With all my bluster about about not racing ant long distances for a while and concentrating on the shorter 5k and 10k races the other weekend I headed over to the sunshine coast for a quick half marathon.
The Friday morning I had placed some remark or another on Facebook about facing a quiet weekend and stepping up to the plate was Sukhi with the suggestion that I might fancy ago at a relatively local half marathon the Sunday morning. I do love the fact and I hope I never take it for granted that the suggestion of running a half marathon in under 48 hours time can be offered and accepted with little thought of the fact the race distance is 13.1 miles. It took me nearly 6 months to train for my first Half and I do feel very lucky that through a little hard work and a lot of just getting out there week after week has paid off to the point where this is possible.
Adding to the fun, Barry decided he also fancied giving it a shot and after some slight cajoling and bare faced lying ("21k is only double what we run on a club night, it will be easy") Sarah was persuaded to join in to. This is even more crazy as the furthest she had run to date was 15k and that was only a few weeks before in the Birch Bay race the club attended.
The location of the run was Gibsons to Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia which is on a sort of peninsula off the coast of Vancouver. We would be taking an early morning ferry from Horseshoe Bay over to Gibsons to be there for just before 8am to sign up and be ready for the 9am start. Due to the early start and having to be at the dock by about 7am, Barry arranged to pick us up at about 6am and so an early evening would have been a good idea.
Frankly I had decided to do a last minute half and get up at 5:15am on a Sunday morning , good ideas were obviously not in abundance that weekend so when Steve asked if I would like to watch the UFC fight happening that Saturday night, I readily agreed.
Steve's neighbour hosted the evening and what a great evening it was. We yelled at the TV, got a few good fights, some not so good and some just plain stupid and got to drink beer, eat pizza and gorge on M & M's late into the night. Perfect pre-race preparation. So when midnight was beckoning I thought it was probably best to head out and at least pretend to get some sleep so by the time I had navigated the very good public transport of Vancouver and got home and sorted out kit for the morning, I was still going to get a solid 3+ hours sleep.
About 2.5 hours later I was bolt upright awake. Pre-race nerves even one in which you have put no training or expectation into can make sleep a very slippery customer. Breakfast, dressed, lubed and ready to go I headed out into the still dark Sunday morning. With a short drive to the harbour and time for a quick slice of lemon cake and a cup of tea which I'm sorry to say had a tea bag in it which couldn't have looked more like a scrotum if it tried, we got on to the dawn ferry and set sail.
The journey was beautiful with the sun coming up over the mountains behind us and the day looking to have perfect weather for the run it was already proving worth while getting up at that time. The ferry was full of runners heading over and a there was an excited atmosphere on board. Sarah started having doubts about this being such a great plan but we all told her that "... it's only 6k further than you raced the other weekend, you'll be fine!". 45 minutes later we docked and and were shepherded off the boat and onto a waiting yellow school bus to take us to the start line.
The race was a point-to-point race starting in Gibsons and ending next to the beach at Sechelt, 21.1k away. Signed up and ready to go we got to the start line with time to spare and due to the fact that this race only recorded your gun time (from whe n the gun goes off to when you cross the line) we got as near to the front as possible. While waiting we did bump into a few characters, one who was wearing a full Darth Vader helmet and cape and another guy running barefoot. We also managed to touch base with the other PRR club members and friends running the race including Mike Palichuk who only the day before had race din a 50k trail run and had come fourth.
To the race was great. After struggling with LA and a few other races I have done recently, this was exactly what I needed. The weather was cool with a slight breeze which stopped me overheating, the scenery was postcard worthy to keep my mind occupied and the fellow races were chatty and friendly with everyone enjoying the run. I have the goal this year of running a sub 1:30 half marathon and after getting a good start and feeling great I started to think that maybe today was the day. The course was not flat by any measure but I even enjoyed the hills and actually managed to overtake a few people going up them which is unheard of for me. My Garmin showed I was safely on pace to achieve my target time and even with the big hill at about mile 9 of the 13.1 I was still on pace at the top with just a nice swooping down hill and then flat finish to the beach. Here is the problem, Garmins are a great training tool and I wouldn't be with out it, but boy can they get you into trouble during a race. For one reason and another my garmin had recorded I had run further than the race markers were showing that I had and to add to the problem I believed my Garmin over the markers so when I go to where my watch thought the end was I still had another 550 metres to go. This meant that while I finished in a personal best time of 1:31:29 it wasn't the 1:29:17 my watch led me to believe was going to be mine.
Straight after crossing the line I was a tad grumpy but this soon faded as I took in the surroundings and realised how much fun I had had at the race. The finish line was at the beach and a beautiful mountain packed sky line was clearly visible over the ocean. Barry finished his first half in just over 1:28 and Sukhi and Sarah came over the line a few minutes apart in the early 1:40's. I even beat Mike who was 30 seconds behind me. All it takes for me to beat him is to get him to race a 50k the day before, sorted! We all had a good race and after a quick paddle in the very cold ocean to cool my calves down we watched the prizes be given out and headed back by bus to the start area.
Having got back to the start a little after a ferry had left we had some time to kill before the next sailing so we found a nearby pub and grabbed some lunch. Unfortunately speedy service was not on the menu and after wolfing our admittedly nice food down we raced back to catch the buss to the ferry only to find we had missed by a couple of minutes. Taxi's were not to be found and thankfully with the next ferry departing shortly, the very nice gut at the leisure centre reception desk offered to personally drive us down to the ferry and getting there with a couple of minutes to spare.
After a relaxed crossing back and a few light suggestions that Sarah may want to look at a marathon next as it was "...only the distance of that race again", I got back home around 4 ish just in time for a very pleasant and well earned afternoon nap.
Thanks to Steve, Anne and their neighbours for putting up with me for the pre-race evening and to Sukhi for kicking it all off, Barry for driving and the race director for putting on a great and well organised race. Not a bad way to spend the day at all.
The Friday morning I had placed some remark or another on Facebook about facing a quiet weekend and stepping up to the plate was Sukhi with the suggestion that I might fancy ago at a relatively local half marathon the Sunday morning. I do love the fact and I hope I never take it for granted that the suggestion of running a half marathon in under 48 hours time can be offered and accepted with little thought of the fact the race distance is 13.1 miles. It took me nearly 6 months to train for my first Half and I do feel very lucky that through a little hard work and a lot of just getting out there week after week has paid off to the point where this is possible.
Adding to the fun, Barry decided he also fancied giving it a shot and after some slight cajoling and bare faced lying ("21k is only double what we run on a club night, it will be easy") Sarah was persuaded to join in to. This is even more crazy as the furthest she had run to date was 15k and that was only a few weeks before in the Birch Bay race the club attended.
The location of the run was Gibsons to Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia which is on a sort of peninsula off the coast of Vancouver. We would be taking an early morning ferry from Horseshoe Bay over to Gibsons to be there for just before 8am to sign up and be ready for the 9am start. Due to the early start and having to be at the dock by about 7am, Barry arranged to pick us up at about 6am and so an early evening would have been a good idea.
Frankly I had decided to do a last minute half and get up at 5:15am on a Sunday morning , good ideas were obviously not in abundance that weekend so when Steve asked if I would like to watch the UFC fight happening that Saturday night, I readily agreed.
Steve's neighbour hosted the evening and what a great evening it was. We yelled at the TV, got a few good fights, some not so good and some just plain stupid and got to drink beer, eat pizza and gorge on M & M's late into the night. Perfect pre-race preparation. So when midnight was beckoning I thought it was probably best to head out and at least pretend to get some sleep so by the time I had navigated the very good public transport of Vancouver and got home and sorted out kit for the morning, I was still going to get a solid 3+ hours sleep.
About 2.5 hours later I was bolt upright awake. Pre-race nerves even one in which you have put no training or expectation into can make sleep a very slippery customer. Breakfast, dressed, lubed and ready to go I headed out into the still dark Sunday morning. With a short drive to the harbour and time for a quick slice of lemon cake and a cup of tea which I'm sorry to say had a tea bag in it which couldn't have looked more like a scrotum if it tried, we got on to the dawn ferry and set sail.The journey was beautiful with the sun coming up over the mountains behind us and the day looking to have perfect weather for the run it was already proving worth while getting up at that time. The ferry was full of runners heading over and a there was an excited atmosphere on board. Sarah started having doubts about this being such a great plan but we all told her that "... it's only 6k further than you raced the other weekend, you'll be fine!". 45 minutes later we docked and and were shepherded off the boat and onto a waiting yellow school bus to take us to the start line.
The race was a point-to-point race starting in Gibsons and ending next to the beach at Sechelt, 21.1k away. Signed up and ready to go we got to the start line with time to spare and due to the fact that this race only recorded your gun time (from whe n the gun goes off to when you cross the line) we got as near to the front as possible. While waiting we did bump into a few characters, one who was wearing a full Darth Vader helmet and cape and another guy running barefoot. We also managed to touch base with the other PRR club members and friends running the race including Mike Palichuk who only the day before had race din a 50k trail run and had come fourth.
To the race was great. After struggling with LA and a few other races I have done recently, this was exactly what I needed. The weather was cool with a slight breeze which stopped me overheating, the scenery was postcard worthy to keep my mind occupied and the fellow races were chatty and friendly with everyone enjoying the run. I have the goal this year of running a sub 1:30 half marathon and after getting a good start and feeling great I started to think that maybe today was the day. The course was not flat by any measure but I even enjoyed the hills and actually managed to overtake a few people going up them which is unheard of for me. My Garmin showed I was safely on pace to achieve my target time and even with the big hill at about mile 9 of the 13.1 I was still on pace at the top with just a nice swooping down hill and then flat finish to the beach. Here is the problem, Garmins are a great training tool and I wouldn't be with out it, but boy can they get you into trouble during a race. For one reason and another my garmin had recorded I had run further than the race markers were showing that I had and to add to the problem I believed my Garmin over the markers so when I go to where my watch thought the end was I still had another 550 metres to go. This meant that while I finished in a personal best time of 1:31:29 it wasn't the 1:29:17 my watch led me to believe was going to be mine.
Straight after crossing the line I was a tad grumpy but this soon faded as I took in the surroundings and realised how much fun I had had at the race. The finish line was at the beach and a beautiful mountain packed sky line was clearly visible over the ocean. Barry finished his first half in just over 1:28 and Sukhi and Sarah came over the line a few minutes apart in the early 1:40's. I even beat Mike who was 30 seconds behind me. All it takes for me to beat him is to get him to race a 50k the day before, sorted! We all had a good race and after a quick paddle in the very cold ocean to cool my calves down we watched the prizes be given out and headed back by bus to the start area.Having got back to the start a little after a ferry had left we had some time to kill before the next sailing so we found a nearby pub and grabbed some lunch. Unfortunately speedy service was not on the menu and after wolfing our admittedly nice food down we raced back to catch the buss to the ferry only to find we had missed by a couple of minutes. Taxi's were not to be found and thankfully with the next ferry departing shortly, the very nice gut at the leisure centre reception desk offered to personally drive us down to the ferry and getting there with a couple of minutes to spare.
After a relaxed crossing back and a few light suggestions that Sarah may want to look at a marathon next as it was "...only the distance of that race again", I got back home around 4 ish just in time for a very pleasant and well earned afternoon nap.Thanks to Steve, Anne and their neighbours for putting up with me for the pre-race evening and to Sukhi for kicking it all off, Barry for driving and the race director for putting on a great and well organised race. Not a bad way to spend the day at all.
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