Quick race report

It's getting late and I still have stuff to do, so I am just posting the same race report that I posted on the RR forums. Hopefully I'll get around to posting some pictures and more thoughts later this week.

The first words that came out of my mouth after finishing (well, after assuring a concerned volunteer that I was fine) were, "I'm so disappointed." That being said, I did run a slight PB at 2:09:16 (chip time), 78/144 in my age group. Pretty much the middle of the pack.

I trained hard for this one and really wanted to significantly improve my previous PB of 2:10:03. I was hoping for under 2:05. It was not meant to be today.

I ran with Cliff, who was a great help to me throughout the race. I started feeling naseous at around 7km. The nausea went away, but then the bloating started and I eventually asked Cliff to wear my fuel belt (who did it, but also cursed at the tightness of it). I was on pace for a 2:05-2:06 finish at around 16km, but I started to feel very achy and I just could not hold my pace. At that point, I was confused because I never felt that kind of aching in my upper body before. I really, really wanted to walk, but with some encouragement from Cliff, kept running. The last 3-4km seemed like forever, and I lost some time. I cursed when I saw the 20km marker...then realized it was definitely off, as my Garmin read something like 20.23km Not a big confidence booster near the end of a tough race!

After seeing the concerned volunteer at the finish, I realized that I probably didn't look well. I didn't realize how cold I was. Tony and I left shortly afterwards and I barely warmed up in the car. I was still shaking when I got home, and only felt better after a hot shower (which, incidently, made the achy and stiff feeling going away). That made me put my performance into perspective: I was simply not ready to run a fast half in cold weather. I did my 2 longest LSD's in Vancouver, where it was a good 15 deg warmer (!), and a lot of treadmill running. So, maybe it wasn't a great race for me, but it was a mental victory that I gutted it out...and even managed a slight PB. So, bring on the spring races!! Now I just have to decide what I'm going to do...