19K 6:55 min
20K 7:25 min
21K 6:59 min Last 6 km average 6:58 min/km
Overall, I was so happy with my experience. It was a great accomplishment for me and I feel like I really committed and put forth the training effort to achieve my goal. If I ever run another long race like this I know that I will have to pay more attention to fuelling my body. I needed more and I needed to start with the gel and protein bars sooner.
Final results:
Chip time: 2h:18m:16s
Pace: 6:34 min/km
F35-39 category: 613/991
Gender category: 3083/5500
Overall: 6557/9887
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