My Calgary half marathon race report

Today I finished the calgary half marathon. I put this in my schedule as it is 4 weeks out from IM France and I knew this would force me to get a long run in, and it did. My longest to date. :) All week I was thinking about what my race strategy was going to be. 2 weeks ago I decided I would run with Katie during her 1st half and this would proove to be a fast run. Probably low 1:30's. Katie's ankle is healing so that option was out. Then there was the option to run with Stan. He was looking to set a PR in the distance. Then I was thinking about holding back and just getting a long run in without too much pain in my legs. This weekend I was hoping to get 6 hrs of riding in on Saturday and then race sunday. When I woke up on sat at 5:45 I realized this was not to be so I went back to sleep and later rode for 2.5 on the computrainer. Had a great ride but just not the same as outdoors.
So since I did not get the big volume in (as was planned) my last option was to run hard from start to end and run a 1:2? something.

Well after a lot of humming and hawing I decided to run most of the race with my HR upper limit set at 171. Last year during the marathon I ran the 1st half very close to 178-182 (with a time of 1:29) so 171 is quite a drop in pace, but I thought let's see how fast I can go at 170.

Well after the gun went off I started to quickly get into position behind a good group. I now was ahead of Stan. Soon my watch beeped. 171+ need to slow down. HR under control for a few momnets and then back up. My body was fighting the pace but I was sticking to my decision to hold 170. My watch must have been driving the runners around me crazy, so much beeping. Once lady asked does that mean you are going too fast. I said yes or I am about to blow up (my little joke ha ha).

As I kept this pattern going I soon realized that my pace was quite a bit slower than last year and many were passing me. No worries concentrate on your plan and just run. If you want to run faster try to relax your body so your HR decreases. At the 10 Km mark I was ~44:50. This was about 3 mins slower than last year. No worries keep running. As I passed Tri It Rose yelled out come on Todd this is a race not a jog. (this was my 1st whip). No worries stick to your plan. As I get closer to the turnaround I see Stan on his way back and he looks good. I hear a few cheers of Go Todd (this was my 2nd whip), then I heard Mark yell Go Todd (this was my 3rd whip) and about all I could take. I decided that after the turnaround (~13-14 Km) if I could turn off my beeper I would then pick up my pace. Well as chance had it this turned out to be redicuously easy so then I no longer had my watch beep at me and I allowed myself to run with No Limits. This felt so good. I had 7 more Km to go and I was ready to push myself. My pace quickened and my HR soared to the mid 180's. I was loving it. At this point I did not look at my watch as I did not care about time or HR. I was then just counting off the Km's and imagining I was running 4 min Kms. 5 KM to go means only 20 min. 4 km 16 min etc... Even down to 1 Km means 4 min. Well I could see Stan in the distance wit 2 Km to go and I was hoping that I would catch him and help him finish strong. I caught him at the last hill and then we had to zig zag through the many 10 Km runners. This was quite a challenge due to the different speeds. I dropped Stan a bit but waited for him at the finish shoot and we ran strong together for a time ~1:33.

Looking back on the race I am very please with how it went. Happy that I was able to stick to my game plan and then increase to my desired pace for the last 7 Km. This was a great practice in suffering for me as I know that the last quarter of IM can be so much mental. The great news is also that my legs are not toast and I will be able to get some great training in this week.

So good! I love racing!
Ironman in 4 weeks! :)