2012 Vancouver First Half Half Marathon Race Report

Last weekend I headed over to Vancouver for the Vancouver First Half Half Marathon. I had come off of 3 big training weeks after the Pioneer 8km that had left my legs literally completely dead a week before the race. I was a tad worried about how the race would go; however, generally after 3 hard weeks I get 1 easier week and that is exactly what happened. That 1 easier week is also exactly what my legs needed, a "semi" taper. 

The Wednesday before the race, my stomach turned on me. I struggled to get in food and fluid. I literally was force feeding myself as nothing was appetizing. Every time I attempted to eat, I lost my appetite and felt nauseous. Thankfully, by Friday evening it started to pass. A bit late for the hydration I had lost, but I attempted to stuff my face to get in some nutrition at least. 

Then on Friday night while I was at work, my hip started to hurt. WTF?! I couldn't walk without pain, so I began to get worried. I hadn't done anything out of the ordinary and had no idea what was going on. I sent a few text messages to my wonderful Chiro Joe @ Island Optimal and he agreed to treat me at his house the next morning. Thanks Joe! 

On Saturday I headed over to Vancouver on the 3pm ferry. I was lucky enough to have a stinky greasy looking guy sit right in front of me. Trust me, I debated moving, but figured the smell might get better. I wasn't sure if his hair was wet or in fact greasy; however, let's just say that it still looked the same at the end of the 1.5 hour ferry ride.... outcome = probably greasy. He had the fuzz ball neck hair on the back of his neck too. Yummy. The ferry quickly passed with a nap for half of it. 

My sister graciously picked me up from the ferry and took me back to her place. This took WAY longer than anticipated as the traffic down Taylor Way was horrid. I swear it took 30 minutes to get down that one hill and onto the Lion's Gate Bridge. Stupid bridge only had 1 lane into Vancouver and 2 going out; however, the traffic was way worse going into Vancouver. Made no sense. 

We spent the evening with her cooking me a yummy chicken dinner and then watching the Canucks Vs Calgary game. Thankfully her husband was out playing his own hockey game, as he is a Calgary fan. Unfortunately that game ended in yet another shootout in which Canucks lost (surprise surprise). I attempted to head to bed around 10:30, but found myself awake at midnight. Great, I thought to myself, only 6 hours of possible sleep. I never sleep well there. And this night was like all the others. 6 hours where I woke up at least 3 times.

Alarm was off at 6 in which I shoved in some food (food on race mornings NEVER works for me). About 7:15 I was on the side of the road in which Catherine and Melissa picked me up on the way into Vancouver. Catherine didn't end up racing due to an unfortunate incident so she dropped us off and we eventually ran into Natasha (eventual race winner) before heading off on a warm up. 

Just as we started our warm up, it was raining quite steady. I had some knee pain in my right knee during the warm up, but I had felt that recently. As usual, it went away as I got warmed up. Bathroom lines were crazy, so we bombarded Subway across the road from the start. A few quick drills and it was go time.

I wanted to go out somewhat conservative and then pick it up in the 2nd half. I had no idea what my body was going to let me run, but my ultimate goal this season is to get under 80' for the half. I wanted to get as close to that as I could. My knee hurt for the first couple of km which worried me, but then it went away and I didn't feel it for the rest of the race. I picked off women starting from 5km onward, never being picked off once (by another female that is). 

I went through half way in 40:38 I believe and thought "crap, too slow" so I picked it up. My next 5km were the fastest of the entire race. The race only had mile markers, which I wasn't prepared for, and then markers every 5km. I ended up taking my 5km splits. I think I also ran the last half with another Saucony dressed runner named Sam. We pushed each other and picked off people one at a time. 

I dropped Sam when we hit the lagoon. Not sure how far back he fell, but he caught me again in the final few km. I had a few issues in the last few km where my brain was taking over and it caused me to slow a few times (this is an issue well known to me and its something I need to work on). This lost me some time in the end, but I sprinted for home when I saw the clock at 1:20:?? and counting. I finished in 1:20:55 gun time and 1:20:53 chip time. This works out to a 1:02 personal best since my 2010 Eugene Half Marathon. I finished 6th female (4th from BC for the BC Championships) and 4th in my age group. Full results are here.

Last few km (photo credit Mark Bates)

 

Final kick (photo credit my sister)

Pretty sure this is when I rounded the corner and saw my time for the first time (I don't check my watch) and thought "damn too slow"

 

Sub 81' I want you!

Not bad considering it was my first half marathon since October 2010. I am pleased with the time, though of course I felt like I have more in me. I am most pleased that I ran a negative split ever so slightly, 40:38 and 40:17. I NEVER run negative splits, so the fact that I was coming on strong for the 2nd half and other than the one mental issue, which caused me some time, I was definitely on a roll for finishing faster! 

Thanks to Matt for his coaching, support and encouragement. Thanks to Marilyn for her kind words of support to go for it. Thanks to Saucony Canada for believing in me! Thanks to my sister for the place to stay. Thanks to my coworker for swapping shifts with me so I could attend the race. Thanks to all my friends/coworkers for their support over social media. And thanks to you for reading this! I cannot wait until the next one!

Finally!

Just a short update. I FINALLY am seeing my fitness back to where I want it! A race report will come shortly (hopefully by the weekend) as I ran the Vancouver First "Half" Half Marathon this past Sunday. It was a good day that resulted in a Personal Best; however, that is not what I am most proud of. I am most proud of the way I raced it, but I will get into that in more detail later. Stay tuned!

Local Celebrity

A couple weeks back I went to the local pub down the road for my co-workers birthday. One of my other co-workers there frequents that pub fairly often. Her way of introducing me to everyone she knew in the pub was by saying "you know that girl that is ALWAYS running around Cedar, that's her." Which was generally followed by "oh you are that girl." One guy even told me that I was like a local celebrity. I also even heard that no one runs in Cedar unless they are being chased by cops. It was definitely an amusing night, I had no name it seemed, just that running girl or that girl. Another birthday coming up next weekend, looking forward to some new antics!

Otherwise, training is going fairly well at the moment. Feeling fitter as the days go on and that is all I can ask for at the moment! I have some lofty goals this season and plenty of hard work ahead of me to ensure that I hit them! Bring it on! 

Volunteering 2012 Cedar 12km

This past Sunday I volunteered at the local Cedar 12km. Since the race actually runs by my house shortly after the start, how could I resist. I took tons of photos as I attempted to catch every racer at least once. It was neat to see Simon Whitfield show up and run a great battle against James Lander. Cedar is a rural community on the outskirts of Nanaimo, so to have Simon here and running where I always run was inspirational. 

Anyways, I have noticed people arriving on me mentioning the Cedar race previous years. Common themes are 2012 cedar 12km results or cedar 12km photos. So here you have it everyone!

2012 Cedar 12km results here

My 2012 Cedar 12km photos here (located on Facebook)

2012 Pioneer 8km Race Report

I jumped into racing only a week into the new year. The plan was to train through this race and to not taper for it. I completed close to my regular week leading up the race and had no idea how the legs would feel. In fact, coach Matt had some plans for me post race too that I wasn't informed of the details until after the race. 

I headed off around 8:15 for the drive south to Victoria. Of course, with my luck I swear I hit almost every red light possible. Not to mention I was terribly afraid that my lovely 91 tempo, which has been struggling lately, wouldn't make it. Already breaking down on the malahat once (post TC 10km about 3 years ago) I did not want a repeat event! Thankfully I made it down to the race start at approximately 9:45. 

I did my usual thing of picking up my race number, chatting with a few people and hitting the washroom. Then off to my car to get ready for warm up. Just as I was heading out, I ran into Marilyn and Joey, so the three of us continued on for our warm up. A few quick words with Matt and I was back to my car to get ready to race. At this point I wanted a washroom but knew that with 15 minutes to race time, there would definitely be a line up. 

I hit the line and before I knew it we were off. The first km is mostly downhill which meant for a quick start. I tried to hold back, but also didn't want to get left behind. A flat 2nd km lead into a hill. Here I went from 4th female to 7th female. My legs felt dead and just would not respond as Catrin, Care, Sabrina and Claire went by. Definitely fighting negative thoughts in my head from 3-6km. A downhill section into the half way point, which I hit at 14:31. With my next km 3:43 (according to Garmin, which I know is not exact), meant 5km at 18:14, which is technically a 5km PB for me (18:25 from 2010). That bodes well for the next time I race a 5km I hope!

We hit a hill, turn around and then downhill as we headed back towards the start/finish between 5 and 7km. After the turn around, which I felt I was moving quite well, I saw a split on my garmin that said 4:00 and I thought to myself, wtf?! This definitely feels worse than 4 min/km pace. I was slightly defeated at this point, thinking that I had gone out too fast and no longer would hit at least sub 30 like I wanted. At 6.5km I passed Sabrina who had unfortunately began a battle with her stomach that left her puking on course. I wanted out shout out to keep going, but she was mid puke as I went by. Thankfully she did keep going and finished not far behind me. 

I kept plodding on, just wanting the race to finish. An uphill finish and I tried to pour it on, but just couldn't catch Claire and finished 6th female (50th overall) in 29:49. I was initially extremely disappointed in my time. I ran 30:05 in October and felt as though I was in WAY better shape than that, so to finish only 16 second faster did not impress me. But I chalked it up to being what it was and accepted that I had really run the race as a training race and my legs were far from fresh. 

I chatted with Matt and Marilyn for a bit and then grabbed some clothes before heading off on a cool down with Marilyn (who also ran it as a training race on less than fresh legs) and Joey. We met Claire about half way through and continued with her. On the cool down, Joey mentioned that the turn around was actually in the wrong place and the course was long. 

One of the PIH members Gary is always responsible for measuring courses, so he went and officially measured the difference which came out to 74.9m. Calculations say that it added about 17 seconds to my time, which means 29:49 turns into 29:32, only 1 second off of my best time, from a flatter course last January. That improved my overall outlook on the race. While I am not 100% happy with the way I ran the race and my mentality during the race, it is what it is and I am grateful for the experience. 

Thank you to PIH for hosting the race and to Bob for everything he does in the running community. Results found here.

One photo from the race so far, I believe mid race, courtesy of Noa Deutsch

2011 Send Off and Thanks!

It won't take me long to recap 2011. I started off training through aches. About a week before I ran the Ice-Breaker 8km in 29:31, those aches started to turn to pain. A few days after the 8km, that pain became unbearable and I began to cross train. Cross training continued for about 2.5 months before we realized it was not going anywhere. I also learned that your feet go numb on the elliptical after about 80 minutes. Getting hooked on Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory also happened during these 2.5 months. 

After cross training, I turned to time off for 4 weeks. No running, no cross training, though I did go for a few hikes and explored some new trails that I had never had the time to explore before. Nothing like hiking up in the bushes in the middle of nowhere and having no idea where you are and not seeing another sole for ages. Bears? Cougars? I hope not. I did not see any, but I am sure they must have been around somewhere. Maybe not cougars, but bears for sure. 

After 3.5 months off (now mid May), I began to trial running again. Starting with 15' runs. At first it felt so good to be out running again, pain minimal though MUCH better than before. Those 15' turned into 30' runs and all of a sudden I realized how out of shape I was. I realized this was going to be a long battle back. 

Eventually, things became easier. It is hard to be patient. I wanted to be back to where I was NOW rather than later. But it doesn't work that way. I had lots of encouragement from coach Matt and also from Marilyn and although it sucks that she was injured, it was kind of nice to have her going through a comeback from a similar injury at the same time. I don't know about her, but she helped keep me sane.

I hit my first real race and test in October at the Goodlife Fitness 8km. It hurt. It hurt A LOT. But I got through it in 30:05 which was decent considering what I had been through earlier in the year. 

My second test came at the BC XC Championships. Ahh Aldergrove, those hills.... so lovely. A very tough field where I missed Team BC but feel as though I ran better and faster than in 2010. I also raced with no pain and was thrilled. 

From there I turned on some xc training with the idea to compete at the Canadian National XC Champs at the end of November. A few weeks prior to the race, some of my injury symptoms began to creep up again (screw you injury). I ran nationals splish splashing through mud. I can't complain about how the conditions affected me because everyone ran in the same conditions. We were all affected, just some handled it better than others I suppose. While I didn't place as high as I hoped, it was still a fun experience and I was just grateful to be back racing. 

Nationals was my last race of the year, turning back to training for December. The aches still come and go, but never go very far away. I keep my eye on them and tell them to eff off often. 

I would like to take time to say thank you to Matt for all your knowledge and my wonderful training plans. Thanks for sticking by me while I was injured and probably pretty whiny about being injured. It's amazing that we have known each other since I used to kick your butt when we were kids. Oh those were the days. ;) Thanks for helping me find those days again!

Thank you to Marilyn, also for all your wisdom and encouragement. Thank you for keeping me positive and hopefully 2012 will rock for both of us. I appreciate all your help.

Thank you to Saucony for hanging in there with me for 2011. I became injured nearly one month into the 2011 season, which left me sidelined from races for 8.5 months. I am equally thrilled to say that they have agreed to continue to support me for 2012. I hope to make the company proud as I strive to put 2011 behind me. 

Thanks to Joe and Abe at Island Optimal Health and Performance. I have sure given you guys a lot of work over the last year. Thanks for your assistance in my rehab and for keeping me as healthy as possible. PS Go Canucks Go!  

Lastly, thank you to my support team in Nanaimo and surrounding areas. This includes numerous people, some of which I have known for ages and some whom I have only recently met. The running community is amazing and I am glad to know so many great and supportive people. 

One more thing before I go, eff you 2011. I am glad you are gone and welcome 2012 with open arms!

Updates?!

Wow, time is just flying by. Hard to believe that Christmas is only 3 sleeps away. My co-worker is back to work as well, which means I am back to part time. It's weird because even though I have been tired and mega busy over the four months he was away, always dreaming of the day I would go back to part time, I find part of myself disappointed with actually achieving it. I have no idea why. What will I do with all my extra time? Not to mention smaller pay days! Oh right, maybe I can spend my extra time recovering from workouts properly and getting all of the things that I have put off for 4 months finally done! 

I am still running. Things are going ahead as plan, though I still have to keep my eye on a few things that keep reminding me that they are there. I also must say that I am tired of these short days and long nights. Thank goodness we have crossed over and will slowly begin to see more daylight. Running in the dark is not my ideal choice; however, thankfully the Saucony ViziPro line is wonderful. I have no doubt that people can see me in my ViziPro Orange jacket or vest in the dark. I highly recommend purchasing this line of clothing if you do a lot of running in the dark.

Christmas is 3 sleeps away and I have finished my shopping or well I thought I did. Until I found out I have to pick up a few more things. Put me in a mall anywhere near Christmas and it is an ugly sight. The only time I turn into a big BAH HUMBUG is when I am Christmas shopping. Definitely not a fan! I also have one gift that I am waiting for in the mail.... which means it has only 1 day left to arrive. I have my fingers crossed that it does or someone will be left without a gift. Please deliver tomorrow CanPar!  

Anyways I just wanted to let you all know that I am alive. I have a few posts in mind, but will keep those for later in the year (yes I know there isn't much left). Wish my luck with my last minute shopping tomorrow!

Merry Christmas (or Happy whatever you celebrate) everyone!