Monday, April 27, 2015

But I can barely walk

First race of the season all said and done. After missing more than 3 races already this year I had to buckle down and get healthy and do a race. I have a half Ironman in June so I really felt like this was a do or die situation. 
Friday was a nice rest day. I did a short bike workout and laid low. 
Saturday I had 20 min of easy running and needed to go to package pick up.
The shirts were very nice. The expo wasn't too busy and there were lots of great booths. When I got home I did a very easy spin on the bike right before I made dinner. Got to bed nice and early.

I love doing races where the kids can be involved as well. Big sis considered doing the 10k but she's not quite there yet. So they signed up for the 1.5km. 


Sunday morning we got up nice and early and made the drive down to the University of Victoria. It was a cool grey day but the rain held off. The girls were very excited to watch me start and then the plan was for them to meet me halfway for a quick cheer before Dad took them to their start.


This is only the second year the TC has done the half marathon. So there were only 500 people or so. I liked how much room there was.



They got right down to business and I took off right with the crowd. I started out a little fast. Because this is a point to point we started out at the university then headed down towards the water, so the first few km's were all downhill. Some of my splits were pretty fast and I got a little worried. I did try to slow down a bit but it just felt sooooo good (such a rookie move). I was going faster than my planned pace, I knew this was bad.

at 7km in the family was there to cheer me on. I love when they are out on the course. It gives me a burst of energy but I wasn't in need of that energy just yet... I was annoyed that my husband didn't meet me further along.


13km in and there's the family! I definitely needed them at this point. I just had my slowest split and was still holding a grudge that my husband showed up too soon. He totally redeemed himself. I wasn't expecting them again. The girls were cheering me on and giving high 5's.
I knew at this point I wouldn't see them again because they had to get to the kids race start but I was so happy to see them. Things were starting to get a bit uncomfortable.
I ended up running with an older gentleman for most of the race. We kind of were going back and forth between each other and then decided maybe we would run together and keep each other going. It worked. When I slowed down at the 12km mark he told me we had to pick up the pace, so we did. Apparently his goal was to break 2 hours and I was so thrilled that he not only broke 2 hours he broke 1:55:00!!!
The last 2 km were tough. My calves were burning, My big toe felt like it was going to explode, my little tow on the other foot felt like it had been torn off. I wanted to walk so bad. My new friend said we've come too far to walk and he was right. He slowly got ahead of me but I kept pushing. Everything was screaming, just then I see my coach and one of my training partners on the corner waiting for me with less than a km to go. Seeing them lifted my spirits and gave me the motivation to push through that last 750m. I ended up with my last km being my fastest split.
If you look closely you can see my grimace. I was hurting big time. I was fighting the pukes too.
Ugh, the price to pay for going out too fast.

So as I cross the finish line and see my new PR of 1:53:36 yay!!! Then  I see the kids race started early and there goes the wave of kids... without me. I missed the kids start. Luckily I was still in the finish shute. So I stayed put and sure enough my little speedsters came barreling through the finish line right into my arms. I wish I had had my camera. 

 So alas, another race over and done with just like that.
Kids were happy and I was happy. The hubs was exhausted more then any of us even though he only ran the kids 1.5km. For some reason he got a nap when we got home and I did not. At least I got my recovery almond milk latte. Life is good.
So am I happy? Yes, was I hoping to do better? Yup. I'll take that PR but I was really hoping to be under 1:52:00. I know I had it in me but with my terrible pacing at the beginning it was my own fault. There's always next time.



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