Here’s the punch line because I think this is going to be a long post… I PR’d the heck out of it. YAY!
The relay was teams of three running 7km each, 4.75 laps around the Halifax Common.
I had my team of 3. The Training B.R.A.s and during the promotion of the race, the race management company had an auction to bid on a place on one of the “Olympic” teams. Eric Gillis, who is a Canadian Olympic marathoner from Antigonish was going to be in town that weekend and was going to run the race as well. I thought, that would be cool, so I placed a bid and I won one of the spots. So now I’m running two legs of the race.
The week before the race I got an email that there would be a meet and greet for the Olympic teams on Sunday morning at 6am. This big long note about not to be late and some nifty little perks for being on one of these teams. Don’t forget the “Do not be late”. That means getting up at 5 am. I’ve never gotten up at 5am in my life. Sheesh.
I get up, I get ready, I get going, I get parked, I get to the hotel, nobody knows anything about any meet and greet. There are two other runners in the lobby, but they are just hanging out. Really??!!?? I’m the only one that shows up at 6 am to meet this guy. Seriously. WTF??!!?? And he doesn’t even show up. When he finally did show up about 6:30am, the lobby was full of people and I was already off texting and looking to meet up with my friends that were racing. Insert HUGE eyeroll here.
Leg 1 We get outside and get ready to line up to start and don’t I fall into a pothole in the grass. If Shelley hadn’t been with me, I think I would have cried, right then and there. Holy shit that hurt. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to run or not. I walked around and was able to get the pain to subside a bit. And then we were off. I settled into a pretty good pace. I ended up running with three other ladies. At the fourth corner a watch went off and it was a walk break. I wasn’t ready to stop, so it ended up just being two of us. It was nice to run with someone. I don’t get to do that. We kept a steady pace and chatted a little. It was a really fast course. And other than the first corner which was a slight incline, the rest was very flat. Before the race, I was concerned that I would go nuts running around in circles like that, but it didn’t bother me at all. Danette and I finished the first leg in 49:21. That was impressive in itself and I actually could have had a better time, but I didn’t have the confidence to kick it up. The week before I struggled to finish a 7k in 56 minutes.
My foot was still tender at the end, but I was ok. And I had absolutely no stomach problems. NONE. Seriously. NONE.
Leg 2 I met up with Romy and we headed out to the start shoot to start leg 2. We had found out the day before that our third member had a death in the family and wasn’t going to run, so Romy was going to do the 2nd and 3rd legs, so we could get a team score. We started out and I felt ok. I was concerned about how I was going to fare this leg, so I started out really slow. It wasn’t long before Romy was way ahead of me. I caught back up to her coming around the 2 lap. And then passed her. She caught back up to me and we finished the leg together. In 48:11. Holy crap. I was faster in the 2nd leg. My pace for 14km (with a 25 minute break in the middle) was 6:56. That was freaking awesome. And it is a great boost to my motivation. I’m reinspired.
Leg 2 was ended by my new friend Anita. What a very inspiring woman. This was her first race and she walked the 7k. There were lots of tears from her family on her achievement. She did a great job. I think we'll be seeing a lot more races from her.
Leg 3 Romy and Trish ran the third leg so we cheered them on from the sidelines. Trish had said that watching the legs was very fast and she wasn’t kidding. Once the leaders rounded the first lap it was a constant stream of runners from start to finish. Something to look at or talk about the entire time. A few of the teams had done costumes. The first runners finished in about 25 minutes. The winner of this leg was Eric Gillis. He was standing at the finish shute talking to people and I thought I should go over and have a little chat. Which I did. Got a picture and he autographed my race bib. Nice guy. Very personable.
Expensive Run This was by far the most expensive race ever. $40 in race fees. $100 for the auction. $50 in a lost running room gift card (I won it and it got lost in the mail) And then I was lucky enough to get a nice parking ticket on race day. $25. Over $200 for a PR. Expensive.
Moral of the story Physio worked. I had no leg pain at all and only a little groin pain during this race.
I have been flip flopping about what to do next year. Train to get faster or train for the marathon. My go faster goals are sub 30 minute 5k, 60 minute 10k and a 2:15 half. My thought is that a 2:15 half would put me in a good position to train for a reasonable finish time for a marathon. 4:30 or so. The thought of a 5-6 hour marathon just isn’t sitting well. I know that I can only train for a marathon over the winter, so if I don’t train this year, it will be two years before I can run the marathon. That was also just not sitting well. I plugged my pace from this race into the smart coach training database and it spit out that with hard training I could finish the hypo ½ in 2:16. I plugged those numbers in for training starting in February to race the full at the Bluenose and it had me running the full in 4:30 ish. That is so doable. I’ve printed it all out. And I’ve set it all up in my calendar. We’ll see how it goes. But that is now the plan.
I also joined a group to train to run the 25k Moose Run in March. When I joined my goal was a 7:30 pace for this race. I definitely think I could train for a 7:00 pace now. And so I have that as a goal as well.
Goals for the rest of the year Get all my 26 training runs in. Learn to appreciate the treadmill more (which I am working on. It definitely helps to have a plan for each workout). Stay injury free. Try to figure out what I did for this race to be blessed with no stomach troubles. 5k Santa Shuffle on the 1st. 5k resolution run on the 31st with my daughter. Hopefully hook up with the Moose Run training group. Enjoy Christmas. Get lots of baking done. Complete the rest of my shopping. Decide what to do for New Years Eve. Lose 13.1 lbs(Only doable if I’m packin’ a lot of water right now). Buy a smokin’ hot dress. And start thinking about goals for 2013.
If you’ve read it all, I’m impressed. And thankful. If you have any thoughts about my training or my blog, I’d love to hear them.
