Canadian Half Marathon Championships Race Report Part 1

After the success and excitement of the Vancouver Sun Run, I was looking forward to competing in the Canadian Half Marathon Championships held in conjunction with the Banque Scotia 21k de Montreal. My training had been going decently well since being sick and I felt ready to go sub 80 or at least take a good run at it. 


I took Thursday evening off work due to the fact I had to fly out of Nanaimo at 7:40am. Thursday was spent running errands, getting a massage and coaching the NDSS (Nanaimo District Secondary School) track practice. Before I knew it, 8pm rolled around and I hadn't even started to pack. I was in bed later than I had hoped, but at least it wasn't too late. 


At the airport shortly after 7am. I squeezed 4 x 100ml yogurts into their little "liquids" airport bags as I was determined to keep them. I may have stretched the bag a little, but they let me take them through. 

Leaving Nanaimo (overlooking Cedar)

It was only a short little 20 minute jaunt over to Vancouver, arriving just after 8am. From there, I bought some liquids for the travel and headed over to the gate for my connecting flight to Montréal. I kept look out for Anne-Marie Madden who was also heading to the race, but we never connected and it turns out our seats were not next to each other either. I did see her on the flight though. 

Killing time in YVR

 

Speaking of the flight, wow.... turbulent. I think we had our seat belts on for the first half of the flight. Of course when they went off, mega line ups for the toilets. I ended up sitting beside a nice lady who was going to meet her son as he was finishing up his first year at McGill. We chatted and as it turned out, her husband had recently gone through bunion surgery and was unsure whether he regretted it. I shared my experience and the fact that I did not regret my two surgeries that I had done in 2006. 

Perfect way to kill time on the flight there!

We arrived in Montréal shortly after 4:30pm local time and headed to the shuttles. My coach Matt Clout had also just landed shortly before us and we had tried to meet at the shuttle location; however, things didn't work out and we ended up catching 2 different ones. The race organizers put us up at the Sheraton Aiport Hotel which was like 1km from the airport and in the middle of nowhere. A very nice airport, but we found a lack of restaurants etc within walking distance. 

Hotel

 

 

 

I settled into the hotel and went on a brief shake out run with Matt and his roommate Giitah. A short run in COLD and WINDY temperatures. I think it was like 2 degrees. A shock to my system after coming from the west coast where we were hitting mild temps!

My roommate Meggan Franks told me ahead of time that she would be arriving late. So that night I went to dinner with Matt and then spent part of the evening hanging out with fellow Saucony athlete Kate Bazeley and her roommate Leslie Sexton (the two favorites to win the race I might add). 


I was in bed watching the hockey game (Kings vs Blues I think) and drifted to sleep around 11pm before waking shortly after. I turned off the game but then couldn't fall back asleep right away. Meggan arrived around midnight. She settled in and we went to bed.

We slept in somewhat the next day and around 10:30 Meggan, Matt and I headed out for an easy run. Another WINDY day. Like windy where it hits you sideways and pushes you over. I think we were all praying that the wind would calm down in the next 24 hours. After the run we hit breakfast in the hotel and then simply chilled for the afternoon before the elite meeting at 4pm. 

That night was pretty uneventful. I went out to dinner with Kate and Leslie to some Italian restaurant a short cab ride away (we all wanted out of the hotel). Then it was simply relaxing for the night. Surprisingly I found myself falling asleep around 9pm so I turned off the hockey game (thanks to Meggan for putting up with me constantly having the games on) and we passed out for the night. Not bad considering it was only 6pm back home. 

Stay tuned for part 2.