Moving on, I registered for the Brita New Years Resolution Run (5k) on January 1st, 2013 at 10am. There was no official timer, just a clock at the start/finish line. It took me several minutes to actually cross the start line, but when I crossed the finish line, the time was 34:35.
I then registered for the Manitoba Half for June 16th, 2013 and then the Fargo Half on May 18th, 2013. I was supposed to run Fargo with my friend Stephanie, but due to a month of illness, she was unable to make the trip. This was my first half Marathon which I finished with a time of 2:38:27. I have also registered for Color Me Rad (5k) for July 20th, Mud Hero (6k) July 27th, Dirty Donkey (5k) August 17th and the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Services Half on October 19th.
Which brings us to this weekend. Friday was my birthday. I worked til noon and my friend Carolyn was off. I asked her if she was interested in hanging out that day. She suggested we go bike riding and I then suggested we go to Bird's Hill Park. She and our friend Carrie are doing a duathlon next Sunday, so it was good for her to get out and bike and she thought it would be good cross training for me. I brought my bike to work in the Rav and picked her and her bike up around 12:30. After getting organized and filling up my tires with air, we were on our way. There was no one manning the front gate, so we had to explore the park a bit to find a main office to buy a parking permit. We spoke to some nice gentlemen near the horse stables who suggested we try inside. The lady inside gave us directions to one of the offices where we got our permit and last year's trail map. It did the trick. We found a place to park and biked the Aspen trail in the woods as well as the paved trail around the lake. We made a few stops at the stable again, along the water and a very interesting tree which we climbed for photo ops.
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| Posing on the tree |
We made our way back to the car and my soleus said we biked about 14.3 km in 1:25. This was a leisurely ride with a few stops along the way. Once on the highway on our way back to the city, there was a massive downpour. We stopped biking at the right time. Our next plan was to hit up Boston Pizza because I had a voucher for a free pasta on my birthday. Perfect for pre race carb loading. I got a chicken fettuccine alfredo dish and Carolyn got some burger. We chilled at her place for a bit and watched some Big Bang Theory and HIMYM. I left after a few episodes and the beginning of Remember the Titans to go home and get ready for a 90's theme social. I picked up Steph and met Tyla there. It started off slow, but picked up later. I was behaving myself that weekend and didn't have a single drink because of the race on Sunday. Saturday morning I got up relatively early and made my way to the UofM to pick up my race kit. I got my bag, bib/chip (7781) and a shirt.
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| Race kit, bag, bib and a women's large shirt. Exchanged it for a men's |
I proceeded through the expo and picked up some schwag as well as info on future races. I did try on some Sketchers minimalist shoes. Not sure the name. They felt very different, but also lose. I like my Nike Pegasus', so I'll stick with those for now. After the expo, I stopped by my parents house for a visit. I tried on the shirt and it was hella tight. I'm running a half marathon, I'm no bar star. This had to have been a women's large. I decided to go back to see if I could exchange it. The shirt was in fact a women's and they gave me a men's large instead. I then went home and had a chill afternoon which included a nap. That evening, I decided to make spaghetti with a chicken, zucchini sauce.
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| Pre race carb loading |
More carbs. It was delish. I had several bowls while I tried catching up on Game of Thrones. At 11 something, I called it a night and started gathering everything I needed for the race in the morning. I attempted to go to bed at midnight, but could not fall asleep until about 1:30-2am. My alarm was set for 5, so I only got about 3-3.5 hours of sleep. That morning, I got up, got ready, had a couple slices of raisin toasts and a granola bar and proceeded to Pembina at Killarney to park and take the shuttle to the UofM. There was a bit of a line, but not bad. I texted Steph who was just arriving and she queued up with me. We got on site and chilled for a bit, used the portapotties and I checked my bag. As we were heading towards the starting line, we ran into Leigh Anne. She was running her first half marathon. This I believe was Steph's 3rd or 4th.
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| Steph, Me and Leigh Anne pre race |
Steph was running the 1st leg of the relay and was still undecided on running the rest of the half. As you can see she's covered in bibs on the left. This is also the first race that I'm sporting two different colored shoes. They are the same Nike Air Pegasus that I've been logging the km on each pair and trying to run on them evenly.
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| Air Pegasus - Race day combination |
We went to the Max Bell Center and the girls used the rest rooms and I stretched. They were wave 2 and I was wave 1, so I lined up at the starting line. My primary goal was to best my 2:38 mark of Fargo. My secondary goal was to get under 2:30. I believe I ran for 21 min before taking my first minute walk. I then fell into 9 and 1's at 30 min just so I didn't have to think. Not sure how long that lasted, but my minute walks slow became more frequent. So here is my mandatory selfie with runners behind me.
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| Mandatory in race selfie |
In Fargo, I hit my wall at about the 16km mark and walked a lot of the final 5km. Here in MB, I sorta hit that walk at around 17.5 km. I did walk a bit, but not as much as Fargo. I found it to be less of a struggle. This was around the 2 hour mark and I thought I was on pace to break 2:30. But as I ran, the walks became a little more frequent and I saw that mark disappearing. I finally reached the 12 mile mark.
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| 12 mile marker |
Yep, only 1 more mile to go and it's always the hardest. I tried to pick up my pace a bit. As I turned onto Bison Dr, my left calf started cramping. I had to stop and stretch it. I proceeded and it felt fine. But just before the turn into the track, my right calf and groin started cramping. I again had to stop and stretch. This was frustrating as I wanted to run hard all the way to the finish line. So after stretching, I felt good again and ran hard, well as hard as I could after having ran nearly 21km. In Fargo, I ran with my head down and I slomped over the finish line which was sent to me in a video. This time, I wanted to look good crossing the finish line. I kept my head up and ran towards the end. Before crossing, I raised my hand up and pointed my index out, just as Usain Bolt had done in one of his races last summer. I was sent a proof of that, but they had cut off my arm unfortunately. I stopped my soleus which said 2:36:XX, which unofficially is about 2 minutes faster than Fargo. I continued to walk, high fiving people who were congratulating everyone on finishing the race. I got my medal which looks nice.
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| New bling |
I walked to the recovery area and got all sorts of post race foods and drinks. Emily from high school spotted me from the other side of the food tent and we yelled our congratulations to each other. I collected the rest of my food and met her further up. She was running her first half and kept pace with her sister Sheila. They were taking off and said their good byes, so I sat down to eat and check facebook on my phone. Steph had just posted the 12 mi marker. I was excited for her as she decided to complete the race beyond the relay. I then saw Janelle walk into the tent. She too was running her first half marathon. She has run many other 5k and 10k races in the past. We sat down and chatted for a bit and then she left to meet up with her dad. Also spotted Sean who I worked with at Celero long ago and Greg whom I played basketball with. So briefly chatted with them, but they had to move on to meet up with people. I then spotted the Dirty Ninja (Derek). I went over to talk to him as I saw him running barefoot in Fargo. He was running in shoes this time because he had to work the next day and needs a couple days recover after a barefoot run. Steph showed up and introduced them. We chatted a little longer and got some pics in.
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| Steph and me post race |
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| Me and the Dirty Ninja |
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| One of my post race pics from Fargo had BK in the background. You can see it here too |
We didn't stick around to see anyone else finish as we had ball hockey that afternoon. So I collected my bag and got on the shuttle back to our cars. I played ball hockey that afternoon and decided to play limited minutes. We tied 3-3. I opted to skip our second game because I worked that night and our backup goalie was available to play forward. I came home and napped for 2 hours and found out from Steph that the 2nd team forfeit. Glad I didn't sacrifice sleep for that. She also told me that the results were up on the website. I checked and officially had a time of 2:36:36.9. New PB by 1:51. That works. 1 month to shave off about 2 minutes. My next half will be in October, so I have 4 months to shave off another 7 min and get under that 2:30 mark.
