Only 2 weeks after the Red Deer 1/2 marathon, I was ready to run the Daily Herald Tribune Press Run. 4 days after Red Deer, we took our training group out on a 10km run to get them familiar with the race course. The conditions were perfect and we all finished with great times. The following week was an 8km training run which began the tapering down of our distances. We didn't want the participants to be overly tired on race day.
Karen had decided to run the 10km race, so she can support our training group and cheer them on. I had decided long ago that I needed to continue getting longer distances in, so I registered for the 1/2 marathon again. I was a little worried coming off of the Red Deer 1/2 in such rough shape. I did well in the training runs, but was never able to get into my zone and regulate my breathing very well. I also noticed that I was a little "shell-shocked" about running the hills on our trail system. Pschologically, I wasn't quite ready to be running 21km again. Physically, I needed to get some rest.
The day before the race, we put together a nice spaghetti and chicken dinner and had Marla over to load up on the carbs. I think we were all a little nervous and excited at the same time. Made sure we got plenty of rest.
Race day was sunny but very windy. There were 389 racers registered and because it was in Grande Praire, we knew a lot of people there. Everyone seemed pretty pumped up. A couple of runners in our group were just recovering from colds, so they were a little worried about how they would perform.
The race began with an uphill climb right away and then straight into the wind. Made it tough to catch your breath. Within a few minutes, we ran down into the RV park and then up another with the wind in your face. Finding it difficult to catch my breath, I decided to let the pack in front of me pull away. Most of them were 10km runners anyway who were running at a faster pace. I focused on running my own race and finding a pace that wouldn't hurt me in the long run.
The turn-around point for the 10km runners seemed to come up quickly. I was able to cheer on a few of runners coming back the other way. Since we've run the trails a lot, it was nice to know that I wasn't too far behind the pack. I ended up settling into my zone about 6km into the run. Slowing down made a huge difference. Another big difference for me was that I didn't bring a watch to this race. I found myself too focused on my watch last time, so decided to leave it at home. I gauged everything by distance instead. By 9km, I knew it was time to get a little food in. I studied the map beforehand and timed my food to coincide with the water stations. I made sure that I put a little bit of food in me at regular intervals as not to deplete my reserves.
I got back to Pavilion with plenty of energy left in me for the last kilometre. The last sprint down the hill and around the corner to the finish felt incredible. May have pushed it a little hard, but I felt good enough to do that. People were at the finish cheering me in and I even got a little bit of a push from a guy who was hard on my heels for the last few steps.
My official fisishing time, 1hr 53min 22sec. Wow!! What a race. Not only did it feel really great, I knocked over 10 minutes off my previous 1/2 marathon time. The volunteers were all great and made the event that much better.
We hung around for the medal presentations and it turns out that several members of our training group placed in their divisions. Congrats to Jeff (2nd), Derek (2nd), Gert (1st) and of course, my sweetie Karen, who took 2nd place in her division. No placement for me since I'm in a very competitive age classification. I'd need to shave another 15 minutes from my time to even come close. I'm very impressed by the first place runner in the 21km, Darren, who finished in an astouding 1hr 16min. That's not for me. I need to push the training distance out achieve the 42.2km goal by October. Maybe in another life, if I come back as a cheetah.
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