Race Report: 2010 Waterloo Half Marathon

Yesterday I ran my tenth official half marathon, the St John Ambulance Waterloo Half Marathon. I finished in a time of 1:57:39 which is about a minute faster than the average finishing time of my previous halfs.

Pre Race

My parents were visiting for the weekend so I spent most of Saturday sewing curtains for my living room with my Mother. On Sunday I woke up at about 6:20am and my Dad and I arrived at Betchel Park at around 7:10am. It was drizzling rain when we arrived and by the time I’d picked up my bib and timing chip, made a final wardrobe selection and made it through the bathroom line up it was about 8:10 and absolutely pouring rain. Thankfully all the pre race stuff was at an indoor soccer facility and since there were only 365 people in the half marathon we didn’t have to walk out to the start line until the last moment.

The Race

Because of the torrential downpour I started the race wearing a garbage bag (see photo below). I knew the general route but I didn’t really know where the hills would be so everything was a surprise. My plan was to keep my kilometer splits between 5:27 and 5:42 (i.e. between a 1:55 and 2:00 finish time). I started out way too fast covering the first two two kilometers in 10:24 (I missed the first kilometer sign). I think I was just excited by the crowd, the fact that this was my first race of 2010 and I was keen to warm up. By the third kilometer I’d pretty much settled into my own pace. This was the first races I’ve done on open roads. The first few kilometers were closed to traffic but after we turned onto Bloomingdale Rd the road was open and we were supposed to run on the shoulder for the rest of the way. This could have been bad but it wasn’t really a problem. The roads mostly had generous shoulders and the cars gave the runners a wide berth when driving by. It seemed like a St John Ambulance or police car drove by about every five minutes monitoring the course.

I came through the first five kilometers in 27:09 and was feeling pretty good. The course was reputed as hilly but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. There were a couple long inclines but nothing that made me think of walking like other hills I’ve run on. In particular, kilometer eight had a big hill which slowed me down to a 5:50 split. I just kept on trucking and enjoyed a few downhill kilometers after that. My split for the second five kilometers was 28:03 giving me a 10 kilometer split of 55:12. Around this time the rain had returned to a drizzle and I finally took off the garbage bag I’d been running in. I had never intended to keep it on for this long but it served its purpose.

There were a few more hills in the next few kilometers and I was starting to feel myself slow. Whereas before I’d been hitting the low 5:30′s now I was clocking high 5:30′s and some 5:40′s. I took a gel coming out of Conestogo and then faced down the wind and rolling hills of Northfield drive. My third five kilometer split was 28:39. As I made the turn onto University Ave I knew I was getting close to home. I had hopped to turn on the engines in the last five kilometers but I didn’t quite have much to give. It was the usual story, my legs were the limiting factor not my lungs. I managed to pick up the pace in kilometer 20 and then hit my fourth five kilometer split in 28:05.

I did find a little something at the end of the race and pulled off the last 1.1 kilometers in 5:42 which is a 5:11 pace. I crossed the finish line in 1:57:39 (chip time) with a smile on my face. Actually I had a smile plastered on my face for most of the run. Despite the crazy weather I was just happy to be out and racing. I always new that it wasn’t a day for a PB but I was happy to finish almost right smack in the middle of my goal range of a 1:55 – 2:00 finish time.

Post Race

Dad met me at the finish line and we headed back into the soccer facility so I could pick up my medal (a handmade clay medallion, nice touch), a drink (Timmy’s hot chocolate, really hit the spot) and some food. I changed into dry clothes and then we headed out. We decided to try and leave quickly because we were afraid that once the marathon finishers started coming in we’d be trapped in the parking lot. Back at home we had blueberry pancakes for brunch and then my parents headed home to Ottawa leaving me to spend the rest of the day lying on the couch recovering!

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed the Waterloo half marathon, it’s a great small hometown race. Despite there only being 365 half marathon finishers I was never alone on the course. I also never felt in danger while running on open roads. My one and only complaint is that I really disliked the last kilometer of the half marathon course that ran through the parking lot. We were running on uneven gravel and I felt like we were trapping the cars in. I wonder if we could somehow do this loop at the start of the course next year? I know it’s a bigger pack then but at least it would open up the parking lot at the finish. In any case, I expect that I’ll run this race again next year and possibly for many more years to come.

Data

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                Cumulative    Cumulative    5Km
Km    Split        Time         Pace       Split
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 2   10:24.1     0:10:24.1     05:12.1
 3   05:36.7     0:16:00.9     05:20.3
 4   05:32.1     0:21:33.0     05:23.2
 5   05:36.1     0:27:09.1     05:25.8     27:09.1
 6   05:30.5     0:32:39.6     05:26.6
 7   05:36.1     0:38:15.7     05:28.0
 8   05:50.1     0:44:05.8     05:30.7
 9   05:33.5     0:49:39.3     05:31.0
10   05:33.1     0:55:12.4     05:31.2     28:03.3
11   05:37.0     1:00:49.4     05:31.8
12   05:52.3     1:06:41.7     05:33.5
13   05:43.7     1:12:25.3     05:34.3
14   05:37.2     1:18:02.5     05:34.5
15   05:49.0     1:23:51.5     05:35.4     28:39.1
16   05:40.2     1:29:31.7     05:35.7
17   05:38.5     1:35:10.2     05:35.9
18   05:33.5     1:40:43.7     05:35.8
19   05:39.4     1:46:23.1     05:36.0
20   05:33.8     1:51:56.9     05:35.8     28:05.4
21.1 05:42.1     1:57:39.0     05:34.6
   1:57:39.0
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Overall place: 146/365 (60th percentile)
Gender place:  41/201  (79th percentile)
Division place: 19/55  (65th percentile)