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First Half-Marathon @ 2011 BMO Vancouver Marathon

01 May 2011 3 Comments

by beverly in Exercise, Health and Healthy Living, Running Tags: 10k, 2011, 21.1k, 42.2k, bellingham, bellingham bay marathon, bmo, goodlife fitness victoria marathon, GU Energy Gel, half-marathon, iFitness Hydration Belt, las vegas, marathon, rock 'n' roll las vegas marathon, sun run, surrey, surrey international world music marathon, Vancouver, victoria

Chip time: 2:05:03!

Pretty happy with that, as I promised myself that I would be happy with anything under 2:15. Although…it was a little disappointing to not have knocked those four seconds off to be at 2:04:59, ha! That’s fine. Something to work towards.

So the 2011 BMO Vancouver Marathon event  was my first time running a half marathon (21.1km), and I was pleasantly surprised by how decently easy it was. I mean, I had to push myself to stay on pace, of course, but it wasn’t so bad. It gets to be more of a mental boredom issue more than anything.

THE RACE:

Gear Check 6:35am: free. Well not really free because it’s just included in your registration fee. Decently well organized and staffed by efficient volunteers.

Port-A-Potty Facilities: Lots. But really, when are there ever enough toilets? Never. Managed to use them twice before the race. They had men’s urinal stations, which, according to a friend of mine, were “kinda weird” and shaped like “planters”.

Start Line 7am: Freezing my ass off. Actually I take that back. It was mostly my arms that were cold. Now know why people wear garbage bags at the start. Totally way behind the 2:30 pace bunnies, will need to inch up further ahead at the start next year and find the 2:00 pace bunnies.

Kilometres 1-7: easy peasy. Crowded, but that’s normal.
8-10: right knee starts twinging. At 10km mark I feel pretty good (pace: just under an hour, up from 54:35 for my 10k Sun Run in April)
12: right knee is not happy with me. I start counting down towards the 15k mark. First GU gel consumed. Orange flavour. Pretty decent, actually.
12-14: One foot in front of the other. Pace slows down, and I have to focus and push. Left calf starts getting unhappy.
15-18: God when is this going to end? Really looking for that 18 marker.
18: Stepped it up. Masses of cheering crowds start to materialize.
19: Stepped it up again. Difficulty of maintaining newfound pace settles in.
20: I hate myself for having committed at the 18. Longest last kilometer of my life. Decent final push.
21.1: Confused as to where the finish line is. Is it the first speed bump thing that goes *beep*, or the second one that goes *beep* under the big banner? Whatever. Probably would’ve cut those 4 seconds if I had focused and kept pushing. Shame, but sometimes you gotta get a swift kick in the face to remind yourself of things like this. Got a finisher’s medal. Woot.

Post-finish: Big crowd bottleneck almost immediately after the finish line. Shitty. Really shitty. I can’t walk (MUSCLES WILL NOT ALLOW!), really need to jog around and stretch and all of a sudden the crowd is shoulder to shoulder at a standstill, with only a tiny entrance to the finishers’ area, with idiot family and friends trying to CUT ACROSS THIS TINY ENTRANCE AGAINST THE FLOW OF TRAFFIC OF TIRED GRUMPY RUNNERS oh hell. Ya know how they tell you to not just STOP after strenuous exercise? Yeah. No choice but to just STOP.

Food: Bless their hearts these BMO Marathon organizers made sure everyone got decent finisher’s food (not like the Sun Run, which is a huge line up for each individual item and is just not worth it). Apple, banana, half bagel, raisins, fruit2go, chips, chocolate pudding. McDonald’s free coffee.

Post-Race: Knees feel like they’ve taken one hell of a beating and will be sore and stiff for the next few days. Achilles tendons in both legs are quite sore as well. Hip flexors aren’t flexing. Walking is sort of a difficult issue at the moment.

GEAR/RACE FOOD:

Clothes: short sleeve tech shirt provided by the event. Long thin spandex tights (my rowing team tights). Nike Free Runs. No hat.

iFitness Hydration Belt: You know how they say never to try out new gear on race day? Yeah, I broke that rule and brought my new iFitness Hydration Belt with me. Really liked that I didn’t have to stop for water (stopped once for electrolyte drink). The belt’s supposed to sit on your hips and not ride up, but I don’t know if it’s the shape of my hips but it rode up pretty damn good and was fully at my waist soon after the race started, such that I had to turn the belt around and wear it facing backwards for most of the race. Oh well. Definitely still a good investment though. ***UPDATE MAY 10th*** I have finally figured out how to wear it properly, and it stayed down low on my hips through a 10 km run today! I seem to have to push it down at the back quite a bit and then it stays below my hip bones. Also was wearing different (less slippery?) spandex tights, which may have helped? So now am really liking the belt.

GU Energy Gel: You know how they say never to try out new food on race day? Yeah, I broke that rule and had two GU energy gels – one at 12k and one at the finish line. Mandarin Orange and Espresso Love. Both pretty decent flavours.

Pre-Race Fuelling 4:30-5:15am: Oatmeal with raisins and craisins and soy milk. Water. Twinings Irish Breakfast Tea with soy milk in lieu of normal coffee. The tea did me good and decreased the usually nervous twitchy pre-race bladder. Water.

OTHER RACES – PAST, FUTURE…

2010: 10k Vancouver Sun Run. 1:10:19.
2011: 10k Vancouver Sun Run. 54:35.  21.1k BMO Vancouver Half-Marathon 2:05:03.

Flush with success and fresh off this newound completion of the half marathon, I started looking around the “Brita Sports Expo” showcase (the big tent with kiosks all to do with running stuff on which to spend lots of money) for other runs I could do in 2011, with the idea of doing a marathon seriously creeping into my skull. I find the Bellingham Bay Marathon (Sept. 25, 2011), the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon (October 9), and a couple of other ones – Surrey International World Music Marathon (Sept. 30, 2012), Sacramento, Vegas, etc.

I get home and discuss this possibility with Steve, and we decide that Bellingham Bay is probably the one to go with…especially because of their $15 coupon off the price of registration! That, and no cost and time spent waiting around for the ferry over to the island.

So I’m registered, the hotel is booked, and it looks like I’ll be running a marathon next! 21 weeks to go, perfect time to start a full training regimen. Goal: 4:15, which I think is achievable.

The other one I’d like to try is the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon (Dec. 4, 2011), where you run the strip at night. Sounds fun.

TRAINING PLANS:

Downloaded the Adidas MiCoach app for iPhone today, and have set up a 5 day/week, 21 week marathon training plan, which starts on Tuesday, because tomorrow is most definitely a rest day. Again, you punch in your goals and stuff (finish in 4:15) and it spits out a training plan. Cool. Should take me all the way to the Bellingham Bay Marathon that last weekend in September.