Race Report: 2011 Goofy Challenge – Marathon
As Douglas put it, I felt confident in my ability to complete one half marathon on Sunday. The problem was that I was about to do two.
The alarm once again went off at 2:40am on Sunday morning and we were out the door at 3:20am for the now familiar pre dawn trip to Epcot. The half marathon had 21,965 finishers and the full was just over half the size with 13,529 finishers. You would never have known it from the crowd in the staging area though since everything seemed nearly equally busy. I thought it was a nice touch that the marathon runners had red bibs while the Goofy runners (all 4,621 of us) had blue ones because it made it easy to give knowing head nods to our fellow crazies. It was definitely cooler on marathon morning so I wore a pair of cheap boy’s XL wind pants I’d picked up for six dollars at Target. I dropped them in a clothing donation bin just before the start of the race. This time around Douglas and I had been assigned to corral B. We waited with trepidation for the race to begin. Once we started shuffling forwards I said good-bye to Douglas and moved as far back in the corral as I could before crossing the starting line. I thought that in a best-case scenario I could maybe pull off a 4:30 finish time.
We started with a loop in and around Epcot and then headed out towards the Magic Kingdom. Because the course was marked in miles I decided to set my Garmin back to miles and forsake the metric system for a weekend. It was a throwback to my Seattle running days. I hit mile five in 0:52:08 (pace 10:25, predicted finish 4:33:22) but I already knew a 4:30 finish was not going to happen so while I kept hitting the lap button of my Garmin at each mile I stopped monitoring my pace.
There were three medical tents between miles five and 10 and I think I visited all of them. I had felt a hot spot forming on the arch of my right foot within the first 5 km of the race so I stopped once to adjust my sock and shoe and then a second time to cut off my arch tape (I usually tape my arches to prevent blisters but today it was the cause of the blister) and rub some Vaseline on the blister. I also stopped at one point to put some Biofreeze (topical pain reliever) on my right ITB. I don’t know if it worked or if the effect was psychosomatic but it didn’t really matter to me at the time. Interestingly the medical tent volunteers (who were wonderfully helpful) were recording the bib number of each runner who stopped at the tent and what they needed (Biofreeze, Tylenol, Vaseline, etc). I’d love to know what they’re going to do with this data.
I hit mile ten just outside of the Magic Kingdom in 1:45:35 (pace 10:33, predicted finish 4:36:49). At this point I was maintaining a decent pace but my legs did not feel great. The 1.5 or so miles run through the Magic Kingdom were the same course as during the previous day’s half marathon. It was sort of like I got these miles for free because the crowd support up Main Street and the excitement of running through the park carried me. When I hit the water station just outside the park reality really sunk in. I was now facing a long five mile stretch of road towards Animal Kingdom. I took a gel and a long walk through the water station, put more Biofreeze on my right leg and then started to focus on running from water station to water station. It was clear that I absolutely could not afford to bonk during the race so taking in sufficient calories and liquids gave me something to focus on.
At the half marathon mark my time was 2:19:00 (pace 10:36, predicted finish 4:38:00). I would have been quite happy to stop there and call it a weekend (two back to back half marathons has to be enough of an accomplishment right?) but of course I kept plodding along. Somewhere around here my left knee started bothering me. I have never had issues with my left leg before so this came as a very unpleasant surprise. I finally reached the Animal Kingdom and got to enjoy running about two miles through the park. The park wasn’t quite open yet but there was some nice crowd support along the parking lot as we exited.
After Animal Kingdom came the longest four miles of my life: highway and service roads on the way to Hollywood Studios. By this time my left knee was in bad shape. Every time I would stop to walk through a water station it would seize and I’d really have to fight to start running again. The only thing that kept me going was the thought that if I ran I’d finish sooner than if I walked. I took several longer three or four minute walk breaks but continued to make forward progress. Mile 20 came in 3:38:47 (pace 10:56, predicted finish 4:46:48). As the miles slowly ticked off I became increasingly frustrated with myself for putting myself in this position. My legs hurt and honestly it was a level of pain that I am uncomfortable having subjected myself to.
I think somewhere around the entrance to Hollywood Studios there was a candy stop where they were handing out mini chocolate bars. More races should hand out chocolate. Once again running through the park was a nice distraction. At this point the park was mostly open so there were more crowds around which helped. I did feel a little bad for guests who were just there to see the parks and had to wait to get across the course though. After Hollywood Studios we ran along a pathway and boardwalk to Epcot. This section had the most crowd support and all the encouraging words actually made me quite emotional. The second half of the marathon had really become a mental battle for me and every time I would let myself think about getting close to the end I’d feel like I was about to cry and hyperventilate. Then I’d do some deep breathing and refocus on just making it to the next landmark 100-200m down the road.
The last 2.2 miles of the course ran through Epcot. I moved past being emotional to almost numb to finishing the race. I knew I was going to finish and I think the stupidity of what I had just done was starting to sink in. My marathon chip time was 4:50:55 (pace 11:50) but I really did not care. I have never been so happy to just be done with a race. I got my marathon medal and then headed to the medical tent to start icing both my ITBs. I was not the only one walking around with ice strapped to both knees. From there I picked up my Goofy medal and headed to the food tent. I immediately drank 500mL of water and then picked up another bottle of water, a bottle of Powerade a banana and some small Clif bars.
I found Douglas after the race and we agreed that this was probably one of the dumbest things we’d ever done. We hobbled to the bus and eventually back to our cabin where Laura was waiting. I declared Laura to be the “brains of the operation” for the afternoon because, although I can’t speak for Douglas, I was physically, mentally and emotionally shot. Of course this didn’t stop us from spending the rest of the afternoon and evening in the Magic Kingdom. I eventually went to bed just before midnight on Sunday after having being awake for 21 hours straight.
On Monday morning I awoke with a headache and what I, in retrospect, suspect was sun stroke. It’s not that it was hot on Sunday but I think a combination of exhaustion, dehydration, and exposure to the sun for most of the morning and afternoon made me ill. I was nauseous, feverish and I had the chills. In short I felt awful. It took me over half an hour to eat a banana. I could have stayed at the cabin in bed for the day but that would have meant admitting defeat which isn’t really my style. Instead I went to the Magic Kingdom with my friends although I did bow out of roller coasters for the day. At about 3pm we took a ride on the People Mover in Tomorrowland and somehow that ride healed me. By the end of the afternoon I was feeling like my usual self with the exception of my legs.
Now that more than a week has passed and I can once again walk around pain free most of my frustrations with myself have subsided. I am in fact glad that I completed the race because I can only imagine the regret I might be feeling had I not toed the line on Sunday morning. Plus is gave me a little insight into just how far I can push myself. I still think that doing the race on minimal training was not very smart. I have no plans to ever attempt the Goofy again but I will be wearing my shirt with pride in the future.
Race Report: 2011 Goofy Challenge – Half Marathon
It has taken me some time to finish composing my Goofy Race and a Half Challenge race report. Today I’ll be posting the first installment and the second will come in the next few days. Part of the trouble I’ve had is that it’s ridiculously long. I’ve done my best to keep things concise but I can’t help that I’m a details person. The other trouble I’ve had is with tone. You see, logically, I should not have run the Goofy this year. In the nine weeks between injuring my right ITB while setting a new PB at the Hamilton marathon and Disney race weekend I ran a grand total of 80.2 km. However, the vacation was booked and the race entry paid so going in I decided to do the half marathon and make the marathon a game time decision. While the overall experience was positive there were some low points and I don’t want any negativity that I express to be interpreted against the race itself. For the record: I think the Goofy Challenge is a great race. Doing might just have been one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done though.
My friends Laura, Douglas, Donna and I arrived at Disney late on Thursday morning and checked in to our cabin at the Fort Wilderness Resort. We chose the cabin because all four of us would get to stay together and we had a full kitchen to use to cook our pre race breakfasts and pasta dinners. One slight downside was that although Disney says there is direct transportation from all resorts to the expo and start line we actually had to take a bus to the Wilderness Lodge and then transfer to the race buses. We missed this memo upon arrival on Thursday and ended up taking three different buses to get to the expo. Not ideal. The expo itself was fun and we moved through fairly efficiently collecting our goody bags, race bibs and shirts and doing a bit of gear shopping.
We spent Thursday afternoon and evening at Epcot and then visited Animal Kingdom on Friday. We made our own pasta dinner back at the cabin and then turned in to bed around 8pm Friday night. I heard the 9pm Epcot fireworks so I estimate that I fell asleep at around 9:30pm. With the alarm going off at 2:40 on Saturday morning that meant I got about 5 hours of sleep but thanks to adrenaline I had no trouble waking up for the race. We left our cabin at 3:20am and fairly quickly caught a bus to the Wilderness Lodge where we transferred to a waiting bus to take us to Epcot. We spent about 20 minutes waiting in the staging area and then another 20 minutes walking to the start line. We eventually made it to our corrals at about 5:10am. That’s a long time to be on your feet before the starting gun has even gone off!
Due to some overly ambitious projected finish times made last March, Douglas and I had been assigned to corral A. It was a bit chilly waiting in the corral (thankfully I was wearing my signature garbage bag) but the weather was a dream compared to the freezing temperature and sleet runners faced in 2010. Mickey counted down to the race stat and we were treated to an early morning fireworks display. As we shuffled towards the start line I couldn’t help but wonder what the next 30 hours had in store for me.
Douglas and I stuck together at the start of the half marathon pacing just below a 10 minute mile. We were surrounded by runners but never had any issues with the course being over crowded. The highlight of the half marathon course is running in the Magic Kingdom and through Cinderella’s castle during mile six. After exiting the Magic Kingdom Douglas and I decided to split up and he pulled ahead while I slowed my pace and tried to take things easy. My legs were feeling decent but not great. The bulk of the remaining miles were spent running on roads between the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Periodically there would be Disney characters at the side of the course. I ran with my camera but didn’t stop for any special photos. One of my favourite parts of the half was running up a highway on ramp in mile ten. There was a toy soldier character (from Toy Story) set up at the side of the road with a microphone encouraging the runners up the hill. That was great.
The last mile and a half of the course ran through Epcot which was neat. I kept my pace under control and cruised across the finish line with a chip time of 2:12:42, a new personal worst and exactly 2 minutes slower my first half marathon in 2006. Immediately after finishing I did something I’d never done before: I went to the medical tent. I was not in any distress but I visited the “self treatment” area to get some ice for my right ITB. I figured recovery had to start immediately if I was going to pull off a marathon the next day.
Due to a mix up in meeting location Douglas and I ended up waiting nearly two hours for Donna and Laura. We never found them so we eventually bailed and went back to our cabin (where they were waiting for us). Both of my legs were tight and I had some tenderness in my right ITB but all in all I was doing OK. We all donned our half marathon shirts and spent Saturday afternoon at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This was a good choice because we stretched out our legs walking around the park but we also were able to attend several stunt shows which meant that we sat down and didn’t overextend our self. After all, overextending ourselves was so be saved for marathon day.
Race Report: 2010 Hamilton Marathon
Pre Race
I awoke at 4:40am on race morning and launched into action. This was not nearly as painful as it could have been because it was the night we went off daylight savings time and thus only felt like 5:40am to my body. I quickly made some oats and tea for breakfast, gathered my pre packed bags and hit to road to Hamilton at around 5:10am. The drive was uneventful and I arrived at Confederation Park around 6:15am. I was able to pick up my race bib and shirt, make a quick pit stop and immediately board a waiting school bus for the ride up to the finish line. While on the bus I ate a banana with some peanut butter and drank about 300mL of water. The start line was at Saltfleet High School (or as I prefer to think of it, Star Fleet High School) and the runners were gathered in the gym waiting for the start. I settled into a comfy spot at around 6:45 am and had 1.5 hours to kill before the start of the race. The time passed quickly and soon enough I had checked my bag, listened to the national anthem and found myself heading over to the start line.
In the start corral I met up with the 4:00 pace group. I spoke to the pace bunny and he said that his plan was to run a 5:30 pace stopping to walk for approximately 30 seconds at each aid station (which were supposed to come every 3km). I suppose that would have worked out to a 5:41 average but I didn’t think it was the plan for me. Basically I didn’t think I could manage a 5:30 pace even with the walk breaks. So I decided to go it alone and try to average 5:41. I planned to walk through aid stations but expected that my natural variation in pace would account for any time lost there.
1 – 10km: 0:57:05 (avg 5:43 min/km)
The race started and we headed out of the school parking lot and out onto country roads. My first freak out occurred in the first kilometer when I realized that I couldn’t feel my toes. This happens when my feet get cold but I guess I hadn’t realized that my feet were that cold! I reasoned that as I ran they would warm up and the feeling would return. Despite the fact that I started right behind the 4:00 pace bunny and was averaging exactly a 5:41 pace I got passed by literally hundreds of runners in the first few kilometers. I resisted the urge to speed up and focused how good it would feel to pass runners in the later stages of the race. My nutrition plan was to take 100cal gels at around the 8, 16, 24 and 32 km marks. I also had 4 eload electrolyte caps that I planned to take in the second half of the race. I took a gel in the ninth kilometer and just kept cruising along.
11 – 20km: 0:56:47 (avg 5:41 min/km)
Most of this quarter was run on an out and back section of country roads. It was here that I truly appreciated how fast the field running this race was. In my previous races I’ve been around the mid pack but in this race I was definitely closer to the back of the pack. I saw the race leaders go by and the eventually the various pace groups went by heading in the other direction. The 3:20 and 3:30 pace groups were particularly big. In fact the 3:30 group looked like an army of fitness. There was a bit of a headwind in this section so I was very happy when I made the turn and got to enjoy a tailwind for a change. My pace was fairly consistent in this section ranging from a 5:30 – 5:49. I took a gel around 17km and continued to take water and/or eload at each water stop. I don’t usually train with eload but it definitely tasted weak to me.
21 – 30km: 0:55:35 (avg 5:34 min/km)
The half way point was not officially marked. After I hit the 20km mark I looked approximately 100m up the road and created my own half marathon mark. When I hit it I looked at my watch and it read exactly 2:00:00. So goal 1a was accomplished. I had not gone out too fast but I wasn’t feeling as good as I would have hoped for only being halfway done. My right IT band was hurting and I just didn’t feel springy. My cardio was feeling fine but I really wasn’t sure how I was going to muster another half marathon out of my legs. Truth be told I’d had some concerns about my right leg going into the race. In last last few weeks of training I’d had sporadic problems with my ankle, calf and quad. I’d start the run with some tightness that would tend to go away after a few kilometers but it wasn’t consistent. I took my taper quite easy but I had three pain free runs in the week before the race so I thought I was good to go.
During the 23rd kilometer we entered the Red Hill parkway and started descending. My first downhill kilometer split was 5:08. I wanted to take advantage of the downhill without thrashing my quads too much. The fun part of running on the highway was that I really got to focus on running the tangets on the course and I was very happy to be on nice smooth asphalt. Once again my right ITB was not happy though so I made the tactical decision to stop monitoring my pace. My thought process was that I would still push myself to run hard but I didn’t want to risk getting down on myself if I started to see my splits getting higher and higher. We came off the highway in the 29th kilometer.
31 – 40km: 0:57:34 (avg 5:45 min/km)
During this section of the course we were running from the highway to the lake along miscellaneous city roads. It wasn’t a particular scenic route and since I’m not familiar with the city I really didn’t know where I was at any given time. Granted I didn’t really care that much at this point. Eventually we made it to Beach Drive which is one block over from the shore of Lake Ontario for the second out and back portion of the route. At this point the distance was taking its toll on the field and my fellow runners were definitely slowing down and taking more walk breaks. I resolved to only walk at water stations but I was struggling to maintain focus and block out the pain in my hip.
The turn back occurred at approximately the 35 km mark. This water station had no eload which I was unimpressed with but the volunteers were enthusiastic. The route back was on a multiuse trail right along the shore of Lake Ontario. I was now 7km from the finish and felt a little revitalized. I realized the the pain in my hip, while not enjoyable, wasn’t getting any worse so if I could just run through it I’d still be able to finish strong. I kept picking off runners and trying to run as fast as I could.
40 – 42.2km: 13:47 avg 6:16 min/km*
When I hit 40km I looked at my watch for the first time in over an hour. Honestly I didn’t know what I would see. I wouldn’t have been surprised if I’d been on pace for a 4:10 finish. As it turns out I saw that a sub four hour finish was still in reach. When I hit my lap button at the 41km mark my total time was 3:52:26. I was totally thrilled because I though I had about 7:30 to run the last 1.2km and that was totally doable. I saw my friend Laura in the last kilometer and gave here a wave feeling pumped that I was going to achieve my goal. We kept running along the trail for quite a while and then all of a sudden took a right hand turn onto a gravel pathway. I could not believe we were running on gravel this late in the race (and this was coarse gravel not nice smooth gravel). I kept looking for the 42km sign but it never came. When we turned off the gravel I got my first glimpse of the finish line and it looked so far away. I glanced down at my watch and saw that I now had less than a minute if I was going to break four hours and judging the distance to the finish line I knew it wasn’t going to happen. I was crushed. How did this happen? I’d been running hard all this time. It didn’t make sense.
I ran strong through through to the finish sprinting the last 100m (generating quite a cheer from the crowd). When I crossed the finish line I hit my Garmin and it read 4:00:49. Darn!
Post Race
After crossing the finish line I doubled over in exhaustion and was immediately grabbed by a friendly medical volunteer. I told her I was fine and just needed a minute. Laura found me and the medical volunteer was satisfied I wasn’t going to pass out on her (although she did mention my hands were cold). I grabbed a banana and a hot cup of lentil soup and Laura and I sat on the grass surveying the sceen.
*According to Laura at least one of the pace bunnies that had finished ahead of me had missed their time and commented about the last last km. According to my Garmin last 1.2km of the course were actually 1.6 km long and it took me 8:21 to cover the distance. If the distance was 1.2km that would be a 5:44 pace. If it was 1.6km my pace would be 5:02 which is much closer to how I felt I was running. There was been much discussion of this long finish on various running websites and discussion boards. In the days after the race the race director released the following statement:
“The Marathon course has been certified and is accurate. However, during course set up the km markers on the Red Hill Valley Parkway were short by 400m, resulting in the last km being 400m further.”
I suspect the error might have occurred around the 28km mark since my 27th kilometer was measured (by my Garmin) at only 840m. The total distance measured by my Garmin was 42.3km which is certainly reasonable given the margin of error of GPS unit and the fact that I may not have run the most direct route from the start line to the finish line. So at the end of the day I’ve accepted that I ran a 4:00:48 marathon but I’m a little upset I had my excitement of finishing in sub four hours crushed at the very last moment.
I feel good about the fact that I only ran a 48 second positive split and a personal best is nothing to be disappointed in. I’m also glad that I was able to push through my ITB problem but clearly its an issue that needs to be addressed. I’ve decided to take 7-10 days completely off running. My plan for the next two months is to do enough training to complete the Goofy Challenge but I definitely will not be running that race with a time goal.
Race Report: 2010 Horror Hill 15K
Yesterday I paced my friend Alice through the Horror Hill 15K Road Race. We each had own reasons for taking the race easy. Mine is a marathon in 8 days; Alice’s is revealed in her race report. The run starts half way up a hill and is very hilly for the first 7km and then moderately hilly after that. The actual “Horror Hill” peaks at the 4km mark. Alice’s mother and daughter met us at the 2km mark and we were able to snap a quick photo with Alice’s husband Steve who was also running the race.
By 5km into the race we had secured last place and were treated to our own personal police car escort. Actually the car was trailing us so I’m not sure that’s technically an escort. We joked that this was actually the safest race we’d ever run because he had way more protection from the traffic (the course wasn’t closed) than any of the other runners. We just kept ticking off the kilometers, chatting and enjoying the beautiful, albeit windy, fall day. We ended up finishing in just over 2 hours but this race was all about the experience not the finish line.
When I got home from the run I was looking through some of my race shirts and I discovered that the Horror Hill 15K occurred exactly five years to the day after my first ever road race: the 2005 Dawg Dash. This was the race that triggered my love of running so it was very cool to have celebrated (granted unintentionally) this anniversary with another very memorable race.
Race Report: 2010 Run for the Toad 25km
Early on in the process of moving back to Waterloo last year I did a web search for running races in the area. I came across the Run for the Toad website and knew that eventually I would have to do this race. Last year the timing didn’t work for me but this year with a planned marathon in November (instead of October) it fit in perfectly. The Toad is something else. It’s Canada’s largest trail race (1350 participants) and was named the number one must-do trail race by Canadian Running magazine.
Going into the race I had absolutely no time goal. It was technically a rest week in my marathon training program so my plan was to treat this race as a catered long run. My trail specific training mostly consisted of reading the trail sections of Runner’s World and Canadian Running magazines in the week leading up to the race. Taking all of that into account I came up with the list of the following three goals:
- Goal #1: Do not sprain or break my ankle or sustain any other major injury,
- Goal #2: Have fun,
- Goal #3: Start slow and attempt to negative split the course.
Pre Race
Around 9pm on Friday night I thought it would probably be a good idea to pack for the race. I basically picked one of every type of running clothing that I had and decided to make a game time wardrobe decision. On Saturday morning I woke up at 6am, ate some oatmeal and hit the road for the 45 minute drive down to Pinehurst Lake Conservation Area. My initial inclination had been to arrive at 6:30 when packet pick-up opened but in the end I managed to talk myself down to a 7:15 arrival. As a side note: my 7:15 arrival got me into the closest parking lot. Some runners who arrived later faced up to a 10-15 minute walk between their cars and the start/finish area.
I picked up my packet and race goodies and wandered around the aptly named tent city checking things out. I especially enjoyed the free Timmy’s coffee which I had with my banana and PB. The sun rise was a gorgeous shade of red and we were treated to a beautiful rainbow over Kettle Lake. Minutes after the photo below was taken light rain started to fall and continued on and off for the rest of the morning. With the rain, I settled on wearing shorts, a short sleeve shirt, arm sleeves and a running vest. The pre race ceremonies started at 8:45 am with the race start at 9:30 am. I lined up about 75% of the way towards the back of the pack and felt ready to take on the challenge of the day.
The Race
The course is a 12.5km loop through the Pinehurst Lake Conservation Area. As a 25km runner I did the loop twice. I wore my Garmin but shut off auto lap and resolved not to monitor my time or pace and to run solely by feel. I did however hit the lap button at the 5, 10 and 12.5 km points of each loop so I could do some retrospective data analysis.
Loop #1 1:24:50 (35:04/33:26/16:20)
There was a bottleneck about 500m into the race as we had to shuffle along while everyone walked up the first significant incline. After that the course opened up and there weren’t really any major congestion issues. The first 2km were mostly on pavement and then we headed onto the trails in the Pine Forest. It was awesome to finally be running on trail! Although the trails were not very technical I kept focused on taking shorter steps and trying plan a course that would avoid potential ankle spraining roots and rocks. I hit the first 5km feeling awesome.
The next section brought us through the Grasshopper Meadow into the Carolinian Forest. The Meadow section was pretty easy but the trails in the forest were a little more technical. I kept walking the uphills and reminding myself to save it for the second lap. During the last kilometer of the first loop I was passed by the 25km race winner. He was flying!
Loop #2 1:22:26 (33:31/33:15/15:40)
I took a gel at the aid station immediately after recrossing the start line. Other than gatorade from the aid stations this was the only nutrition I took in. I also didn’t carry any of my own fluids which worked out fine since there were four aid stations per loop. I continued to walk up the major inclines but as the kilometers clicked away I ran more and walked less. I felt like I was consistently passing the runners in front of me and I was still feeling strong but I kept holding back a bit because I didn’t want the wheels to fall off.
At about the 8km point of the second loop the rain really started to pick up. The trail conditions had deteriorated and in sections I was slipping and sliding all over the place. Because it was a loop course by the time I was on my second loop 1,800 pairs of feet had run over trails before me. I’m not sure but having trail shoes might have helped with traction. My mantra for this section was “this is runnable” which I kept repeating to myself as I negotiated the slightly more technical conditions.
The biggest hill on the course comes just after the 11km mark of each loop. It’s short but steep. The second time around I was concerned that it would be dangerously slippery but I made it up with just a bit of side stepping. After I hit the top I knew it was pretty much clear sailing to the finish line. I estimate I passed 10-15 runners in the last 1.5km alone. After I passed the 12km marker (24.5km) I really turned on the jets. Fortunately the final 500m was on pavement and dry trails so I was actually able to run strong through the finish.
Post Race
After crossing the finish line I got my medal, some water and a chocolate chip cookie. One of the things The Toad is known for is the catered post race dinner. Even though I was soaked through I decided to follow the crowd and just go straight ahead and have lunch instead of taking the time to get changed into dry clothes. This ended up being a good decision for me since as time progressed the lunch line just got longer and longer. Lunch was delicious and even though I didn’t feel super hungry I absolutely devoured it. I think my body was craving the calories even if my stomach wasn’t. After lunch I went back to the finish line to see the 50km winner finish (a woman won the race outright) and grab another hot coffee for the drive home.
Looking back at the data I’m happy to see that each of my splits in the second loop were faster than the first loop. Mission accomplished. I seem to have recovered quite well from the race and I’m ready to dive back into to marathon training. I’d definitely like to do this race again next year. I’m not sure I’m up for attempting the 50km but maybe someday…
Race Report: 2010 Toronto Women’s Half Marathon
My friend Laura and I registered for this race back in October after receiving a brochure for it at the Toronto Marathon Expo. It’s a good thing we did because the half filled up months ago with a cap of only 1,500 runners. My plan for this race was to run with Laura, have a blast and help her finish in the best time possible. We made the agreement that she was allowed to hate me during the last 5km if I tired to push her.
The days leading up to the race had been relatively hot and unfortunately the heat did not break before the race. It was sunny and around 20C at the start of the race and rose maybe 5C while we were running. Although the course was shaded and breezy in parts we were predominantly running in full sun. The heat started affecting us around the 5km mark and once we got to 10km it was clear the the goal of the day was just to finish the race. At about 14km we switched from a 9/1 run/walk ratio to 4/1.
I have never had more to drink during a half marathon. I carried 600mL of water with me and I took at least one cup or gatorade and/or water at each of the six water stations plus I had my bottle refiled once. I also consumed two gels and a Cadbury 100 calorie chocolate bar. That’s right, I ate a chocolate bar during the race! Hey, if they’re going to put out a chocolate station (I loved the sign “Attention Chocolate Ahead”) I am going to partake.
In the end we finished in 2:42:14, a time which was severely influenced by the heat. It’s a minor miracle that neither of us ended up dehydrated or sunburnt. I seemed to bounce back quite well from this race which I consider to be a positive sign for the Goofy challenge. I’m not saying I felt ready to run a full marathon when I woke up on Monday morning but I did feel like I could have gone for a run had it been on my schedule.
Race Report: 2010 Sporting Life 10k
Pre Race
Laura and I picked up our race bibs on Saturday morning and spent a few hours jetting around the city doing some shopping. We took things easy in the afternoon, had a delicious dinner of homemade (although not by us) pasta and then spent the evening watching a movie. On Sunday morning we woke up at 5:45am, ate breakfast and took the TTC to Yonge and Eglington. We walked up past the start line to drop off our bag, did a short warm-up jog and then parted ways at the entrance to our corrals.
The weather reports had been calling for thunderstorms and a 90% POP. It was a warm 18C and humid but mercilessly the rain held off for the most part.
My primary goal for this race was to set a new personal best. That meant running faster than 54:02, my time from my only pervious 10k: the 2006 Dawg Dash. My pie-in-the-sky goal was to go sub 50:00. Just before the race started I decided to throw caution to the wind and try to run 5:00 min/km for as long as I could and see what would happen.
The Race
Despite the fact that the race has a large net downhill (87m or 285ft) there are sill several uphill sections particularly in the first half. I had to do a bit of jockeying for position during the first kilometer but eventually settled into my goal pace. Actually I threw down some ridiculously consistent splits during the first 5k. The were all between 4:55 and 5:03. I hit the 5k in 24:57. I was feeling good but not great at this point and knew I had no room to slow down if I wanted to break 50:00.
During the second half of the race I had to really concentrate on running the kilometer I was in and not worrying about how far it was to the finish. I held things together through the seventh kilometer and then I started to fade. The eighth and ninth kilometers came in at 5:11 and 5:09, respectively. I figured that put me about 20 seconds behind and I’d have to try and make it up in the last kilometer. I turned on the jets with about 750m to go and then really sprinted the last 200m. I knew I had to give it everything I had left because I would be upset if I barely missed making my goal. I hit my watch after crossing the timing mats and felt like I might fall over. When I looked at my watch it read 50:00.21 so I was pretty certain I’d broken 50:00 by chip time. Yippee!
Post Race
I got my medal, some food and drink and then picked up my checked bag. Laura and I met up at our appointed meeting spot and then made the trek up her her condo via TTC. It was sort of cool that even though we kept getting further away from the finish line we kept seeing people on the streets with their medals around their necks.
Data
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Cumulative Cumulative 5Km
Km Split Time Pace Split
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1 04:58.5 0:04:58.5 04:58.5
2 04:58.8 0:09:57.4 04:58.7
3 05:02.3 0:14:59.7 04:59.9
4 04:54.5 0:19:54.1 04:58.5
5 05:02.5 0:24:56.6 04:59.3 24:56.6
6 04:58.0 0:29:54.6 04:59.1
7 05:01.1 0:34:55.7 04:59.4
8 05:11.3 0:40:07.0 05:00.9
9 05:09.4 0:45:16.3 05:01.8
10 04:39.8 0:49:56.1 04:59.6 24:59.5
49:56.1
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Overall place: 2670/11913 (77th percentile)
Gender place: 648/6684 (90th percentile)
Division place: 138/1221 (88th percentile)
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)
Fun Run Report: 2009 Santa Shuffle KW 5K
Last Saturday morning I ran the local Santa Shuffle 5K. It was an untimed “fun run” so everything was pretty free and loose. There was no official start or finish line and Santa counted down the start. I’d say there were about 150-200 runners at the event. Looking around, I really couldn’t gauge how fast the crowd was. There was a lot of technical gear being worn but it was cold so the cotton t-shirt metric wasn’t really useful.
The course was two loops around and through Waterloo Park. The loop was sort of funny because it actually crossed itself at one point. I’m glad I wasn’t in charge of directing traffic there! As soon as Santa said GO! a group of really fast runners broke away. I could see at least two women in the group and probably six to eight others. My goal was to run sub 25:00 so I set my Garmin to lap each km and focused on keeping my pace just below the 5:00 min/km mark.
My first km came in a 4:39 which was a big quick so I focused on holding a steady hard pace. I was passed by a women in the first km but I never let her get more than 20m ahead of me and eventually reeled her in about 5 minutes later. The course was quite twisty in parts and after the second km I was running alone although I could see two men about 40 and 80 m ahead of me.
During the second loop I started to really feel the effort. I made a turn just after the 3km mark and the volunteer there told me I was the something-th female. I really couldn’t tell what number she had said. I was just excited to hear a comment like that. I’ve never run a race where I’ve been in a position to hear a ranking! I figured I was probably running in fourth or fifth and just keep chugging along. My main goal was not to get caught from behind by the woman I’d passed. I had no idea how much of a lead I had on her but I wanted to trick myself into thinking she was close.
I tried to turn on the jets in the fifth km, hold off any one that was behind me and push to the finish. My Garmin hit 5km as I crested a hill about 200m before the course actually ended. I ran down the hill past some spectators and someone holding a clipboard, figured I’d crossed the invisible finish line and hit my Garmin. My km splits were:
4:39/4:52/4:49/4:40/4:53/0:56
My Garmin mapped the course at 5.2km with a finish time of 24:49. My cumulative time at my 5km split was 23:53 which would make this my third fastest 5km (out of ten). I have decided not to record this among my official finish times though since the course wasn’t certified.
After the race the runners went back to the Waterloo Rec Complex for snacks. I passed the volunteer who had told me my placing and she asked me if I’d held onto my spot. I told her I had. Of course I didn’t know what place that was but I was starting to suspect that maybe I’d come in third because (1) why would she ask me if I’d held onto fourth or fifth? and (2) one of the women who I thought had been in front of me had actually finished in a few minutes after me.
Back at the Rec Complex there was hot chocolate, coffee, fruit and granola bars. At the awards ceremony I was announced as the third place woman! I now am the proud owner of a Running Room bronze medal! I know it was just a fun run and it was a small race but I’m still quite pleased with myself.
Race Report: 2009 Toronto Marathon
Pre Race
I went into Toronto on Friday after work and spent Friday evening and Saturday hanging out with my friends Laura and Douglas. On race morning I woke up at 6:45 am, ate breakfast and got myself organized. The forecast was calling for clear conditions with a low around 0C and a high of about 10C. I had made the decision to wear shorts with a long sleeved technical t-shirt, gloves and a baseball hat. I was slightly concerned that I was going to be too cold at the start of the race but decided to risk it because being too hot later in the race would be worse.
At about 7:40am four of us racing the marathon climbed into a cab for the drive to the start line at Mel Lastman Square. We heard the 8am half marathon start and then ducked in to a municipal building that was open to runners. It was certainly nice to get to wait for the start indoors since it was chilly out. After some nervous chatter and a pre race gel we made out way out to the corrals about 15 minutes before the start and lined up between the “sub 4:00” and “4:00+” signs.
The gun went off and the race was underway!
Part 1: Down and Up Yonge Street, 0-10km in 57:46 (average 5:47 min/km)
There were only about 2200 marathoners so the start wasn’t too crowded and I was able to settle into my pace fairly quickly without wasting energy weaving around people. At some point during the second kilometer Douglas pulled up next to me and we started running together. We hadn’t planned to run the race together but we were both happy to have the company so we stuck together. I really didn’t want to go out too fast so I was monitoring our pace trying to keep our splits somewhere around 5:45-5:50. There were a few rolling hills in this first section including a fairly long uphill during the fifth kilometer which lead to the slowest km of the day at 6:08. It actually wasn’t that bad of a hill but it was daunting because we could see it coming from a ways off.
We kept rolling down (an occasionally up) Yonge street checking off subway stops until south of Eglington when we turned off into a lovely neighbourhood with tree lined streets and big houses. I took a gel somewhere in the ninth kilometer. I carried four gels with me (all of which I would take) and a plastic water bottle that I threw away after the first water station. After that I just went with what they had on course and it worked out fine.
Part 2: Rosedale and into Downtown, 10-21.1km in1:03:09 (average 5:41 min/km)
We continued moving along at a comfortable pace running past Upper Canada College and Casa Loma. This was exciting for me because I used to run past Casa Loma during the summer of 2000 when I lived in downtown Toronto. This section had a lot of downhills including one during our fastest kilometer of the day: 5:23 for kilometer 12. We did a lovely set of about four kilometers on Rosedale Valley Road. This was my favourite section of the course. The trees were in full autumn colours and it was quiet and peaceful. In other words there were no angry motorists honking because the marathon was blocking traffic!
We came out of the valley onto Bayview Ave and then onto Front St. This was probably my least favourite section of the course. The road was a little uneven and mixed with asphalt, concrete and street car tracks. We were passing half marathon walkers at this point so I had to be a bit more aware of my surrondings. Also the CN tower was looming in the distance and I knew that not only did I have to run to it but I also had to go way past it and then back again!
Douglas and I were holding a strong pace. We went through the half in 2:00:55 (chip time). I was very happy that we weren’t sub 2:00. We made our target pace 5:41 min/km and figured that with a few occasional faster kilometers a sub 4:00 finish was possible.
Part 3: Queen’s Quay and the Lakeshore Pathway, 21.1-30km in 50:35 (average 5:41 min/km)
As we were running out of downtown we saw the marathon leader go by us heading towards the finish line. We were still a long way away from finishing so I just focused on making it to the turn around at the Humber Bay Arch Bridge. We maintained a strong pace but it was definitely getting harder to sustain. My legs were making their presence known and the wind picked up making things a bit more difficult. Somewhere around 25 km I finally took off my throw away gloves and made the joke that I was taking off the gloves and getting serious.
Part 3: Lakeshore to Queen’s Park, 30-42.2km in1:10:51 (average 5:48 min/km)
As Douglas and I headed back towards downtown we were consistently picking off runners ahead of us. In the end we would pass 203 runners in this section while only being passed by six. Yes, we were that awesome.
I should mention that there was a marathon relay being run concurrently with the marathon. There were eight legs so each relay runner ran about 5km. Needless to say they went flying by us. Fortunately most of them had a bib on their back that read RELAY so you could at least justify their speed as they bounded past you.
Douglas was definitely pulling me along in this section. He seemed to have just a tiny bit more in his legs than I did. At first he was a step ahead of me, then it was 5 meters and by the time we hit the turn up York street it was about 20 meters. We’d already had the discussion that when we got close to the end we each had to run our own races so I was happy to see him pushing the pace. The funny thing was that we were both passing everyone on the course but the distance between us was staying fairly consistent.
The last three km up York and University Ave were very very hard. For about the last two km I could see Queen’s Park in the distance and I just knew I needed to make it there. I took a few very short walk breaks but I kept pushing whatever pace I could squeeze out of my legs. Just after the 41 km mark I caught up to Douglas and told him that we were going to finish this thing together. We saw Laura cheering us on along the bend behind Queen’s Park and then matched each other stride for stride as we sprinted for the finish.
Finish: 4:02:21 (average 5:45 min/km)
My chip finish time was 4:02:21 which is a 7:58 improvement over my previous personal best from 2008 in Seattle. I didn’t break 4 hours but I left everything I had out on the course so there’s no way I can be disappointed with my result. I’m also thrilled that my half marathon splits of 2:00:55 and 2:01:26 were so close. A 31 second positive split is some very consistent pacing and I firmly believe that this is the most efficient way for me to run a marathon.
Lessons Learnt
- Consistent pacing is the way to go
- On a cool day I do not need to carry my own water/Gatorade.
- Next time around I think I should include more marathon pace sections into my long runs.
- It’s really nice to have a running partner. Thanks for racing with me Douglas!
- After a marathon it helps to have someone around who can think straight. Thanks for taking care of us Laura
Finally here is the “Achievement Statistics” report generated by the marathon for me (you can click to get a bigger view).
