I nailed it! 1:58 phew!!!! I really had hoped for a sub 2:00 hour finish and I got it (but not without a struggle).
Leading into the 1/2, I was injury free and not worried about any particular body part giving me grief. I haven't felt that freedom from worry for a long time. Larry drove me to the start (which I was very grateful for as I was running late) and asked why I looked nervous. He was right that I had run this distance before, but I had high hopes that I would clear 2:00 hrs and you never know what could go wrong or how your body would behave THIS time.
As I was heading to the start, I met up with my neighbour, Susan, who has multiple marathons under her belt, including Boston. She is a fast runner. She told me that she had not trained for this 1/2 and had just signed up on Friday. Unlike me who has been training and hoping and watching the weather forecast and worrying and and and...
We decided to at least start out together.
Susan helped me take off strong but not too fast. Unfortunately, she lost me at the first killer hill. I never caught up to her but each time there was a round about, I saw that we were never too far apart. I liked the motivation of a) try to catch up to Susan and b) don't let Susan see me walk.
Once we were separated, I put in my ear plugs and got my music going. This was a bit tricky as I did not want to slow down or lose my pace while doing so. Throughout the run, I would feel myself slowing down and I had to remind myself this was not a
TRAINING run but a road
RACE and I had to pick it up if I wanted to clear 2:00 hrs. Every so often I would tell myself "you want to tell Jennifer, May, Ellen, Glynis... that I got under 2:00hrs. You know you can do this. They know you can do this." Thanks girls for being in my head!
Around 10-12 km my right piriformis started to ache and at the same time my left IT band started to get tight. That was an unwelcome and worrisome surprise. Did not like that. Immediate memories of my sore IT band from my marathon came to mind (had to finish with a Terry Fox like run) as did my sore piriformis from a few years ago. Grrrr.
Somehow I ran through it and neither really amounted to more pain. Phew!!!!!
I tried to focus on my music, and all the great smiles out there on the route. The setting was also beautiful (Sunnybrook Park).
It was really fun seeing the camaraderie of women passing each other in opposite directions high 5ing each other or recognizing a familiar face and waving. It was also nice seeing Carly's friend handing out water. A familiar face is always a welcome spirit lifter.
At 15 km the volunteers handed out Eload Gels. Very tasty but I have not yet mastered ingesting the gels without getting the sticky gel all over my fingers and lips. I really liked the taste and knew I needed the jolt from the gel so there I am trying to lick my sticky salty sweating fingers to get all of the e-load gel that I could, all the while running. Not a pretty sight! I finally got some water from the water station and tried to wash my hands a bit (all the while trying to keep up my pace and not slow down!) We women make great multi-taskers!!!
At the 18 km mark there was a killer/nasty hill at Don Mills south of Eglinton which I had not expected. I could not make it up the hill without power walking. I was sure that I had lost my 2:00 as my pace was no where near 5'40. I had given up in my head but told myself, well, let's see how close you will get.
After the killer hill, it was pretty straight forward to the finish line. I pushed through happy to see the end and as I crossed the finish line, turned off my watch and music/GPS app and SMILED! Made it in 1:58 and maintained my time that has been similar over the past 5 years!
is in 142 days (but who's counting?)
