HSBC Calgary Half Marathon

Hey!

Well, my only half marathon for the year is done. It was good. It was a nice test for me to see how biking a lot really translates over to running. I expected my general fitness to be higher than it ever has been from the biking, but I didn't know how my legs would handle the race with the limited amount of training I got in running lately.

Race morning came early. Really early. My first alarm went off at 5:30. No shower, ate a bagel while Leslie dropped me off at a LRT station, and a cool bottle of water. The LRT they said was free to ride for all participants on race day, but what they didn't tell you is that the LRT's were few and far between. It took me a good 35 minutes to get from the LRT platform to the Bridgland station which was about a 30 minute walk away. Aaaarrrrgggghhhh. Disorganization number one for the day.

I made it to the start at about 6:30 am for the 7 am start and right away got in one of the three bag check line ups, and waited. And waited. And waited. The lady behind me says ' I hope we are going to make the start of the race in 10minutes' Still we waited. Bang. The gun goes off and I am still in the friggin' bag check. Finally we get to the front of the line, about 5 minutes after the race started then book it over to the start line, which was still barely moving. I think in the final numbers I actually crossed the line about 8 minutes after the gun. Disorganization number two for the day.

The first 6 km's of the race were slow. Painfully slow. My goal was to a maintain a 5 min/km pace for the first 17kms or so, but I didn't even see a 5.00 pace until about 6 km in. 5000 people (with most of the walkers up at the front?????) running sharp dog leg's for 6 km did not make me very happy. Disorganization number three.

After 6km thing finally spread out enough that I could actually set a pace. I guess it wasn't too bad that I had to start slow. At least I got a warm up in since I was stuck in the stupid bag check for 30 minutes. I kept rolling along, stopping to say hi to Rexy and Leslie on the side of 17th ave. We kept running up 17th, headed north on 14th st, then a short trek west on Memorial until we turned around and headed all the way back east on Memorial to the finish in Bridgeland.

There was not too much to report about the run. Lots of people. I managed to follow a bit of a nutrition plan and seemed to last pretty good until about the 18km mark when my right quad and calfs started to ache.

By the time I got to the finish I was hurting. The last 7km I picked up the pace to try and balance out my slow 6km at the start and to make my goal time of 1h45min.

In the end I finished with a time of 1 hour 44 min 50 sec. Exactly 10 seconds below my goal time and a new personal best in a half by about 5 minutes! I was happy. It was great to see the benefits of my training this year, even though it hasn't been running too much. It was a tough race to really run hard in though because of all the people and the sharp corners where everyone would funnel together. I finished 60 of 163 in my age group, and 349 of 2846. Wow, that sounds cool. My pace was 4.59 per km, which was my goal to keep as well. Yeah, me!

Other than than the limited train, long ass bag check, and stupid dog leg's off the start, the race seemed to be well organized once again and full of excitement.

Oh, another question I have, is why do they rank the official times as when the gun goes off and not from your chip. My gun time was 1h 52 minutes or something but my chip time was 1h 44 min. However, for the rankings they use the gun time. Weird. Just out of interest sake, why? If they would have used my chip time instead of the gun time, I would have finished 32 in my age group instead of 60! Stupid bag check!

Everyone from WOW! did amazing too. Sharlene ran her first 10km race and completed the whole thing without stopping! Peter Cutting, my 72 year old client did his first 10km run and finished a wonderful 3rd place in his age group!!!! Peggy had a strong 10km run, as did Stacey and Gary! What a great day!

There are probably a few pictures Leslie took and I'll try and get them up, but for now, I'm pooped. 'Night!

Grizzly G.