Grand Bay 1/2 Marathon Race Report

Lead up to the 'race' ...

Friday - up early (for me) at 6:30 for an easy 6 mile run around town before work. It was a nice foggy cool run just hours after a thunder and lightning system had passed through. The main reason for running early was to give the maximum amount of rest before Saturday's early race.

Saturday - up early again for the 1 hour drive to Grand Bay - Westfield for the Canada Day 1/2 marathon. We hit heavy fog for most of the way which slowed us up and arrived only 10 minutes before the official start time at 9:45. Luckily they were running late so there was time to hit a washroom and pick up my number etc. After a zero warmup (per Duncan) except for checking that the shoes were tied and a few stretches we were lined up and off!
And a smile to the camera operator, my son who also took a bunch more pics of the race. These are now posted on Webshots and the race results for the 1/2 marathon are here. My plan today for the race was no plan at all but to simply run in-control and to keep the effort at about marthon pace or a bit faster. The 1st downhill mile came in at 6:45 which was about 30-45 sec too fast! After that I reeled it in a bit and went by heartrate for most of the rest of the race keeping it around 90% of max. The splits then settled down to the low 7:00's to about 7:30 for the rest of the run. Ran mostly alone but was not passed after the 2nd mile except by the #1 and #2 women. Around the 8 mile mark they went whizzing by but then slowed and remained just in front of me for the rest of the way, or was that me speeding up?
The finish, just edged out by the #2 woman, is she laughing at me or just happy to be done? My time was 1:36:57 for 7:22/mile or 4:32/k overall pace. 14th overall and 3rd in my age group so I'll give the race an OK, despite not really 'racing'. You'll understand why when you see what went on Sunday. End of week 5 of 18 for the training program with 72 miles in the bank this week. There are now only 90 days to go guys!

After the run we hung around for the awards because we were trapped at the finish area with closed roads on one side and an parade arriving from the other direction. At least there was lots of food and drink to be had and a ton of door prizes were handed out. This is a very well organized and fun race. Eventually we were off to downtown Saint John where we were stunned to see deserted streets and empty shopping malls, until it hit us 'Oh yeah, it's a holiday!'. Lunch at Tims, visit Nanny at the Regional and then to Bro's fancy new house for supper and a few pops. Then another short visit at the hospital and a long drive in the dark and rain getting home by 10pm.

Sunday - slept in a bit today till about 7:30 and goofed around for about an hour getting geared up for the scheduled 20 miler. The Plan called for it and it was my stupid idea to to the 1/2 yesterday, but I did take it easy knowing in the back of my mind that this was going need to be done. And you all know that I'm a sucker for punishment...

But actually it wasn't really that bad. Another foggy, misty overcast day, a bit cool and some light rain making for nice running conditions. Geared up with the mp3 player loaded with more podcasts from Steve Runner, a gel pac, and gatorade. Went at a relaxed pace and the run didn't really get tough until the last 2-3 miles when the legs started to feel like they do at the end of a marathon. I guess that's the point of running 20 miles (for those last few tough miles) but it didn't help that the wind came up and it started to pour down hard at the same time. Finished the 20 in 3:50 for about 8:30 pace. A good way to start off the new running week!
Tree number one (done on Friday)

Tree number two (done this afternoon)
Tree number three which was relegated to the woods (some kind of weed tree). We've been busy today with other stuff besides running!