Somewhere in the distance, the gun went off to sound the start of the race. Way back in the middle of the whole mass of humanity, I had no idea... Finally, a roar of applause sounded nearby to signal the start of the race which was more like walking to the start matt really.
Once through, I got off on what I thought was a comfortable pace only to discover when I hit the 1km marker, I was pulling 5:01. Waaaayyyy too fast for me to maintain & by the 2km marker, I was down in the 6min range, & by 5km, into the 7min range. Ok.. we are good, we are moving along, we are walking through water (more like gatorade) stations, & enjoying the scenery as well.
Ottawa/Hull is quite pretty, in my opinion. There was plenty of crowd support & I did enjoy the bands, drums, & even belly dancers! The weather was a bit on the warm side but that was rather fine by me as it wasn't humid! I would have honestly preferred it to be quite a bit cooler. I did the double t-shirt thing until I was good & then went down to single layer.
Soon enough, we were crossing bridges into Hull & once again, back to Ottawa. I did my best to maintain power on all the uphill portions & got in all my passing on the hills. of course, gave it all back at the water station walk throughs. The usual passing the km markers started the usual rash of number crunching, distance/time/pace/km done/km remaining. Finally, at 16km, the decision was made. We haul. We seriously haul. I was moving well, feeling rather great, & more importantly, felt I had something left in the gas can. I figure to pull off the last 5km in 30min or less.
The race was now on! I was passing all kinds of people & loving it! 1km later, both calves were on the edge of cramping out & I had to shut it down. All bets were now off, again. I kept up the run/walk routine until about 750m to go, I walk until the 350m sign popped up. Once again, back to a nice pace to bring it home.
Again, I did not look at the clock at the finish line & again, I forgot to stop the Polar chrono. I know I had PB'ed but did not know how much by. It wasn't until I got home! Wow! What a great day! Still hurting knees on down though...
5908/9107 total
Gun Time 2:23:45.5
Chip Time 2:15:35.5 PB!!!!
Pace: 6:49
521/609 M40-44
3163/3915 M
9km split 0:57:21 (what a weird split...)
I destroyed my PB at Montreal 21km by 8min!!!! 2 PB's within a month of one another!!!
More funny stats:
avg HR 172
max HR: 205
Still alive
I would like to thank Tred Miller & Sister Miller for driving & letting me sleep in the car. I would like to thank all the Maniacs for their great company at Fox & ... whatever. I wish we could have stayed on later to meet everyone else & do look forward to Andy's pics! Speaking of Andy, special thanks for kit pickup!
The Half record is now 3 - 2.
:clap: look what a little bit of training will do for ya ? So, I hear a marathon is in order for next year ??? 
would have been great to meet you!!
