Running Report

I had intended to be running at 7:30am on Sunday morning to compensate for the heat and the tight timing later that day. Mornings being what they are, I wasn’t actually running until 8:00am without sunglasses or body glide. I was frustrated but I had printed out the route earlier and I had spent time visualizing what I was going to do and how I would be feeling at the different mileage points. So I shoved aside my tense energy and focused instead on trying to find my rhythm and pace.

Amazing!S and I had talked about the run and figured on a 6min/km pace for the first half of the distance and picking up into the second half, if I could. I ran two legs of a relay, 17km, for close to 5:45min/km so I thought that I might be able to pull that out again. I didn’t have a sports watch so with my stopwatch function on my cell I did some math to check my pacing between markers on the seawall. No watch also meant no 10-1 intervals so I ran straight through until my planned gel breaks and walked then. (This is the first time I've ever run a distance longer than 10km straight through.) I was at the 8km marker just under where I should be for a 6 minute pace which was promising.

I finished my first 10km loop at 58:58 so I was maintaining just under a 6 minute pace. As I started my second loop I figured that now was when I should test out my legs. I was feeling pretty good, legs were decent and the heat wasn’t overbearing. Unfortunately I just couldn't maintain something faster consistently – I would hold it for 500 meters and then drop back to the original pace. Halfway through the second loop I ran past the half marathon 1:45 pace group; as they cruised past me, I remembered the 10km I had run with them in my last clinic. Man, did my body not like me that Sunday!


My legs were starting to feel heavy with 6km left to go and I realized I needed to take more electrolytes. I also felt like I wasn’t going to die so I wondered if I should be pushing harder but when I tried my body didn’t pay attention to the brain waves. After the 16km marker I started counting down the distance left because the seawall is damned boring and I was getting tired. For a mercy, my legs found the rhythm to finish the second 10km loop at 57:05. Left with the final kilometer to go, I split the stopwatch again and hustled over the bridge for my half loop around the lagoon.

Finishing around the lagoon was a mixed blessing because I know exactly how long it is and how far I have to go between breaks. I reminded myself that racing isn’t easy and if it was then everyone would do it. My legs weren’t having any of it so I started up with my “strong mind, strong body, strong heart” chant to keep up the pace. Senor S passed me on his add-on to the half marathon distance and I just gave a salute and kept on truckin’. I came up to the approach to Alberni and I realized that of course I had planned a finish that is slightly uphill – go figure. I pushed past the tourists and came to a gasping end at 2:02. My first thought was, hot shit! 2:02! My next thought was, shit, 2:02?! I should’ve run two minutes faster!!

Amazing!C was just finishing her run with the halfers so I walked it in with them and poured some water over my head. I was pretty well drenched with sweat but the water felt damned good. So did finishing the half under 2:10.