mankle30
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2017
- Messages
- 342
Oakville Half Marathon Race Recap
After months of training and having some starts and stops due to injury, I finally ran my first race since May 2017. And that race wasn't really fully trained for, so I'd say that the Oakville Half Marathon was the first race on my road back from a variety of things that ailed me that I had been able to really train for.
To recap my training, I've been spending the summer building to the Hansons Marathon Method and have built from about 5 miles a week in May after having a foot injury for most of April (peaking at 16.3 miles in the first week of April) to a high of 28 miles two weeks before the half marathon. I've also built up to 6 days of running a week (although some weeks I've missed a run here and there). After a week of rest and a few short/easy runs towards the end of the week, I'll jump into Week 5 of the Hansons Beginner program, running 25 miles, so I'm not going to have to jump up between weeks 4 and 5 of their program the way their program is designed normally.
That said, I haven't been going full-on with speed training. It's been mostly slower mileage designed to build up my base and increase running efficiency, which I've described in a post above.
My goal time was 2:20 for the half marathon but I've also been experiencing some GI issues and a
hemorrhoid
I woke up at 5 am, had some naan (NO FIBRE) and water and got in the car at 5:45. The drive to Oakville was quick on an early Sunday morning and I stopped at a Tim Horton's (open 24 hours) one exit on the highway (still in Oakville, and just about 2 km) from my destination to use the washroom and pick up another bottle of water. I then got back on the highway and exited where the designated parking for the race was. I got my gear together and walked to the shuttle bus area.
For a smaller race (about 700 registrants for the half marathon, but more for the 5K and 10K races) the logistics were pretty good. There were ample buses coming in and the wait wasn't too long with the line always moving.
The bus ride was about 5 minutes and after disembarking and walking the rest of the way to the start/finish area (in a fairly well appointed city park by the lake where the race expo was), I found myself in the line for the porta-potties. I figured I should stay in line and took care of business before dropping my baggage and it was a good idea, as I came out a little later, the line was much longer!
The organizers staggered the race times so that the 5K started at 7am from the 5K mark in the 10K loop, the HM started at 7:30 from the start/finish area and the 10k started at 7:45 from the start/finish area. Apparently, they couldn't get permits for their planned route and decided to make the HM runners run the 10K loop twice with an extra km early on looping around a school grounds.
We have a municipal election coming up this month and the current mayor of Oakville's slogan was "Keep Moving Forward." It was as fitting as a motto as I could think of.
The weather was cool (about 50 degrees) and cloudy and was threatening rain but the overnight rain had stopped by the time we were getting started. We went to the starting line to get ready to go. There was no corral system for such a small race and I situation myself towards the back as the clock got going.
At 7:31am, we got under way!
Mile 1 - 11:49
I set off at a pretty easy pace. I was being passed all around me (even by an older guy who was powerwalking most of the time) and it was tough to stay within myself and let it feel easy. I noticed immediately that my legs were feeling dead and had no spring to them. My calves were already fatigued and I was truly wondering if I should keep going. I did. Although I didn't really tell myself that the feeling would pass, it was more a "you've signed up and paid your money, so just keep going." Keep moving forward. I picked up my pace a bit after passing the 1K sign.
Mile 2 - 10:57
In this mile, we went into the roundabout school "extra mile," passing the 3k marker towards the end of the loop. I was starting to feel better and by this time, the pack had loosened up and I wasn't being passed by everyone and their grandfather. That would change
Mile 3 - 11:13
At the end of the loop, we rejoined the main course and the 10Kers were now all around us and passing left and right. They looked so energetic and springy in their running. I thought to myself that if I was only running 10K, I might be able to maintain their pace. But I needed to save it. It was around here that I finally started to get into a groove and my legs felt like they had a bit more spring to them.
Mile 4 - 11:05
This wasn't an interesting course to run. Sad to say. A lot of election signs. At the 6km mark, I decided to get back to my long run strategy of inserting periodic walk breaks for 30 seconds (or so). I did this every km to the finish.
Mile 5 - 10:52
Again, not much to say. At this point I was in the groove but there weren't many people on the course to cheer. It was either in mile 5 or mile 6 (around 8.5-9km in the course) there were a group of people who I think worked for a gym or personal training company that was a sponsor of the event who were all out, wearing black and with big black, professionally done signs. They also had a band so that was pretty fun.
Mile 6 - 10:44
At this point, I had started to increase my speed a bit, pushing for negative split. Coming through the turn off for the 10k finishers (down a driveway to the park, about 100 metres), it started to get lonely as the 10K runners tailed off and it was just me and the back-of-the-pack HM'ers continuing on. They had some gels around the 11k marker and I grabbed a few, having forgotten to buy some before. They were using "Honey Stingers" and the taste was very sweet but ok. Since they were using a low-carb sports drink, Nuun, I figured I'd need some energy for the end.
Mile 7 - 10:29
More lonely running. I was counting down the kilometres. 9 to go, 8 to go . . .
Mile 8 - 10:49
Why was this mile slower? I can't remember. It may have been that I had a couple of walk breaks that slowed me down. I was really starting to feel my legs fatigue and my breathing get tougher. I felt a twinge in my right hamstring around the 12k mark but it didn't hurt at all and wasn't presenting a problem.
Mile 9 - 10:34
I was really pushing here. But nothing was really memorable. I ate(?) a second gel here around the 15k mark. I started really counting down the km here and was ready to push for the finish in the last 5k.
Mile 10 - 10:39
Push push push. less than 5k to go. You can do it! Ugh. Why is this so hard? At this point, I was telling myself that my legs know what to do. Just shut off the brain and let the legs do it.
Mile 11 - 10:17
Even with my walk breaks, I've been able to increase my pace but things were starting to really get tough. Mind over matter. I had heard on a running podcast that the mind plays tricks on us -- that we only have enough energy to get to the finish line and then the brain shuts the body down -- so that's a fun thought, knowing that, since I had just a few km left, the brain would keep my legs going.
Mile 12 - 10:14
A net downhill over this mile helped as we swung back down to the lakeshore for the last bit. The group of cheerers in black were still there and that helped give me a burst of energy.
Mile 13 - 10:29
Almost at the finish and not quite there. I saw the 2:30 pacer up ahead and was determined to catch her.
Mile 13+ - 10:10
It was the thought of catching the 2:30 pacer and passing her (she told me to leave her in my dust), maybe about 1/10 of a mile from the finish. I saw the clock seeing the 2:30 on it, knowing that I would probably break that mark in my chip time and finished the race, walking to collect my medal and grabbing a banana.
Final official time: 2:29:38.1
I really felt like I had left everything on the course today and found the ability to run farther than I had suspected at faster paces.
My Strava had my distance at 13.8 miles, so I obviously didn't run the tangents but it seems to be a little on the high side compared to RunKeeper when using the GPS. I wonder if Strava's use of GPS is more sensitive, counting the "wobbles" back and forth more than RunKeeper's.
Also, Anyone know how to get Strava to display seconds in the summaries of runs? Right now, it just displays hours and minutes. Weird.
Anyway, while I didn't hit my goal, in hindsight, I think my goal was a little too ambitious. Since my "easy" pace was between 12:30 and 13:00 min/mile and my "tempo" runs were in the 11:00 min/mile area (and I hadn't really done much speed training), being able to run the whole race with an average pace 10:45/mile was actually pretty good and the fact that I could peak late in the race and run a negative split was also encouraging.
I felt exhausted at the end but I didn't feel any injuries and I feel fine today. No lingering pains, nothing sharp or acute. Just soreness and tiredness that is to be expected. Maybe a little bit of a cold that I'm coming down with.
So that's the half marathon! In the books, hardware earned. And the race shirt actually fits me (don't get me started on the races where even the XL is too small)!
On to get Mickey's medal in January!
Last edited:
