ENDURrun Stage 1: The Half Marathon

My plan was to be in bed by 11pm past night, but of course, I didn’t have everything quite ready for race day, so it got stretched a little. I was still in bed shortly after 11:30, so I had time to read a story from my Canadian Marathon Stories book (I read one before every half or full) and still get over 6 hours of sleep. Hopefully, I’ll be getting more than 6 hours per night for the rest of this week, but for today, I feel good with it.

Breakfast: steel cut oats with banana and a bit of peanut butter, coffee, and water.

When I arrived at the park, I noticed that Paul Mora was on the swings, so I ran over to join him. What a great way to have some fun and de-stress before a race.

After a quick look at the computer that was set up, streaming the Men’s Olympic Marathon, it was time to head over to the start line. Roll call was done and after a couple of last minute instructions, we were off, with a note of “Good Luck” on the start line.

Last year, I ran a half marathon PB on this stage. I realize now that it probably wasn’t the best way to start a week-long event, so I slowed it down a wee bit today, took a few walk breaks, enjoyed the run and came in at 1:56:30 (time on my Garmin, I haven’t seen the official time yet). Last year, my time was 1:52:38, so just under 4 minutes slower than last year, but I was happy with my time today. I hope to make up that time over the week; I’d like to try and beat my overall time from last year.

After finishing the race, it was time to sign up for massage, grab my recovery drink, and also get some food.

Catherine – post race massage

First I had a delicious smoothie which was made with chocolate milk, banana, berries, kiwi, and plain yogurt and then I grabbed a plate (or platter) and selected some of the amazing food that is always a great part of this race week. As you can see below, I had several items on my plate including some fruits and veggies, cheese, egg, nachos, pasta salad, sweet potato salad, and Caribbean rice. There was also burgers, candy, chips, chicken, salad, and more.

 

The results were announced after all of the runners had come in and the gold jerseys were awarded to Bob Jackman for the men and to Jackie Jackman for the women. They’ve both won this event multiple times in the past. Tomorrow, they will wear the gold jerseys and will start last in the time trial.

I’m not sure of all of the rest of the placings right now, but they will be up on the ENDURrun page in the results section, which will most likely be updated daily.

It will be interesting to see how the order changes throughout the week. A lot can happen over 7 stages of running!

Now that I am back at home, it’s time to to rest up and get ready for stage 2 tomorrow – the 15K time trial. Tomorrow’s stage is being held at a different location this year than it was in past years, so it’ll be interesting to see if this affects my time (and other’s times) at all. I guess we’ll have to find that out tomorrow.

Great run today, everyone! Let’s do it again sometime.