Vancouver Half-Marathon 2006

I ran the Vancouver half-marathon on Sunday in a chip time of 2:10:42. The race went really well and I’m thrilled with my result. I originally thought I’d start the race at about a 10:30 min/mile pace. I guess I was a little excited at the start because I started out faster than that. I recorded most of my split times and they’re listed below.

Mile Split     Total
1    10:03.3*  0:10:03
2    10:03.3*  0:20:07
3    10:07.0   0:30:14
4    09:52.6   0:40:06
5    09:51.8   0:49:58
6    10:19.8   1:00:18
6.55           1:06:06 (half-way)
7    10:08.3   1:10:26
8    10:30.9^  1:20:57 
9    10:36.0^  1:31:33
10   09:41.0   1:41:14
11   09:51.0*  1:51:06
12   09:51.0*  2:00:57
13.1 09:44.9   2:10:42
* averaged since I missed mile markers 1 and 11
^ these miles included the climb up to Prospect Point

These times include approximately one minute of walking per mile. I held pace until mile 5 and then slowed down through Stanley Park. I’m not surprised by this since the course narrowed at mile 6, the pitch become more variable and we had a period of heavier rain (it rained most of the time I was on course). This meant avoiding puddles and being a little bit more aware of your footing. Prospect Point hill slowed me down in miles 8 and 9 but I’m proud to say that I ran up the whole thing. I then picked up the pace on the run out of Stanley Park and through to the finish line. My fastest split was the last 1.1 miles during the mad dash to the finish. My legs started screaming up Prospect Point and never really recovered. The last 5 km were pretty painful but I just dug in and finished strong. I can honestly say I don’t think I could have run any harder. I actually ran a negative split race which means I ran the second half of the race faster than the first.

Running this race was not about comparing myself to others but just for fun, here’s how I ranked. Ranks are based on gun times. My gun time was 2:15:01 (so it took more than 4 minutes for me to cross the starting line!) which placed me 3398/6719 overall, 1727/4345 among females and 342/699 among females aged 25-29.

I owe a huge thank you to Jeff and Allison for getting up early and cheering me on. I really appreciated seeing familiar faces along course. All the spectators on course were great though. Our bibs had our first names on them so anyone could yell your name out and cheer you on. That was nice.

For those of you who know my friend Leah, she ran the full marathon in less than 5 hours! Awesome.

Interestingly running the half-marathon did not immediately want to me start training for a full marathon! The half was hard! It’s too early to make commitments but I think my next big goal may be the Seattle half-marathon in November. I’d love to get my time below 2 hours. I’m not sure how realistic this would be as a goal but it’s something to think about. Until then I’m going to keep up with my running and maybe do the 8-K Torchlight Run at the end of July or something like that.