Ottawa Half Marathon Race Report

My first half marathon was, in short, a memorable experience in every way. We left Toronto on Friday afternoon and had a lengthy drive through the typically horrible traffic even though we'd left long before the usual "rush hour". It was not a bad drive, just long and we arrived really tired.

The next morning, after attempting to sleep in and making it all the way to 7:30am, we took it easy and took forever to eat breakfast. Then we headed over to the race expo to pick up our bibs and t-shirts (Monica for her 10k, Owen for the kids marathon, and yours truly for the you know what). The afternoon was spent resting since Monica was to race the 10k at 6:30pm and I'd be responsible for keeping the kids safe and close by as we tried to get to spots along the start and finish areas to cheer her on and get some photos. The latter would prove hard to come by given the massive crowds both participating in the race (9000+) and lining the race route.

After walking the 3.5k to the start area Monica went off to warm up and the boys and I found a spot along the route close to the start. We stood and waited for almost an hour while the waves of elite runners were set off first and by the time we saw Monica run by my feet and lower back were hurting something fierce. As soon as she went by we got over to the finish area and found a spot along the barrier where we proceeded to wait and stand in amongst another crowd first cheering the elite racers and then everybody else. My feet and back were not well served by this experience, but we did have fun watching all the runners and especially the young kids. They got the loudest cheers from the crowd.

Monica had a great race and set a massive PR with a run of 57:21!

After her race we walked home and got there pretty late. I ordered pizza while we walked and once it arrived it was all we could do just to scarf it down and head for bed.

On Sunday morning I set the alarm for 6:30am since Owen's race was to go at 8am and then I would be running my race at 9am. Monica drove us as close to the start area as she could and the boys and I got out and headed over to drop Owen off. We got there in plenty of time and found a spot along the road near the start to wait for Owen. Monica arrived with about five minutes to spare and after the start of the race ran with Malks over to the finish area. (Apparently Malks was very fast and continued despite a tummy ache!)

After cheering Owen as he went by I ran over to the Laurier Street bridge and just managed to see him after he'd crossed the finish line to snap a couple of pictures. They are not very good, but I will post them once I transfer them from the camera.

Here's Owen crossing the Finish Line (look for the kid with the red hat and yellow horns):

Long after my race I found out that Owen dropped almost a minute off of his time from last year's race and came in 11th in his age category! 5:16.7 for 1.195km is not too shabby at all, and quite speedy in my opinion (4:25/km!).

Then it was my turn. With sore back and achy feet from all the standing I found myself standing in amongst a massive crowd of runners waiting for the start of the half marathon. Not good. I definitely felt tight and my lower back was seizing up, but I tried to bounce around a little as I waited for 9am to come. Chatting with a few people helped pass the time.

Then we were off and I thought only of going nice and slow at the beginning. My goal was to have a good solid training run, and I had full intention of staying easy and loose, maintaining a steady pace throughout the entire race. But then the 1:45 pace bunny came by sometime within the first kilometre (when my Garmin was telling me that I was running a pedestrian 5:41/km pace) and on the spur of the moment I decided to latch on just to see what would happen.

It was the best move I could have made. I didn't have to focus on my watch for pacing and as long as I kept feeling good I was free to look around and really enjoy the run. It was a great day for running: overcast, not very hot at about +18C, and it even sprinkled on us form time to time. This was a welcome change from the weather that had been forecast for the day earlier in the week: +28C plus humidity and sunny.

Anyway, it was fun to just run. The pace bunny was doing a great job of holding a steady pace after the second kilometre in which she seemed to try and make up time for the slow first kilometre. As the run progressed I had a notion of passing the pace bunny with about 5 or 6km to go.

I saw Monica and the boys after about 8km and I called out to them, "Check out the pace bunny!" since I'd told them that I likely would be coming in about 1:50 for the race. The course meandered all over the place at one point and I became completely disoriented as far as direction went, but didn't bother with that too much since I had the pace bunny to follow.

At about the 14km or 15km mark I started to tire and bit. At a couple of the water stations at this point in the race the pace bunny got quite a bit ahead of me as I had to walk through to try and get more fluid into me than onto me and I think the catching up and changing of pace took a bit out of me since I have not been training anything but easy long run pace with no fartleking or speed work of any sort. My previous plan to take off with 5km left in the race was not going to happen and by this point I was just happy to keep the pace bunny within sight.

The period from 15km to 19km was by far the toughest mentally and physically. I decided to change my tactic and instead of hanging back about 10-15m from the pace bunny I caught right up and ran right on her tail (no pun intended). This was a good strategy and definitely got me through the tough stretch. I kept of thinking to myself, "Just pull me along pace bunny. Just pull me along!"

Then when I hit the 19km mark I all of a sudden, almost without thinking about it, passed the pace bunny and just tried to pull away a little bit with every step. It felt like I was not running any faster so I kept on checking behind me to make sure that the pace bunny was not gaining ground. Each time I did a shoulder check I was a bit surprised to see that I, indeed, was pulling away.

Not surprisingly the last two-plus kilometres were my fastest. They were also the toughest in some ways, but I did pass a tonne of struggling runners and was very pleased that I crossed the finish line completely spent. I went much faster than I ever thought I could and had a lot of fun. What more could one ask for from their first half marathon!

The details are as follows...

• Gun Time: 1:44:05.9
• Chip Time: 1:42:46.4
• Pace (chip time): 4:53/km
• Place Overall: 1086/9207
• Gender Place: 874/3876
• Category Place: 174/691

The race splits are here.

Half Marathon Done!

Just finshed my first ever Half Marathon and had to post about it right away. Full report to come, but for now the only thing that matters is that I had a great time and finished in 1:42:46.4 (coincidentally, much faster than I thought I could go).

Milestone Accomplished

Just a quick post since I have to go to a conference this morning and then drive off to Ottawa, but I ran 8.25km this morning and, as a result, crossed over the double century mark for monthly kilometreage (is that even a word?). The total now sits at 204.5km and I still have the half marathon on Sunday. (My goal for the month was to run 200km and, therefore, average about 45km/week.)

Should be a hot and slow run on Sunday as the forecast is for heat and humidity, but I am looking forward to it!

Mileage Milestone is Nigh

Yesterday I managed to achieve my highest mileage month ever, and with a few days left to go in May (complete with a half marathon to be run on the second last day) I will obliterate my old record and cross a new threshold at the same time.

I ran twice yesterday, 5.75km to work and another 7km back home at the end of the day for a total of 12.75km. With that I upped my mileage for May to 186.25km, which breaks my previous record of 179.85km from last July.

That's all well and good, but the bigger milestone will be going past the double century mark for the first time. I plan on running tonight (after Owen's baseball practice, so it will be a late one) and again on Friday night (after we complete the 5+ hour drive to Ottawa so it, too, will be a late one) and should go past 200km before I even begin my half marathon on Sunday morning.

Exciting times. Modest, but exciting for me.

Short and Sick

This week was "recovery", though I feel more worn out at the end than what I felt like when it started. I didn't miss any training runs, but I did contract my first cold of 2010 that forced me to stay home on Friday and continues to rage here on Sunday.

To recap the running, on Wednesday I ran 5.8km to work and another 7.2km back home for a total of 13km on the day. It was nice and easy and the run home was pretty quick.

Then on Thursday the cold started and by the afternoon I felt like a big sack of poop. I slept very poorly and by Friday morning was so achy that I decided to stay home. Although it was meant to be a rest day I was called into a teleconference and that perked me up enough (not necessarily in a good way) that I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and went out at noon for a nice 12km. It felt way better than it should have.

Saturday was spent at my son's first baseball tournament of the season, with your truly struggling throughout to coach. We got up at 5:30am and didn't make it back home until 8:30pm. I was totally bushed.

This morning was a really late start. By the time I dragged myself out of bed it was already +20C and humid. I grabbed a bottle of Gatorade and tried not to think about the run that was to come. In the end I really struggled through a slow and hot 15km and finished the recovery week with a total of 40km.

One week from today I will be in Ottawa running my first half marathon. I really hope this cold is long gone by then and that I have some semblance of energy for the race.

Three Weeks Way Up, One Week Down Now!

Bring on the recovery week! Not since I've started adhering to the three weeks on one week off plan have I looked forward to a recovery week this much. To be blunt, I need it.

Today I ran my longest training run of the year at 22km and it was tough. I didn't go particularly fast or anything, crossing the half marathon mark at 1h57m and change, but the cumulative effect of the three longest mileage weeks of my life in a row has definitely taken a bit of a toll. This week I completed 58.5km, while the previous two weeks came in a 55km and 56.3km respectively. To reiterate, I'd only had one 50km+ week all of last year (51km last July) and another one this year back in April (50km). Add to that the fact that I've been avoiding any and all carb drinks and the like and my legs have felt like lead the entire week. Today I did bring along a bottle of Gatorade and I hope it helps me recover faster. I started sipping at the 5km mark and then took a drink every 2km after that until I ran out at about the 17km mark. I refilled my bottle at a water fountain in Riverdale Park and that got me the rest of the way home. I wish I'd never worn that long sleeve shirt though as I was overheating after about 3 or 4 kilometres, but I never did take it off.

Anyway, I am very happy with these three weeks. Two weeks from today I will be running the Ottawa Half Marathon and hope to treat it as a great training run. I just want it to feel better than today's run, even if it ends up being slow.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I had to run through massive clouds of black gnats as I entered the Leslie Spit, and then, as I neared the stairs at Riverdale Park in the Don Valley trails, I got dive bombed by a red winged redbird! The bastard attacked my head and then flew away making an awful lot of noise. I'm glad that I was wearing a hat. Silly bird.

Come to think of it, this was a strange day for animal encounters. Just as I started out on my run I ran past a woman admonishing her dog for shitting on someones lawn because she "didn't bring a plastic bag!". Not the dog's fault you dumbass! Later in the run, as I was running along the trails in the valley, a dog got loose from his master's leash and went after my legs. Not cool. At least he wasn't that aggressive. Then, as I was coming out of Riverdale Park I heard another dog owner yelling at his dog for taking a shit while HE didn't have a plastic bag. Honestly, was there an idiot dog owner convention in town or something?

What's Up With My Legs?

I can't figure out why my legs are not recovering as well as I think they should. I've been consistently  weight training since the middle of January and slowly ramping up my mileage since I've gotten back on the road in the middle of November of last year. Yet this week is not dissimilar to a few others recently.

After Sundays slow nineteen kilometre run I felt a bit stiff on Monday, but nothing unusual. I had a really good, solid leg workout at the gym on Monday and thought that after four months of this stuff my legs would no longer feel stiff the next day. On Tuesday, however, I was stiff as all heck and had a rough time running in the morning, though I pushed through for a decent training run.

Wednesday I ran 5km to work and then 8.25km home afterwards, but both runs started off super slow and sort of painful because my legs felt like I'd just done my first heavy workout after years off! I don't get it. Both runs, BTW, finished off at a decent clip and felt pretty good, but my legs stiffened right up afterwards.

Today is another leg weight workout and I am forced to go light. I'd rather do some real weights, but if I don't hold back my runs for the rest of the week will be jeopardized.

So here are my thoughts on why this may be happening:

1. I am going through my third week in a row of 50+ kilometres when I've only had one such mileage week all of last year and two in my entire life (the second time being in April of this year) prior to this three week section.

2. I am not running with any sort of Gatorade or equivalent on any of my runs, including my long runs, and I ran for a total of 2h16m this past Sunday (well past the point of glycogen depletion I am told, even if it was at a snail's pace).

3. I am just built to be sore and wonky and must learn to live with it and run through it.

If anyone is reading that and has experienced such stiffness with their own legs could you shed some light in the comments on what I might consider doing to help? I am open to trying anything short of cutting off my legs all together.

Stiff, Sore, Running More

Had a tough time waking up, but for the third Tuesday in a row I dragged myself out of bed and out the door at 6am for a run. This is a real accomplishment for me given how hard it is for my achy body to get moving early in the morning. I am a morning person, and am quite chipper in fact (as my wife would attest), but my muscles, tendons, ligaments and all that do NOT like it when I first go from horizontal to vertical.

I decided to not run on grass this time, however, given that I had that twinge in the right foot from last week's soccer ball chasing episode. Instead, I ran up, around, and through the affluent part of Toronto known as Rosedale for a glimpse of how the other half (or, more accurately, top 1%) live.

My legs felt really stiff and sore from Sunday's long run and yesterday's leg weights, but I figured just go easy and things will improve. Indeed they did. Although I never was in danger of setting any PR-type pace, I did manage a good run and completed 10.65km in a little over an hour.

Good times!

Running With Friends

First, Happy Mothers Day! Where would we be without mothers? Nowhere, that's where. Thanks Mom!

Today Monica and I were kid free as our boys had a sleepover at my Dad's (arranged by Monica so that we could go out for a nice dinner, which we did at a great little Ethiopian restaurant). So, we decided to run together, though it didn't actually work out that way.

Over the past couple of days, via the magic of Facebook, I'd arranged for a meet up and run with a couple who we'd met years ago while playing Ultimate Frisbee. Our paths crossed now and again over the years as our kids had gone to the same daycare, and we live in the same part of town. Recently I'd learned that they were training for a half-marathon and put the thought of a group run out there. Today it worked out.

We met at Withrow Park and set off on the planned 16km run (for them). I'd already run a couple of kilometres while waiting for everyone to show up and was planning to run 18km.

The group of four quickly separated by gender, for some reason, and Monica went off with K. while D. and I ran behind. Turns out that K. runs faster than D. and they don't actually run together on their training runs as she leaves him behind. Anyway, it was a great time as we chatted the entire way. D. had never run more than 14km and set a personal record with a 17km run while I managed 19km. It was rather slow, partly because D. had a couple of troublesome knees with multiple operations to contend with, but for me it was just what the doctor ordered. Slow and steady, and definitely not boring. It took well over 2 hours to complete, so I was out there longer than on any other training run this year. I also completed the second longest mileage week ever for me at 55km. Sweet! Hope we can hook up again for another group run sometime soon.

After the run Monica and I stopped off at Timmy's for coffee and bagels. Much needed since I was starving. All in all it was a great way to spend a rather chilly and windy Sunday morning.

More Foot Commuting and a PR for the Better Half

Today I repeated yesterday's routine and ran to and from work. In between I had a decent upper body weight workout. I must admit that it feels really good to be able to commute on foot. Maybe someday I'll be able to do it five days per week? Hmmm. I should just be satisfied with once or twice and use my bike the rest of the time...

Anyway, after walking a couple of kilometres to warm up and chatting with Monica while she biked beside me I started up into a nice slow trot and completed 5km on the way to work. Speaking of Mon, she had a great run yesterday that I neglected to record in the annals of this blog thingy. She ran a 10k training run in 57:15! Her official PR is 59:26, so this definitely counts, though perhaps unofficially so, but I figure her Garmin can't be that far off. I can't wait to see what she can do at the end of the month when she runs her 10k in Ottawa. Should be a blast!

In the afternoon I set out for my run home in what is best described as uncertain weather. Owen's baseball game, which was supposed to have started at 6:30pm, was canceled due to rain by four in the afternoon, and when I stepped outside I was greeted with windy and wet conditions. It wasn't actually raining at least, but I did not particularly enjoy standing out there waiting for my Garmin to lock onto satellites.

Once the watch acquired a signal I set off and had a great run. It felt pretty easy, the rain held off, I started to overheat a bit in the second half, but in the end managed a relatively speedy (for me) 7.25km. The average pace ended up at 5:15/km and heart rate was 141bpm. Not bad for me! I'd probably avoid the route I took though since I was caught in the human mass that is Chinatown East at one point and was forced to bounce on and off the sidewalk, and in and out of traffic. Luckily I was quite gassy and ended up farting all over the passersby. Ha!


Looking forward to my weekend long run, which may even be with Monica because I've caught onto a rumour that the boys might be off to a sleepover at my Dad's (a Birthday treat for me set up by my wife so that we can go out on Saturday night). Sweet!

Thursday Running - Strange but True

I'd have to look way back in the training log to find another Thursday where I'd done a training run. It is an odd day for me to be running given the way my schedule has been set up over the past six months, but here I was running as a result of some schedule juggling.

I walked the boys over to their school bus and then set off walking for a bit, all the while testing my achy foot. It seemed okay, though a little discomfort still lingered. I thought about plantar fasciitis coming back to haunt me, but pushed those thoughts aside and told myself that only running could fix what ailed me. (Right? If it hurts run! What, am I wrong? And why does Blogger's spell checker not have "fasciitis" in its dictionary? It always suggests Fascist. Dumbass Blogger...)

Anyway, after two kilometres of walking, during which my wife caught up to me on her bike, I set off at a slow and easy pace while chatting to her about lunch plans and such. Once those things were settled she pulled away on her commute to work and I continued to run. It was pretty good and I actually surprised myself with the pace I was able to maintain. The total ended up being 5km at a decent pace of 5:50/km. Not fast or anything, but given that on these morning commutes I am trying to keep my heart rate nice and low so as not to break out in a sweat it was not bad at all!

I decided to skip my regular leg workout due to the fact that my legs were still pretty stiff from the last session on Monday and that I'd also have to run home at the end of the day, choosing instead to hook up with Mon for lunch. It was good.

The run home was also a good one. I was running a bit late (pardon the pun) and so my original plan of running home, taking a shower, then driving over to Owen's school to collect him and take him to softball practice was not going to work out. Instead, I had to run all the way to his school and walk home with him prior to getting to practice. That meant that the seven kilometres I had on tap in the back of my mind ended up being 8.75km and the planned 6:00/km pace ended up being 5:23/km. The best part is it felt pretty good and not that tough at all. My average heart rate was still 139bpm!

The total for the day was a decent 13.75km and I am also running to and from work tomorrow, though I will not be running to his school afterwards and, therefore, my mileage should be kept in check. Must not let it get too high prior to my weekend long run or I know some part of my body will bite me in the ass.

Juggling not Joggling

My body is chock full of surprises, and typically not of the welcome variety. It's never bought me roses, treated me to an piece of pie, or let me go back to sleep right away upon being woken up in the middle of the night (a particularly pesky affliction). No no, it wouldn't be a nice type of surprise that would greet me on this the day of my birth...

Instead I was welcomed to the 36-club with foot pain. Yes, foot pain. Not ankle pain, which is something I come to expect and, therefore, is no longer a surprise, but foot pain. I think it has something to do with running on uneven grass Tuesday morning (where I managed to run 10km chasing a soccer ball and listening to neighbourhood dogs barking at me). I don't recall anything acute happening during the run, but later in the day it started to throb. I seem to remember at least one step where I caught myself from rolling over on the ankle and that may have something to do with this issue. By the evening when I was coaching my elder loin-fruit's first official league baseball game (we won 17-10 over the home side of Newmarket to get the season off to a roaring start) it was all I could do to just stand up.

This morning it certainly felt better, but nowhere near good enough to let me run to and from work as I'd originally intended. I did bring my Garmin to work wishfully thinking that I might be able to fit a run in at lunchtime, but decided that the better choice was to go to the gym and do some upper body weights instead. I am juggling my schedule and moving the run(s) that I was supposed to do today to tomorrow. Here's hoping the foot improves enough to let me at least run slow and easy.

And I have no intention of adding juggling to my jogging. I can barely do the latter without injuring myself. Imagine what would happen if I added the former!

Longest Week Ever

Today I ran into a massive race down Yonge Street (the Sporting Life 10k, which attracts over 12,000 runners) and ended up doing 20km faster than I'd intended on a route that I had not planned. I was hoping to run an out-and-back along Bloor Street, but ended up in the trails anyway. As I was running in the opposite direction than the runners I got a couple of snide remarks - "You're going the wrong way!" and the like. Those people were obviously not trying hard enough.

But the real news was that with this run I hit a new high for weekly mileage - 56.3km! That's exactly 35 miles, according to my rudimentary math. Not bad. Especially for one of the wonky variety...