Last Chance Half Marathon – Race Report

First off I have to say that my coach Angie deserves a huge congratulations.  She had a stellar race at Clearwater yesterday, coming in 7th in her AG!!  Way to go coach!!!

So…the Last Chance Half…  Given that I really didn’t train for this race there was no way I was running for a PR.  I didn’t want to risk getting injured, and despite the fact that I am uber-competitive with myself I knew trying for a PR would not be a good idea.  There was something that I did want to focus on though.  During too many races I have allowed negative thoughts to creep into my mind and have let it affect me.  I’ve placed a lot of expectations on myself this year in races and I’ve had times when I’ve cried and times when I’ve wanted to quit.  I really need to find those positive mantras that will get me through tough times, especially as I approach Ironman!  So my goal was to stay positive the entire race!

It was supposed to be 8C (46F).  I prefer to underdress rather than overdress, so I went with capris, a long sleeve tech top and a short sleeve top.  What I wasn’t expecting was the wind though!  I stopped to get gas on my way to the race and was surprised by how windy it was.  Hopefully the wind wouldn’t be too cold and I’d be dressed okay!  I got to the race site, managed to exchange my medium shirt for a small with another racer, and hung around waiting for the race to start.  People were dressed to the nines!!  Running tights, jackets, gloves, woolly hats, you name it!  Oh well, I was committed to my outfit and it wound up being the right call for me.

We took off from the Eau Claire Market and headed west along the south side of the river.  Just as the race started the winds really picked up from the west.  They were gusting up to 50 km/hr (30 mph).  My goal was to keep my pace in check for the first 3 mi and the wind definitely made sure that happened!  We crossed the river, went a bit farther west, then turned around to run east along the river.  I planned to take advantage of the wind at my back and I was feeling awesome!  I sucked down a mint chocolate Gu and it definitely gave me an extra spring in my step.  When we got to around the zoo…probably about 7.5 miles in…the pathway got to be a bit more hilly.  We hit another turn around at 9 mi and my energy was starting to flag.  Probably no surprise given that my longest distance in awhile was 8.5 mi.  Time to really turn on that power of positive thinking!  I imagined the finish line, and thought that there was a big string extending out from the finish that was tied around my waist and pulling me back in.  I kept thinking that I was so thankful that I was out running today and enjoying the race.  Just one foot in front of the other…that string was pulling me in…I was doing it and I was feeling great!!!  (Or at least that was what I kept telling myself…)

So sure…definitely no PR…but I felt like I really did work hard on positive thinking and it helped me out a lot today.  After I stopped running I did feel like my body absolutely hated me though!  My legs were functioning…barely…and when I coughed it just hurt all throughout my torso (there is something about exercising in cold weather that seems to induce a bit of a cough once I stop moving).  I put some sweats on, grabbed my breakfast, then headed over to the Y to stretch.  And since I haven’t been to the pool for ages I then swapped out sweats for a swimsuit and knocked out 1500m.  Then home with my feet up for the rest of the day!

Congratulations to my teammate Sharon who came in third in our AG, plus I saw Jordan and Susan out there.  Great to see you ladies!!

Chip Time: 2:12:47
Overall: 355 out of 452
Females 30-39: 79 out of 107
Females Overall: 177 out of 257

**And in addition…this was actually my second fastest half marathon of the year.  Although the two slower halfs were at the end of a half Iron distance triathlon…so….  And sadly my ankle was a casualty of those nasty timing bands.  I have a wicked wound on the back of my ankle from where the timing chip cut in, along with a few spots where it looks like I’m allergic to the band.  Pretty, eh? 

Never Say Never!

One of the things I love about the industry that I work in is that you meet some really interesting people.  When I was working as a field engineer in Laredo, TX one of my favourite characters was a company man called Frank.  He is just how I would figure a lot of oil field guys in Texas would be.  10 gallon hat, chewing tobacco, gruff and someone that you didn’t want to piss off.  But for as scared as a lot of guys were of Frank I enjoyed working with him.  He worked for a small company and every once in awhile he’d bring his wife and little Dachshund Jorge (pronounced George) out to location and he just doted on that little dog.

On Tuesday I had a big meeting with some partners regarding a project in the works for next year.  One guy is a super straight talking kind of guy.  I’ve been a little intimidated of him in the past but in this meeting I felt like he really listened to what I had to say and respected my opinion.  At one point in the meeting he said to me, “Leana, never say never as an engineer because as soon as you do you’ll be wrong.”

So, never say never my friends.  I had written off running the Last Chance Half.  Longest run to date in the last few weeks?  A 90 min 8.5 mi run.  In fact my last run was the Edworthy Park XC race on Saturday.  I had spent the 11:00 hour this morning convincing myself that it was too cold to run outside.  I had finished up lunch and had just swallowed a fun-size Snickers bar when the e-mail came through.  All of a sudden that little Snicker bar felt like a rock in the bottom of my stomach.

“…Leana is the next person on the waiting list so you can sell your bib to her…I’ll let the two of you work out the financial details but send me an email to confirm the change…”

Um…excuse me?  My name just came up on the waiting list for the Last Chance Half?  GULP!!!  What to do?  Well, here are the reasons why I think I should run it:

• The weather…knock on wood…is supposed to be really nice on Sunday.  And a race is a good excuse for a long run, right?
• I have a ton of Gu in my inventory right now.  This is a good opportunity to use some up, right?  (Yes, I keep my Gu in a massive beer stein.)
• The breakfast after the race is phenomenal.

So…guess who is running a half marathon on Sunday?  Within 4 hours of finding out I was running I had my race packet all picked up.  Wish me luck!!

Aimless…

Last week life conspired in my ability to get workouts in.  Thanks to a holiday, a course, and a trip to the field I had one day in the office last week.  By the time Friday rolled around I had gotten in two…whole…workouts.  A half hour swim and a 30 minute trainer ride.  I got back from the field on Friday evening to find out that the temperatures had warmed up and the snow was melting.  I still had some daylight so I threw on some running shorts and a long sleeve top and managed 3 nice and speedy miles around the neighbourhood.  Only in Calgary does the weather change so quickly that you can run amongst melting snow in shorts at 6 pm!

Saturday morning I decided to look at the Last Chance Half Marathon website.  When I signed up for all of my 10K races I didn’t sign up for this one.  I wasn’t sure if I would race it, but I’ve put the idea of the Austin 3M Half on the back burner.  I thought I’d better look into it the Last Chance…and sadly learned that it is all sold out.  I’ve put my name on the waiting list…but I’m not too hopeful that I’ll get in.  I’ll still train for it regardless, but I feel a bit aimless without some bigger goal to train for.  Maybe more speed work and some track workouts will be in order??

On the plus side, maybe this isn’t such a bad thing.  Work has really picked up as I am prepping for an exciting project to start in January and all the work on reserves will be starting up very soon.  I’m also working hard to finish off decluttering, painting, and I’ll be replacing the flooring in my living room.  Crazy, eh?  Here’s the flooring I ordered…

And just for your enjoyment, here’s a picture from the Wine Festival this weekend.  I think I tasted more beer than wine.  Perhaps the size of the pour might indicate why…  Sure was a fun night!

Race Report - Last Chance Half Marathon

Pre-Race:

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Saturday I was still feeling pretty blah from this cold I've been fighting. I was still getting pretty winded just walking up the stairs in my townhouse. Run a half marathon the next day? Ha ha! I slept in, downed plenty of vitamin C and had a nice carbo-loading dinner on Saturday night. And wine. Something about the anti-oxidants in red wine... I thought they might help.
I woke up at 6 am on Sunday and was feeling infinitely better than I had felt the last few days. Still not 100%, but definitely better. I chowed down on some 10 grain hot cereal with a banana, had a bit of cantaloupe and some hot tea. I hummed and hawed on what to wear for quite a while. The high was supposed to be 10°C (50°F) and sunny, but it was still fairly cool as I was getting ready to leave the house. I decided to not bundle up and go with capris, a long sleeve top, and a mid-weight top over it. As I drove downtown and saw all the runners fully bundled up on the pathway I was hoping that I made the right decision. I parked my car and made my way over to our team meeting location and chit chatted with people as they showed up. I was ready to run this thing. I ditched my sweats back at my car, hit the bathroom, then lined up for the start.

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The Race:

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Instantly I was glad that I didn't wear a ton of gear. As soon as we started running we were in the sun and it was pretty warm. I wanted to hold myself back on the first three miles to something in the low 10 minute mile range. I thought I was holding back, and I saw all kinds of people zoom past me, but when I looked down at the Garmin I was running around a 9:30 mile. Oops. Perhaps not the smartest choice, but I figured I'd try to back off a touch, but otherwise just hold on and see if I could keep this up. One thing that I did differently on this race was I carried my own water bottle with me. I looked at where the water stops were going to be and it didn't really match up with my gel intake strategy so I figured I'd stick to my plan and just bring my own water. I then grabbed a cup of Gatorade at each of the four water stops. When I hit the 5 mile mark I stopped to walk long enough to down an Espresso Hammer Gel and some water, then got right back on to running. I was still feeling pretty strong. By this point in time the pathways had kind of thinned out and I kept leapfrogging with the same people all the time. One was a girl with the noisiest jacket ever, and another was a man that was breathing so loudly that it was incentive to try and speed up a bit. After this I started to see the leaders heading back towards me and they were booking it! We hit some rolling hills as we continued east along the river and in towards the Calgary zoo which zapped some energy from my legs a bit. At 10 miles I downed my second gel. I tried to keep going strong, but somehow or other mile 11 got away from me. It was my slowest mile clocked at 10:11. I'm not sure what happened here. Somewhere along this point we crossed under the bridge at Edmonton Trail. This isn't really the best part of town and there were a bunch of people all hanging out by the bridge getting high. The cloud of noxious fumes was massive...blech... I really was hoping to pick it up for the last couple of miles but my hip flexors were starting to feel pretty tight by this point in time and I was pretty well just able to hold on. I knew I was in for a PR by this point in time, the question was just going to be by how much.

Chip Time: 2:07:41.7

Gun Time: 2:08:17.7

Overall: 295 out of 488

Females 30 - 39: 53 out of 107

That's a PR by 7:15 folks! We even got a medal to boot:

Post-Race:

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After the race all the participants headed over towards The Garage inside Eau Claire Market for brunch and the awards ceremonies. We had the whole place to ourselves and we were treated to fruit salad, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and pancakes. While it wasn't included, the brunch was all washed down with some yummy Grasshopper wheat beer. Delicious.
In the evening I refueled at Bolero, a fantastic Brazilian churrascaria in town here. I showed my medal off to my niece and she thought it was pretty cool - she wanted to wear it herself!

PR Baby!

I'm exhausted, but I raced to a huge PR today at the Last Chance Half. I promise details and pictures soon!

Eating Hills for Lunch

My lunch plans for today fell through, and since it is a beautiful, sunny 10 deg C (50 deg F) out I thought I would get my high intensity hills out of the way during the day. I had 4 - 6 30 second hill intervals on the calendar. I warmed up for 10 min, then spent the next 5 min trying to get my heart rate in to zone 3 and keep it there. As I was running an uphill it happened almost immediately, so I tried a few 10 second accelerations. Then I was running downhill and no matter how fast my turnover my heart rate kept dropping. At 15 minutes it was time to start working. I was running the huge hill by the curling club, and I have to say, this hill is definitely more intense than the hill I've been running up and down in my neighborhood. My pace for my 30 second intervals was nowhere near as speedy as two weeks ago. I pushed hard and ran all 6 intervals. Then it was time to cool down for between 10 - 15 minutes so I headed back on flat ground towards my office. I actually really enjoy these high intensity hills. You warm up, work your butt off for 20 min or so, then head back.

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And well...I think going for 3 months without a race on the calendar was never going to happen. Today I got an e-mail from coach asking if I was still planning on running the Last Chance Half Marathon on November 9th. Truthfully, I never thought about it, but maybe it had come up during our initial consultation. Regardless, sure...I'll run a half marathon in two weeks! Why not? $50 gets you entry to the race, a tech shirt (I believe it is a tech shirt) and lunch afterwards.