Scotiabank Half-Marathon Race Report

Well I have now completed two half-marathons, and I think I’m going to take a training break. I’m going to keep running 4-5 times a week, but I don’t think I’ll do another half until at least November. Or maybe one in October, there’s one in Kelowna then….

Anyways, half-marathon went well. I DID PR, 2:12:26 according to the chip time, which is 3:14 faster than the last one (2:15:40) so it’s not a WHOLE LOT faster, and I didn’t break 2:10, which is what I secretly wanted, but I’m still pretty happy about it. I also finished 118 out of 175 women in the 20-24 age group. So, not great, not bad either!

Onto the race, it wasn’t as big as the one at the beginning of May, but still a few thousand people. It started out well enough, the first 3 k (approx. 2 miles) was a small loop that took us back passed the start. Then we did a weird out and back thing and then it was straight on to the end. With this half we started at the UBC campus and ended up at Stanley Park. It was gorgeous; right along the ocean. I wanted to stop and take pictures but I didn’t want to screw up my time, so you’ll have to trust me that it was BEAUTIFUL. Here’s a picture that I took at the end that basically sums up what the WHOLE race was like. A beautiful beach path along the ocean and the bottom picture is the view that I enjoyed the whole run:

The running went well, but I wouldn’t say it was GREAT. I had a watch with a stopwatch this time so I was more aware of the time. I was trying to run each kilometre in six minutes.  I DID walk through the water stations but I still pushed myself pretty hard. The first 10 k felt great, I remember practically sprinting passed the 10 k mark and then it started going downhill from there.

My stomach started hurting and I was feeling sick around km 13 (approx. 8.1 miles) and then I realized I was hungry! So I walked for about a minute and ate half of my cocoa-coconut larabar and felt way better after that. The 14th-15th km was a big hill and I powered up it but then after km 15 I started feeling REALLY crappy. It was a sunny day and I think the hot sun was making me feel kind of nauseous so I moved onto the sidewalk and ran in the shade and THEN my stomach started feeling really crappy. I felt like I had to poo. (If you don’t want TMI do not continue reading)

OK, I’ve read on other blogs about bloggers pooping their pants and stuff and I’ve never really had too much of a problem with it, but this time it was BAD. I really had to go and I couldn’t figure out why. I ate a banana and half a cashew-cookie larabar before the race and then that other half of the larabar, none of these things have ever made me feel liking pooping before, so I don’t get it. Does anybody have any recommendations for things that I should eat that will prevent this problem in the future? Because it was really uncomfortable and kind of messed me up, I walked A LOT from the 15-18 km.

When I hit km 18 I was like “OK, only 3.1 km to go, let’s do this”. So I ran hard and didn’t stop after that. I picked up the pace again at the 20th km and by this time my knees were killing me but I was SO close there was no way I was stopping, so I powered on. Right before the 21st km I started full-out sprinting and sprinted the last 200 metres or so.

It felt GREAT to finish, but my legs were aching. I was actually stumbling like a drunk after crossing the finish line. Losing my balance and almost falling over. I went and sat under a tree for about 10 minutes and then went to the bathroom. I felt much better after sitting down for awhile! My friend Jen met me about 30 minutes after that, she was trying to get to the finish line to meet me but the buses are CONFUSING in Vancouver and she got off at a stop really far away from the finish and had to walk for about 45 minutes! So she met me and we caught the shuttle back to our hostel and had to rush to get out of there by 11 and then we headed to the ferry!

I am now on Vancouver Island for a few days and it’s great, so pretty! Jen is at work today and I’m doing some work from home and then we are going to do something fun tonight, maybe go down to the ocean or something. It’s beautiful here!! Hope everyone had a great weekend, too!

PS: I claim that I’m not going to do any more halfs for awhile but I’m already looking into ones in October/November! Ahhh, I’ve been put under a curse or something! Haha.