Boo Race!

I was back and forth all last week trying to decide if I should run the Hallows Eve Half Marathon. There were lots of pros to running it including; getting more race experience (I've only raced in one half marathon before), support Peter Watson who is the race director and a lot of my friends were racing it. The con was I've been training pretty hard for my first 50km race and my body was definitely telling me it could feel all the training. I woke up race day, looked outside and saw a beautiful day so I decided to run it.

This last minute decision meant there was no taper, like with everything I do I am always looking to learn and grow from my experiences. Lesson #1 tapering is important. This race was an import lesson in tapering so I'm glad I did it. It demonstrated the importance of intelligent training and not getting caught in a cycle of Train hard. Race hard. Train hard. Race Hard. It’s a basic instinct for runner's/competitive people. Everything we do is based on hard work, we train, we brave the elements, we endure, we don’t wimp out, we don’t like rest, we are “forces.” But it’s good to taper and it’s ok to go easy on training runs our bodies need to recover. With hard work and consistency, I know I will grow stronger and faster but I will be keeping in mind that it can be counterproductive to my performance to maintain this hard work mentality right up to race day.

The race started at Jaycee House in North Vancouver. After I registered and said hi to some of the Mountain Madness crew I headed back to my car to finish getting ready. After an easy warm up to get the blood flowing in my legs I was ready standing at the start line with a couple minutes to spare or so I thought. This is when I realised my first mistake of the day.

Mistake #1 thinking you are ready, standing at the start line with 3 minutes until the gun goes and realising you forgot your timing chip in the car! After spiriting back to my car for my timing clip and then back to the start line, I was now ready to run with 30 seconds to spare. A positive to this minor stress is I was able to provide my friends a little laugh.

The gun goes and we’re off. Immediately I could feel my training in my legs; they felt heavy and like cement. The race starts immediately with a small hill climb. I could see my friend and adventure racing partner Chris Price in front of me looking really strong. Tom Craik zipped by me on this climb, obviously he chirped at me as he passed. My legs were feeling fatigued so I told myself run your own race, pace myself and keep my heart rate in check.   In the photo below is my friends Duncan "The Lazy Trail Runner" and Chris "Pricey Runs".

I settled into a groove along the lower river and just started to enjoy the rain free day. I started to think about how cool it was that I had decided to run this race the morning of the race. How many people could wake up on a Sunday morning and just decide I’ll run a half marathon today? This made me smile and enjoy the day little more. Not long after my friend Brad passed me on a stair climb he had just rolled his ankle but was fighting through it, I wished him luck and he carried on.

Pacing myself on Varley trail with a guy who I don’t know but we chatted a bit and shared a laugh, he mentioned he liked our pace and said we could run like this all day. However to my dismay he dropped me once we hit the Baden Powell stair climb. I didn’t run as much of this selection as I am capable of running but I tried to make sure I kept my pace as quick as possible. Repeating in my head “Comfortably Uncomfortable” and “Playing on your edge, pushing your edge further.” Both are sayings are from my favourite spin class teacher Tim, they definitely get me through the leg burn. Three girls and two guys passed me in this section they were all good climbers and my goal became keeping them in sight so I could try pass them on the technical downhill I knew was coming up.












When I hit Mountain Highway they were almost out of sight but I find this hill selection very runnable. I ran this section and was encouraged to notice I was making ground on everyone who had passed me on the Baden Powell climb.  During this climb was when I heard "You didn't move to Toronto!" it was my friend Randy (see picture below) a great hill climber and avid rock climber.  I filled him in on my decision to accept a position with Bell Canada and not to move to Toronto.  We climbed together for a bit and once we hit the downhill I let my legs open up and take me, I passed 4 of the 5 I had been eyeing up. I managed to hold them all off until the climb up Lynn Loop. One girl passed me on this climb but I promptly passed her upon reaching the top flatter section. Lynn Loop left me feeling good knowing I was almost done all the uphill’s.

I felt best during the last 5km and managed to lose a few people who had been running pretty close to me on the Lynn Headwaters connector. My last few races have ended with me sprinting to the finish against someone else. This race lacked that adrenalin filled finish but I managed run across the finish line in 2 hours 10 minutes leaving me lots of room for improvement and proud about completing my second half marathon on a beautiful Vancouver Sunday morning.  Thanks to Peter Watson for putting on a great race and bringing together a great group of runners. 

My afternoon was spent at one of my favorite coffee shops where I enjoyed inspiring music, a delicious latte and even managed to get a little homework complete.  Mondays a rest day for me and Tuesday its back to hill training.