Race Report: 2008 Race for the Cure 5K
This morning I ran the Race for the Cure 5K. This race is really a whole morning of events down at Qwest Field including a Kids run, Women’s 5K run, Co-ed 1 mile walk, Co-ed 5K run and Co-ed 5K walk. I did the Women’s 5K because I absolutely love all female races. And it’s hard not to get behind a breast cancer fundraiser.
Pre race: I woke up 5:40 am, ate breakfast, got myself organized and then headed out to catch a bus downtown. I got to Qwest Field (where the Seattle Seahawks and Sounders play) at about 7:10 am. This gave me lots of time to pick up my bib and t-shirt, drop off my bag and do a nice warm-up. I also got to use the cleanest porta potty I have ever seen in my entire life. For some reason my legs were extremely tight. All I could do was try to stretch them out and keep them warm before the race. The weather was absolutely perfect – cloudy and about 10C. The first event of the day was the Kids run at 7:45 am. I was impressed by the number of local mascots in attendance including Blitz, the Mariner Moose, Harry the Husky and Rhubarb the Reindeer.
Once the Kids run was over we women started lining up. They kept referring to this as the “Competitive Women’s 5K Run” but it wasn’t chip timed and they weren’t using pull tabs off our bibs either. The course was certified though so I figured my Garmin time would be my official time.
The race: I started about 5 rows back from the front line and I thought it was very cool that for about the first mile I could see the pace car and police escort ahead of me leading the front runners. Other than the first 50m I experienced no congestion issues. The course starts northbound heading up a ramp onto the lower lanes of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Then after about 1.5 miles you exit off Alaskan (after a climb followed by a downhill ramp) and then climb back up onto the upper lanes and head back southbound. I felt pretty good for the first mile but struggled with the hills in the second mile. By the third mile I was just holding on and hoping I’d make it to the end. My legs were tired but I don’t think the pre-race tightness was a factor. I used all the mental tricks I could to keep my pace up towards the end. My approximately accurate Garmin splits were 7:41 / 8:01 / 7:42 / 0:51 for a finish time of 24:15.
Post-race: I was pretty shaky when I crossed the finish line and it took a few moment of deep breathing with my hand on my knees to get my wits about me. I didn’t sit on the ground though because I thought I might not be able to get back up! Still, I was quite pleased with my time and the fact that I pushed hard all the way through to the finish. My time is 1:04 off my PB but that was set on a flat course. Plus I’ve only done one tempo run and one speedwork session in the last six weeks! So now I’m just going to keep plugging away with my “30 on 30″ training program. I’ve got 9 miles on the schedule for tomorrow morning!
Race Report: 2008 Vancouver Half Marathon
Pre-Race
Dad and I drove up to Vancouver on Friday morning and spent the day visiting friends. Then we met Matt and his parents for a delicious curry dinner at the Banana Leaf. Saturday morning started with brunch with C&J and then it was onto the marathon expo. We spent about half an hour at the expo picking up our race kits, visiting the booths and picking up free samples. I was impressed that they had lots of chilled drinking water and real glasses (i.e. not paper cups) out to help satisfy the runners’ hydration needs. After the expo we all headed to Stanley Park for the afternoon.
First we drove the Stanely Park segment of the half marathon course so that Matt could see the Prospect Point hill. We also stopped to see the totem polls and to check out a few of the view points. We got to the aquarium and waited in a super long line to get in. I guess a cloudy Saturday afternoon isn’t the best time to see the aquarium! Despite the crowds we had a great time at the aquarium and caught both the dolphin and beluga shows. Of course that meant I had Rafi’s “Baby Beluga” song stuck in my head all afternoon!
The alarm(s) went off at 5am on Sunday morning and I had my usual oats, green tea and banana for breakfast. The weather was perfect for racing. I didn’t check the temperature (would you believe that one channel wouldn’t come in on our hotel TV and it was the weather channel) but I’d estimate it was 8C and partly cloudy. We left the hotel at 6am and after an initial wrong turn (mostly my fault) arrived at BC Place at about 6:20. Between dropping off my bag at bag check and the porta potty lines we didn’t have a lot of time to spare. Matt and I made it over to the start corral and tried to position ourselves correctly. We had decided not to run the race together but lined up together since there was a serious lack of useful pace signs (we only saw 1:30 and 2:30 pacers!). The race started on time and we started to inch our way to the start line.
The plan
I pretty much outlined my plan and goals in a previous post so I’ll just reference that here. The goal was to average 8:23 min/mile and if all else failed just go as hard as possible.
The Race
My first mile came in at 8:45. Given the congestion I was happy with my start but wished that it had felt a little easier. Miles 2, 3 and 4 were the only ones of the day that I would actually manage to do under my goal pace of 8:23 min/mile. I don’t know how to best explain this but I just didn’t have the legs I needed in this race. I was happy with the pace of those 3 miles but I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to maintain it. It just felt way too hard. In fact it felt like I should have been racing a 10K not a half marathon. I saw Dad just after mile 4, exactly where he said he’d be, and that gave me a nice boost of energy.
I took a water and gel walk break during mile 5 so all things considered, 8:36 for that mile was pretty good. We entered Stanley Park during mile 6 and hit a few small inclines that slowed me down a bit. Still I hit the half way mark (a quarter marathon?) in 55:34 which was only 34 seconds behind my goal. However, knowing the hill was coming I thought that sub 1:50 probably wasn’t going to happen for me but I though a new PB (<1:51:59) was still a possibility.
Miles 8 and 9 contain the 200 foot climb up to Prospect Point. Two years ago when I ran this race my goal was to run, not walk, all the way up that hill. This year I was in survival mode. I was afraid that if I tried to run all the way up I’d push myself into a place that I wouldn’t recover from. So I instituted a run 200 steps, walk 30 steps pattern. I certainly got passed a lot on the hill but I managed to make it to the top in one piece. Miles 8 and 9 came in at 9:44 and 9:41 which sort of blew the PB hopes out the window.
I should mention that the weather and scenery were beyond gorgeous for the race. Sometimes it’s hard to appreciate that while you’re racing but I did my best to soak it in.
I tried to loosen up and run down the backside of the hill as fast as I could but it still felt slow. By the time I hit mile 10 I was ready for the whole thing to be over. I pushed hard in those last few miles despite the fact that I didn’t feel like my legs were responding to my demands on then to move and all I really wanted to do was stop and sit down. I saw Dad near mile 12 (once again, exactly where he said he’d be) and gave him my water bottle to bring back to the hotel. I was hoping the dropping the weight of the empty water bottle would make running easier! I saw Matt’s mom a bit later and then tried to put the push on to the finish.
Post Race
I finally crossed the finish line in 1:54:00. That was 4:01 off my goal #1 and 2:01 off my personal best. I have to be honest, I felt horrible after I finished. Mentally I was disappointed in my result and physically I was spent. I made my way though the finish corrals, down into BC Place, picked my bag and had a bit to eat. I really wasn’t interested in most of the food but I did force myself to eat half a banana and a cup of chocolate pudding. I also swapped the size medium shirt I’d got at the expo for a size large shirt. I met Matt and his parents at the “Family Meeting Area” and then sat on the floor for about 15 minutes getting my wits about me.
Matt had a super race (1:41:44 for his first official half) and was in much better physical and mental shape than I was. We walked (slowly) back to the hotel for showers and then went to brunch with my Dad. It wasn’t until I got three blueberry pancakes with syrup into me that I felt mentally better.
Now that I’ve had a few days to reflect on my race results the disappointment of not achieving my primary goals has faded. I ran this race 16:42 faster than I did two years ago and that’s a huge difference. However, I’m still left with the following concerns: (1) I averaged 184 bpm which is ridiculously high; (2) I didn’t feel I had the leg turnover that I needed; (3) I got a little down on myself mentally during the race and (4) Hills continue to be a big challenge for me. I’m going to have to address these over the coming weeks.
Data
Mile Split Cumulative ============================ 1 8:45.1 0:08:45.1 2 8:13.3 0:16:58.3 3 8:18.2* 0:25:16.5 * averaged since I missed mile marker 3 4 8:18.2* 0:33:34.7 5 8:36.5 0:42:11.3 6 8:34.4 0:50:45.6 Half 0:55:34.6 7 8:36.0 0:59:21.7 8 9:43.9 1:09:05.6 9 9:41.0 1:18:46.6 10 8:31.9 1:27:18.5 11 8:47.0 1:36:05.5 12 8:45.4 1:44:50.9 13.1 9:09.1 1:54:00.0 (a 8:19 pace) ============================ Total 1:54:00 Avg pace 5:24 min/km, 8:42 min/mile Avg BPM 184 Place overall 1298/5595 (76th percentile) Place in gender 462/3583 (87th percentile) Place in age group (F2529) 108/643 (83rd percentile) (places are based on chip time and include walkers)
1:54:00
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Final Place Bib Chip KM Place In Sex Place In Division No. Gun Time Time Pace - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1298 462/3583 108/643 Female 25-29 7908 1:55:41 1:54:00 5:25
The official results are here. I didn’t have my greatest race and I wasn’t able to break 1:50:00 but I did pull off my second fastest half marathon ever. I’ll post a full race report later this week.
Race Report: 2008 Love’ Em or Leave ‘Em 5K
Preamble: I feel I need to preface this race report with a brief update on my running thus far in 2008. I’ve been trying to build my aerobic fitness by doing all my running in my aerobic heart rate zone (roughly 149 – 164 bpm). In order to do this I’ve had to increase my usual easy/long run pace by about 2 minutes per mile. This has been extremely frustrating. While I truly want to believe that this will increase my fitness and help me drop my half marathon PB it’s hard not to think that running so slowly is just detraining. Matt (who has had to bear the brunt of my frustration about the slow pace) suggested that I run a 5K as a test of my fitness. I figured that under my “usual” training routine I would have been able to pull off a 24-25 minute 5K. So that was the benchmark I was going to use to compare today’s race result.
Pre-race: I ran the inaugural Love ‘Em or Leave ‘Em 5k in 2006 and had a great time. Last year the race didn’t fit into my marathon training but I was happy to be back in 2008. The course is a clockwise loop of Green Lake (very similar to the Iron Girl where I PB’d) starting from the south end of the lake. Due to high registration the organizers added a t-shirt/bib pick-up on Saturday which was great for me because it meant I was able to just run to the start and go. It was 8C, windy but dry this morning so I wore shorts, a long sleeved thermal top and no gloves! The race was scheduled to start at 9:30 am so I left my apartment at about 9:05 am and did a slow 1 mile warm-up run to the start.
The race: I wore my Garmin for the race but I vowed not to look at it. I wanted to just run by feel and not be influenced by the numbers. It was an experiment. I lined up just behind the 8:00 min/mile pace sign. I know I should be more zen about this but if there’s one thing that really bugs me it’s people who don’t self seed themselves correctly. The first half mile of the race was a mess. The Green Lake path isn’t really wide enough for 1,500 runners unless people are seeded correctly. That being said I don’t think there’s anything the race organization could of done except possibly set up the sound system so we could actually hear the pre-race instructions.
About half way through the first mile I was able to settle into a steady pace. I know the Green Lake path very well so I had a home court advantage andwas able to anticipate all the turns and (very small) hills. The second mile was a bit tougher but I focused on running smoothly. By the third mile I was ready for this to be over but I tried to push the pace as hard as I could. I hit my watch as I crossed the finish line and was very pleased to 24:30. I was even more pleased when I checked my splits: 8:02 / 8:01 / 7:52 / 0:35. Nice consistency in the first 2 miles and then a pick up to the finish.
Post-race: The finish line area wasn’t too packed when I finished but it was a zoo a few minutes later. I managed to get through the food line quite quickly and pick up a banana, some water and a Starbucks “Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte” sample. I gave myself a few minutes to let the banana settle and then I did a slow 2 mile jog home.
At the end of the day my finish time of 24:30 was right in the middle of my expected range. So all this slow running probably hasn’t been doing me any harm. Tomorrow I start training for the Vancouver half marathon. I am going to start doing one speedwork/tempo run session per week but I’m going to stick with my ridiculously slow aerobic pace. I’ll re-evaluate after the half marathon.
Race Report: 2007 12Ks of Christmas
Back in October I received a free entry to the 12Ks of Christmas for volunteering at the Dawg Dash. I sent in the entry and decided that I’d make running the race a game time decision dependent on my recovery from the Fall Classic half marathon and the day’s weather. The recovery was no problem and it wasn’t raining on Sunday morning so I decided to go for it.
I didn’t really check out the route beforehand but if there’s one thing I remember from running the Kirkland Half Marathon in May it’s that Kirkland is hilly. I made up a little song to psych myself up about it: When I say Kirkland you say Hills: Kirkland!Hills! Kirkland! Hills! That worked for the first kilometer.
I had no real goals for this race. I hadn’t specifically trained for this distance although I had kept my mileage up since the half four weeks ago. I figured going under an hour would be pretty cool but might be slightly out of my reach. I decided to try and pace 5:00 kilometers anyway because I like nice round numbers.
My splits were consistently inconsistent: if the kilometer was predominately uphill the split was slower than 5:00, if it was predominately downhill the split was faster than 5:00. Along the way I achieved and unofficial 10K PB of 51:00. I’ve only ever run one 10K race and it wasn’t an “A” race (see: Race Report: Dawg Dash 10K 2006) so my official 10K PB of 54:02 is a bit out of synch with the rest of my PBs. I finished the 12K in 1:00:48. If the course hadn’t been as hilly I might have been able to break and hour but that’s just speculation. I’m still really happy with my result and thrilled that I finished in the 90th percentile for my age group!
I’m done with speed for a while. My plan is now to move into base training mode. That means trying to build my aerobic base by doing lots of slow running and cross training. The next race on my calendar is the Vancouver Half Marathon in May.
Data
km Split Cumulative Avg BPM Elevation ============================================= 1 5:22.9 0:05:22.9 159 uphill 2 4:54.4 0:10:17.3 170 downhill 3 4:45.7 0:15:03.0 178 downhill 4 5:24.1 0:20:27.1 186 uphill 5 5:13.0 0:25:40.1 186 uphill 6 5:13.3 0:30:53.4 186 uphill 7 5:33.1 0:36:26.5 184 mixed 8 4:43.2 0:41:09.7 182 downhill 9 4:47.2 0:45:46.9 183 downhill 10 5:03.0 0:50:59.9 186 mixed 11 5:03.8 0:56:03.7 184 mixed 12 4:44.5 1:00:48.2 185 mixed ============================================= Total 1:00:48 Avg pace 5:04 min/km Avg BPM 180 Place overall 203/937 (78th percentile) Place in gender 75/587 (87th percentile) Plane in age group (F2529) 16/156 (90th percentile)
Race Report: 2007 Fall Classic Half Marathon
The Short Story
I went into this race without any real expectations (honestly I would have been happy with anything sub 2 hours) and surprised myself by running a new half marathon personal best of 1:51:59. That’s 3:34 faster than I ran in the Victoria half marathon 6 weeks ago! I think I can attribute my performance to a combination of good training, good conditions and no pressure. Note to self: learn to relax, it helps.
Pre-race
I took the bus up to Vancouver on Saturday afternoon with my sister and her roommate Michelle. They’d been down in Seattle at a concert on Friday night. We made amazing time: the trip from downtown Seattle to Broadway & Granville took only 3:10! We had dinner at Earl’s but I didn’t like the sound of any of their pasta dishes so I had a chicken and brie sandwich with a side salad. Perhaps not optimal carb loading but it was tasty and reasonably healthy.
Sunday morning I woke up at 5am. It was only 3C out but it was not raining! I had oatmeal, crackers and peanut butter and green tea for breakfast. I was strangely thirsty so I also drank 1.5 L of water and about 250 mL of Gatorade. I left the condo at 6:15am for the 25 minute walk over to the Student Recreation Centre (SRC). The whole way over I flip flopped between thinking I was over and under dressed! I wore capris, a long sleeved shirt and vest. By the time the race started at 7:30am the temperature had warmed up a bit and I probably could have worn less but it worked out fine.
The plan
My plan (or the closest thing I had to a plan) for this race was run at a pace somewhere between 8:49 and 9:09 min/mile. I configured my Garmin to auto-lap each mile and to display my average pace for the current. I also carried my own water and took scheduled 45-60 second walk breaks every 20 minutes and a gel at 40 minutes and 80 minutes.
Data
Mile Split Cumulative Avg BPM Notes ============================================== 1 8:34.5 0:08:34.5 172 2 8:26.9 0:17:01.4 173 3 8:26.7 0:25:28.1 176 walk/water 4 8:16.1 0:33:44.2 178 5 8:56.2 0:42:40.4 177 walk/water/gel 6 9:05.7 0:51:46.1 181 uphill 7 8:21.5 1:00:07.6 180 8 8:38.1 1:08:45.7 178 walk/water 9 8:29.2 1:17:14.9 177 10 8:22.5 1:25:37.4 175 walk/water/gel 11 8:17.0 1:33:54.4 176 12 9:09.9 1:43:04.4 176 uphill 13 8:12.3 1:51:16.7 178 13.1 42.1 1:51:58.8 181 ============================================== Total 1:51:58.8 Avg pace 8:32.9 Avg BPM 176
The race
My first mile came in at 8:35 min/mile which seemed pretty good. The next 3 miles were all downhill and felt comfortable and relaxed. The first challenge of the day came on a long slow uphill during miles 5 and 6. It wasn’t too bad but I knew it was going to be challenging during the second loop. I tried really hard to keep all PB thoughts out of my head during this loop, stay relaxed and enjoy the race. I wasn’t monitoring my total time but I did see that the race clock was just over 1 hour as I ran past the finish line.
The second loop was the same of as the first but with a shorter out and back out SW Marine Drive. I was feeling pretty comfortable at this point and decided to aim for holding 8:30 miles. My legs started tightening up around mile 10 or 11. That’s always the way it goes with me: my leg strength (and flexibility?) seems to be my limiting factor. It wasn’t too bad until I got to that steady uphill during mile 12. I just tried to keep moving but it slowed me down. I didn’t look at my cumulative time during the last few miles because I was just focused on pace. During the last mile I was pretty certain I was going to PB so I just tried to coast on strong through the finish.
Post race
I was thrilled to see my time but immediately after finishing I got very cold very quickly. I was shivering by the time I got back into the SRC. I hit the food tables and was very excited to see that they had date squares! I love love love date squares and they were the perfect post race snack. I briefly considered smearing peanut butter (hey, I was hungry) on one but I resisted. Three people independently asked me if I was cold (I presume I was pale and visibly shivering) and directed me to the coffee and chili. I went for the coffee and it helped a bit. The second round of date squares helped more!
Final thoughts
This race felt much more comfortable than Victoria did. Of note is that my average heart rate was 5 bpm less than it was in Victoria. I think some of the credit for my new PB goes to the training program I followed for the past 5 weeks. It was a tougher program than I’m accustomed to but it seems like it worked. I guess if it’s good enough for Ryan Hall it really is good enough for me! There’s a good chance I’ll use this program again next spring when I aim to knock my half marathon time down to <1:50:00. That’s right, next time around I’m aiming for the 1:40’s.
Race Report: 2007 Victoria Half Marathon
The short story
I put 14 weeks of directed training into the 2007 Royal Victoria Half Marathon. I’m happy to report that I was able to average a pace of 5:29 min/km and set a new personal best of 1:55:33. What follows is a detailed race report but here’s the short version: I ran hard and it was great.
Pre-race
I woke up at 5:30am on Sunday morning and had green tea, oats, 1L of water and half a banana for breakfast. The weather forecasts were calling for scattered showers and about 10C during the race so I chose to wear shorts, a long sleeved technical shirt and a running vest. It was only raining very lightly when I left Matt’s apartment at 6:45 am. It was about a 20 minute walk down to the start/finish area. Because Matt was going to meet me at the finish I didn’t bring a bag down with me to check. After a quick porta-potty stop, some shoe adjustments and a Garmin sattelilite search I was at the starting line about 15 minutes before the start. I lined up between the 2:00 and 1:50 signs slightly closer to the 2:00 sign. At this point it was about 12C, cloudy but not raining. I was a little worried that I might have been overdressed but there were a lot of runners wearing a lot more than I was (long pants and jackets) who were obviously prepared for the windy rainy worst case scenario.
km 1-5 in 5:43.3 / 5:16.0 / 5:28.4 / 10:46.6 (avg 5:26.9 min/km)
It look me just under 2 minutes to cross the staring line and from there I was off and aiming for a steady pace of 5:27 min/km. I wasn’t feeling nauseous but my stomach wasn’t feeling settled so I was a little worried about how the race would go. I tried to settle into my target pace and just take the race as it came. I’d decided to pace myself in km since they were marked on course. This worked well in all aspects but one: it totally threw off my water/gel/walk breaks. I usually have water and walk for 1 min every 2 miles taking gels at miles 4 and 8. I think I managed to get the 2 mile walk in but after that I was totally off schedule. I hit the right average pace over the first 5 km but it felt harder than I would have hoped considering this was the start of the race!
km 6-10 in 5:41.5 / 5:48.2 / 5:17.8 / 5:32.9 / 5:19.6 (avg 5:32.0 min/km)
This section started with us running in circles through Beacon Hill Park. It was sort of neat to get to see runners both ahead of and behind us in the race. Kms 6 and 7 were a bit slow due to some slight uphills. Sometime in there I took my first gel. I was concerned that the gel was going to do bad things to my unsettled stomach but strangely it actually made it feel a bit better. Up until now I’d been feeling a bit warm but once the course hit Dallas Road on the coast the temperatures seemed to drop and I was happy to be wearing my vest. Even through there aren’t any major hills on course there were several small hills and my downhill kms (see 8 & 10) were coming in much faster than the uphill ones. At the end of 10 km I was still hanging in but I could tell I was really pushing my abilities.
km 11-15 in 5:27.7 / 5:25.9 / 5:45.5 / 5:09.4 / 5:24.1 (avg 5:26.5 min/km)
Amazingly I nailed my pace in the first few kilometres of this section. There was a bit of confusion near the 12 km mark where for some reason runners coming in opposite directions were crossing through each other’s paths. It was a mess (and I hope they fix it for next year) but I didn’t let it upset me. I had a slow km 13 where I took a walk-water-gel break and then another walk break through a water station. All the water stations on course were well stocked although they didn’t seem evenly spaced so I relied a lot on the 16 oz water bottle I was carrying. By the time I hit km 15 I was hurting. However I was back on Dallas Road so I tried to convince myselft that I was really heading home now.
km 16-20.1 in 5:44.3 / 5:40.5 / 5:36.4 / 5:24.5 / 5:51.0 (avg 5:32.7 min/km)
My legs really started to protest as the kms ticked away. I saw the marathon leaders run by so I tried to focus on that for distraction. Kms 16, 17 and 18 were over my target pace and I was getting passed more than I would have liked. I stopped really monitoring my pace at this point and I just tried to run as fast as I could. I figured sub 1:55:00 probably wasn’t possible but I was still on pace for a huge PB so that was enough motivation to run hard. I look my last walk break during km19 and after that I resisted every urge I had to slow down and walk. There was no 20 km sign (or I missed it) so that last split is a 1.1 km split.
km 21.1 in 5:10.8
I tried really hard to “throw down the hammer” in the last km and I managed to pull out my second fastest split of the day. The last km had a lot of turns and I just kept waiting for one of them to reveal the home stretch. Matt (who had run the 8K earlier in the day) was cheering in the last 100m but I totally missed him. I had “finish line tunnel vision” again. I was exhausted and a bit wobbly when I crossed the finish line but I was thrilled with my result.
Finish time 1:55:33 (avg 5:29 min/km or 8:49 min/mile)
Mile splits: 8:56 / 8:38 / 8:44 / 8:49 / 8:50 / 8:41 / 8:45 / 8:57 / 8:25 / 8:57 / 9:03 / 8:41 / 8:38 / 1:29
Post race
After picking up my medal and downing some water and gatorade I picked up half a bagel and fruit and went to meet Matt in front of The Empress hotel. I was still a bit spacey but I was feeling great. A fellow runner took the picture of Matt and I below. I’m still a little amazed that I pulled off a 1:55:33 half marathon. It was hard and I was pretty uncomfortable for most of the race but it was great.
Place overall: 1290/3869 (66.6th percentile)
Place in gender: 488/2377 (79.5th percentile)
Place in age group (F2529): 84/301 (72.1th percentile)
Placing is based on gun time (1:56:50) and includes walkers.
Race Report: Ryka Iron Girl 5K
This morning I ran the Seattle Ryka Iron Girl 5K at Green Lake. This race was ideal for me because: (1) I’ve wanted to do an all female event for a while and (2) the start/finish line was literally less and a quarter mile from my new apartment!
Pre-race: I picked up my bib, timing chip, technical shirt and goody bag on Saturday morning. I always like to take advantage of day before packet pickup because lines stress me out on race morning. I woke up at 6 am on Sunday morning and had a breakfast of green tea and oats with brown sugar. The race was scheduled to start at 8 am so I left my apartment at 7:30 am and arrived at the race start at 7:33 am. I did a short warm-up jog some light stretching and then lined up for the start. My goal for this race was to go hard but I didn’t have a specific time goal. I lined up just ahead of the 8:00 min/mile sign.
The race: The 5K route took us clockwise around the inner loop of Green Lake starting and finishing near the community center with a little jaunt out into the parking lot by the bathhouse to tack on the extra mileage needed to bring the distance up to 5K. It’s a very flat course and I didn’t experience any congestion problems even though the path was still open to public use. I started out way too quick and by the half mile point I knew I wouldn’t be able to maintain the pace for the whole race. I pulled it back a little after that but I still pushed very hard for the whole race. The last mile was particularly tough, but hey, I was racing, that’s how it should be! My splits were 7:26 / 7:44 / 7:41 / 0:29. Blazingly fast! PB fast! My chip time was 23:19. That’s a 7:30 min/mile or 4:40 min/km pace. A PB by 37 seconds over last year’s Shoreline 5K!
Post-race: I was really really pleased when I saw the clock as I crossed the finish line. The excitement of setting a new PB made up for the fact that my lungs were on fire at the finish line. That passed quickly though and I was able to enjoy the post-race festivities including an excellent buffet breakfast! Yummy! After breakfast I checkout out the race results and it looks like I finished 33rd overall for the 5K and I think 6th or 7th in my age group!
Of course once I got home I had to plug my new PB into several online race calculators. According The McMillan Running Calculator my 5K time is equivalent to a half marathon finish of 1:47:47. According to the Runner’s World Training Calculator the equivalent half marathon time is 1:47:04. I think these are a bit too optimistic for me but it’s nice to see!
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Race Report: Torchlight Run 8K
Yesterday I ran the Torchlight Run 8K in downtown Seattle. Last year I specifically trained for this race and ran it in a time of 40:53. This year I’m four weeks into half marathon training and so I chose to treat this race as a tune up race and my goal was to run at my half marathon goal pace.
Pre-race
The race started at 6:30 pm which meant that I had all day to second guess my eating strategy and search for something to do with all my nervous energy. I got down to Qwest field at about 5 pm, picked up my bib, checked my gear and found some shade to sit in. It was definitely warmer this year (about 25C) than last year. Late afternoons are the hottest time of the day in Seattle and the sun was beating down yesterday.
I did a couple warm up laps and within moments I had a side stitch! Not good! The same thing happened last year. I think the combination of the heat and an evening race just doesn’t work well for me because the only time I’ve ever gotten a stitch before or during a race is at the Torchlight Run. There wasn’t much I could do so I tried to breath well and lined up between the “8-9 minutes” and “9-10 minutes” pace signs.
The race
The course route heads north on the Alaskan Way Viaduct and then back south through downtown Seattle on 4th Ave. The northbound section is completely exposed so along with beautiful views of Puget Sound the sun was out in full force. The southbound section was shaded by the downtown building and went along the Torchlight Parade route in front of the 300,000 people camped out waiting for the parade to start! My Garmin lost its signal when we ran through the Battery Street Tunnel so while my timing is accurate my splits are off and I’m not going to bother reporting them. Basically I ran fast in miles 1 and 2, slowed down in miles 3 and 4 and then sped back up in mile 5.
My finish time was 42:43 which is a pace of 8:36 min/mile. This is faster than I’d planned to run and I was definitely pushing myself hard. What can I say, I got excited and couldn’t really bring myself to slow my pace down to closer to 9:00 min/mile. I’m not too concerned though. I’ve proved to myself that I can run at (faster than) my half marathon goal pace for 5 miles. I still have ten weeks of training to get that up to 13.1 miles!
Post Race
I didn’t really hang out after the race for very long. I wanted to get out of downtown before the buses got totally tied up by the parade. I did pick up some fruit, water and a Jamba Juice sample (or three). A smoothie has got to be the ultimate summer post race treat!
So all in all this was a pretty good race. I didn’t PB but that was never the goal. I’m taking today off to recover and then it’s back to half marathon training on Monday!
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Race Report: 2007 ING Ottawa Marathon
This race report is long and detailed. I had such a positive experience running my first marathon that I want to capture and share everything about it.
Pre-race
My alarm went off at 4:45 am on race morning and I was out of bed in a flash. The first thing I did was eat my usual pre-race bowl of oats with honey and drink a half litre of water. I then got dressed for the race and pottered around sipping a mug of green tea and nibbling on a banana. Matt and Dad got up about a half hour after me and we pulled out of the driveway just before 6am. We drove downtown and were parked (for free!) at the World Exchange Plaza by about 6:20 am. I had butterflies in my stomach the whole way downtown but they were more due to excitement than to nerves.
The temperature that morning was around 11C and the forecast was for rain in the afternoon with possible showers in the late morning and a high of around 23C. This was perfect racing weather as I always prefer rain and clouds to sun and heat. I still wore sun block though, just in case the weather report was wrong!
I did basically no warm-up before the race. I did some jumping and light stretching but I figured I’d use the first few miles as a warm-up. Honestly I wanted to save all the energy I had for the race.
Ottawa had the most organized start of any race I’ve ever run. Runners had pre-assigned themselves to corrals based on expected finish times. I was in the green corral: 4:01-4:30. Your corral colour was clearly indicated on your bib but there was no one enforcing this so if training had gone really well or really bad you could re-seed yourself. I chatted with Matt and Dad and then jumped into the back end of my corral once they cut down the barriers and the runners started to compress into a single group. I never actually heard the gun go off but we started on time at 7am. It took me just over 2 minutes to get to the start line and from there I was off.
The Ottawa Marathon course had four distinct sections: Gatineau, Rockcliff, Colonel By and Prince of Wales/Queen Elizabeth which roughly divided the race into four quarters. Psychologically this is how I viewed the race so I’ve divided my race report up using these four parts.
Part 1 – Gatineau: 0 – 10K in 1:03:48 (10:16 min/mile, 6:23 min/km)
I spotted Matt and Dad just after I crossed the start line and gave them a wave. After a short uphill the course turned onto Wellington and we ran past Parliament Hill and the Supreme Court. I had to try hard to keep my pace moderate for the first few miles as it seemed like everyone around me was going faster than I wanted. Fortunately the course was wide and it looked like everyone was able to run as fast or slow as they wanted. After passing the new War Museum we crossed over into Gatineau.
I was aiming to run 10:30 miles but the first two came in at 10:00 exactly. This is where having the Garmin came in handy. The course was marked in kilometres but I used miles on my Garmin to dictate my walk breaks and monitor my pace since this is what I was used to from training. I took my first 1 minute walk break at the 2 mile point and then at each mile after that.
I carried a hand held 20 oz water bottle and 6 gels, 5 of which I would end up using. My plan was to take a gel at 4 mile intervals and drink Gatorade at every second or third water station. The water stations were roughly 3 km apart and all were well manned and well stocked.
There were a few small hills in Gatineau but they were speed bumps compared to the hills in Vancouver, Seattle and Kirkland so I barely noticed them. I spent most of this section leap frogging with the 4:30 pace group. They’d started behind me but I wasn’t sure by how much. I briefly considered running with the pace group but I decided that I just needed to run my own race which at the time I still thought meant trying to hit 10:30 miles. I had a 4:30 pace band with me so I figured that I didn’t really need to group anyway. I’m not very familiar with Gatineau so I didn’t have a good sense of where I was until we turned and ran past the Museum of Civilization. From there were crossed back into Ontario via the Alexandria Bridge.
I hit the 10 km mark in 1:03:38 which was just ahead of pace for a 4:30 marathon. Right after the 10 km banner I spotted Dad exactly where he said he’d be: on the right side of the course in front of the National Gallery. As I ran by I told him I was on pace for 4:30 and he signalled down the course to Matt who was positioned with my camera. As you can see from the photo below (the left one obviously) I was feeling great at 10 km.
Part 2 – Rockcliff: 10K – 21.1K in 1:09:34 (10:05 min/mile, 6:16 min/km)
Just after I made the turn onto Sussex Drive the marathon leaders came flying by in the other direction (see photo above right). They were through the half marathon point so were running approximately twice as fast as I was! I enjoyed the run down Sussex and seeing the rest of the elite men run by in the other direction. I also saw the three lead women just before the course split. We then continued along Sussex past the Prime Minister’s residence and Rideau Hall and into Rockcliff. Somewhere around kilometre 15 I noticed two women in front of me stop briefly on course to shake the hand of a man who was cheering at the end of (what I assume was) his driveway. I thought that this was a little curious since most people tend to hug or high five their friends and family on course not shake their hands. Then I noticed that other runners were also stopping to shake this man’s hand. When I got closer I realized that the man cheering was former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien! I stopped to shake his hand and thanked him for cheering. What a neat experience!
Another highlight of this section of the race was running by Ashbury College. They had flags flying across the road, music blasting and the most exciting water stop on course. I appreciated all the kids out early on a Sunday morning helping out. There were definitely more spectators here than in Gatineau but that makes sense since we were running through a residential area and it was now a more reasonable time in the morning!
I felt great all the way through this section of the course. I was targeting 10:20 mile at this point but I wasn’t very successful. In the end I averaged 10:05 miles from 10 km to the half but I’m sure I would have gone faster if I hadn’t been paying attention to pace. The only slight problem I felt was the start of a blister on the arch of the right foot. I’d never had blister problems in training and it wasn’t really painful so I decided to ignore it and hope it wouldn’t be a problem later.
I was still ahead of a 4:30 pace and I was happy that it looked like I was going to cross the half way point in under 2:15. I spotted Dad just before the half marathon banner and he jogged along side me as I told him the story of shaking Jean Chrétien’s hand. Matt was positioned just after the half marathon banner once again camera in hand. He too jogged with me as I told him about Jean Chrétien and reported that I’d crossed half in 2:13ish. In fact I’d run the first half in 2:13:22 which equates to 10:10 min/mile or 6:19 min/km.
Part 3 – Colonel By: 21.1K – 30K in 0:57:01 (10:19 min/mile, 6:24 min/km)
After the half marathon point the marathon course merged with the half marathon course and proceeded down Colonel By. The half marathon had started an hour and a half after the marathon and was at 11 km or so when the courses merged. The half marathoners I merged with were moving much faster than I was – the 1:50 pace ground passed me – and I found pacing to be very difficult. On the plus side there were a lot of spectators cheering in this section so that was exciting. Some time during this section of the course the rain began. It was very light at first but I grew steadily heavier for the rest of the race.
About 5 km down the road the courses split as the half marathoners crossed the Bronson Bridge and the marathoners continued down Colonel By. The course now seemed very empty without the half marathoners and their fans. I was still feeling pretty strong at this point but running was taking more concentration. I was no longer obsessively monitoring my pace. I just tried to run comfortably. I was however checking my pace band at the occasional km marker. I hit 30K at 3:10:23 which was about 1.5 minutes ahead of 4:30 pace.
Part 4 – Prince of Wales/Queen Elizabeth: 30K – 42.2K in 1:14:50 (9:52 min/mile, 6:08 min/km)
I passed the 20 mile mark and into uncharted territory somewhere in Vincent Massey Park. I knew that there was a good chance that my mother would be waiting for me at the corner of Prince of Wales and Baseline just after 33 km. As I approached the intersection I saw the familiar bright teal jacket of my sister. She’d flown in that morning on a red eye from Vancouver so I wasn’t really expecting her to come out to the race. I gave her a quick hug and my hand held water bottle because I felt confident I could rely on the water stations for the rest of the race and didn’t feel like carrying it anymore. She told me mom was down at the corner with her camera. I took the corner wide and smiled for the camera. I gave my Mom a high five and pressed on towards the finish.
At this point my legs and my butt were feeling tight and I could feel the blister on my right foot getting worse but I was still moving well. I was passing people much more often than I was being passed myself. I didn’t really start counting down the kilometres until there were 5 left. I kept taking my regular walk breaks but I was determined to walk no more than that. I really wanted to give it my all and finish in the best time I could. I’m not sure you could say that I dropped the hammer in the last 5 km but I certainly tried too. The rain was coming down pretty hard at this point and I just really wanted to be done.
I saw my Dad cheering at the side of the road just after the 41 km sign. As I ran by him I said something like “I can’t slow down and talk because if I do I might never start up again.” So true. I really tried to enjoy the finish but running took so much focus that I couldn’t really soak it all in. I saw the 750m to go sign and thought to myself “All I have to do is two laps of a track.” At the 500m to go sign I tried to put on a surge but it only lasted until the 400m to go sign. Somewhere around here Matt was at the side of the course. I didn’t see him until he called my name because I had finish line tunnel vision. The 300m, 200m and 100m signs came and went and I finished with my arms above my head in celebration.
I ran the last quarter of the course at a 9:52 min/mile making it my fastest paced quarter. My time for the second half of the course was 2:11:51 which is 10:03 min/mile or 6:15 min/km. I ran a negative split race which is nice. What amazes me even more than this is that I ran my first half marathon just over a year ago in a finish time of 2:10:42. At that time I never would have thought that I could have run so close to that time during the second half of a marathon!
My official chip marathon finish time was 4:25:13 (10:07 min/mile, 6:17 min/km).
Post-race
I was in much better physical and mental shape at the end of my first marathon than at the end of my first half marathon last May. My number one mission at the finish line was to find a space blanket because as soon as I stopped moving I got cold very quickly in the rain. I got my medal and ate some yogurt and orange sections before making my way out of the runners’ area to meet up with Matt and Dad. There were so many people around and I was so dazed that I really didn’t think I’d be able to find them even though we had a pre-specified meeting point. Thankfully Matt found me. We picked up my checked bag and then headed back to the car and then home. Before we left Matt snapped a picture of me with my medal and space blanket. This is my I am a marathoner photo. And now that’s something I’ll be able to say for the rest of my life.
The last thing I need to do in order to make this race report complete is to send a big thank you out to Mom, Dad, Matt and Allison for coming out and cheering for me during the race. I got to see two of them at around the end of each quarter of the race and that always gave me something short term to look forward to while I was running. Thanks also to everyone who commented or emailed me good wishes before or after the marathon. And thank you to anyone who actually made it through and read to the end of my race report!