I noticed that the weather pattern was identical to Oakville a month ago - horrible downpour on expo Saturday, and miraculously clearing on race morning.
Met up with the DM crew pre-race, everyone else went off to bag check and that left Emma and I with Dan, her brother and Barb to enjoy the swanky secret bathrooms.
The plan was to run 5:20/k for a small PR.
The start (5:45, 5:24, 5:16, 5:12, 5:13, 5:02)
Got in the corral, but woke up seriously dehydrated so I had chugged a large amount of Gatorade + water along with coffee and that along with nerves made me have to take a last minute potty break while O Canada was playing. First couple kms were slow due to the crowd, but we hit a significant downhill stretch at 4K and made up the time.
Lakeshore (5:21, 5:18, 5:24, 5:22, 5:18, 5:23, 5:15, 5:19, 5:27)
I honestly don't remember much of this. The pace didn't feel bad, but I was focusing inwardly, stay relaxed, good form. I was so focused that I didn't even notice if anyone was wearing a particularly hideous outfit. Cheered for the elite Canadian women as they went by and looked for Sam/Kenny/Nicole but I think they passed right at a point where the road split off into a wider V. The final split was the hill at Jameson, which has killed me at previous races (40K of Goodlife FM 2012) so I just took it at even effort. Didn't even remember running over the 10K timing mat, but Emma tells me we hit it just as I yelled out a split.
The final stretch (5:22, 5:28, 5:24, 5:35, 5:12, 6:38, 4:00)
The most memorable and horrible thing that happened was my water bottle falling out of my belt, not once, but TWICE at 19K. Both times I stopped and went back to get it, and I could have let Emma go, but I was determined to finish with her. I sprinted right on the Lakeshore overpass hill (ow ow ow), mustered every last bit of energy I had left and screamed, "EMMA! I'M RIGHT BEHIND YOU!" and managed to pull even. Saw Paul around 19K and barely managed a wave.
The final kilometer is a very mild uphill. It is brutal on spent legs. The first part is the tunnel that screwed up my satellites big time, hence the 6:38 split. I remember briefly glancing down and seeing 5:0x, even though it felt like running through molasses. Of course my legs wanted to give up and my brain wanted to give up like I had on so many fast training runs this cycle. But somehow I remembered my track workouts and pushed through even when I wanted to die.
Garmin go cuckoo! Stupid tunnel and downtown buildings. I couldn't go that fast even with a rocket strapped to my butt.
So this is the fastest half marathon I've run in 2 years and although not a PR, it somehow felt like a PR as this was a good test of my fitness on a "normal" difficulty (not downhill) course.
My next HM is in 2 weeks, it is the downhill course and I will see if I can finally better my time.
Official chip time: 1:53:56
Field Placement: 2939 / 10103 (29.1%)
Age group: 35 – 39
Group Placement: 135 / 777 (17.4%)
Gender Placement: 890 / 5363 (16.6%)
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