Friday was travel-to-Calgary day to meet up with Sue who was driving in from Medicine Hat, and Rob who was flying in separately. We all met up at the airport and spent the rest of the rainy day walking around a mall, sitting in the hot tub, and later meeting up for dinner and beer with some Calgary maniacs. It was a great day, but my foot was still achy at the end. On Saturday we made our way to Red Deer, picked up our race kits, checked out the race start/finish area and then met Colleen at the hotel. More hot-tubbing and then dinner meet-up with Ian. It was another rainy day, and Sue wanted to keep off her feet as much as possible, which suited me fine. By the end of the day I was feeling much better.
Race morning, and I was good to go. After two days of bad weather in Calgary and Red Deer, we had as promised clear blue skies and perfect race day temperatures. Sue, Rob, and I lined up in the masses of people about half-way into the crowd, which in retrospect was too far back. When the start gun went off and we crossed the line, it felt like we were still in as much of a crowd as we were when we were standing still. It took a bit of weaving in and out to get into our pace. Their plan was to start a bit easy for the first few kilometres, about 5:45-5:50/km, and then later work down to about 5:35. I started with them, but soon after the second kilometre I knew I had to fall back and run my own pace. I just knew it was not my day for a faster half-marathon; I needed to be able to listen to my own body cues and not worry about keeping up to their pace. We came around a large round-about at around 3K, where I saw them across on the other side of the street and motioned them to go ahead. Sue waved back and they were on their way.
The course is absolutely beautiful, meandering mostly on a multi-use bike/run/walk path around the river. We passed through park land, went over old railway bridges, other footbridges, around a small pond/island, saw lots of birds (mostly geese) -- there was never a dull part of the course. There were quite a few little ups and downs, and some of the steeper climbs and switchbacks surprised me. But there were also some nice downhills where I felt like I was just flying. I was running mostly by feel, moderating how it felt for my foot and for the rest of my body, aiming to run a moderately hard but enjoyable pace. I stopped only for short walks at water stations as I had decided not to carry a bottle. The water stations were oddly placed at the beginning of the course, but were roughly every 3K. I took gels at about 6K and 12K. This was enough for a race where I wasn't pushing to my limits, but maybe would have taken more for a harder effort. I could feel the achiness in my foot the whole time, but I could forget it if I focused on my running. By the end of the race it did start to bother me more, but I never felt like I was doing any real damage. I ran very evenly-paced splits, with fluctuation only for the hills and the water walk breaks.
At about the 12-13K mark the course loops around a small pond, and there is a point where the runners are passing each other in opposite direction about 0.5K apart on the course. I thought if the timing is right I might see Sue and Rob coming around, and sure enough I did. We passed each other with a high-five, and Sue was still looking strong. I tried to do the math and figured out this put them about 3 minutes ahead of me, which seemed to be right for their attempt to be at the half at 1:58-1:59. So they were still on pace at this early stage of their race.
The course continued beautifully around the other side of the lake, eventually reaching the 19K mark where the full-marathoners split off. I was hoping that Sue and Rob were far along by then. I managed to pick it up to about a 5:30 pace in the last couple kilometres, only to be slowed down by one nasty hill near the end. It sets up a beautiful downhill finish, but still slowed me down in the last kilometre. Still, I was thrilled to hear the announcer say my name as I crossed the finish line at 2:04:15. I saw Colleen and Tracie cheering for me in the finishing chute, and came around to see them after I went through. I felt amazing at the end. (The story is not over yet, but if you want to see the data from my race, here is the link: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/778630364)
After I finished I was still able to walk around and even jog well ok. Post-race food was awesome and the sun was still shining. Everything was awesome about this day so far! About 15 minutes after I finished, Rob texted me when he and Sue were at 25K to say they were dropping off pace a bit. I knew at that point that unless I heard something again they would be over four hours. Later we would learn that Sue's race got quite a bit tougher after the half-way point and they were slowing down from there. I missed watching the first fast marathoners come in because I needed to keep moving and change into my dry clothes. Colleen and I found a place to sit to watch the marathoners finish, and Ian eventually found us. From our vantage point we could see people coming by the lagoon at just past 20K mark, and after the four-hour mark we were looking for Rob's bright green shirt. Eventually we saw them so we knew they were about 5 minutes away. The nice thing about this race is you can see your marathon friends coming in down the hill from a far distance away. Since the number of marathon participants is on the low side they are pretty well-spaced by this point. We saw Sue and Rob coming down the hill and then in front of us before the final turn to the finish. I ran along side them on the course, cheering them in, while Colleen played photographer. Sue told us, "My leg is killing me!" but she still looked strong coming in. She took Rob's hand to run through the finish chute, and I had tears in my eyes. It wasn't the finish time she wanted, but as we all know there are so many things about races that are more important than finish times. Shortly afterwards, the five of us celebrated with Sue's awesome apple pie. Later, Sue, Colleen, and Rob and I went to Boston Pizza for lunch and beer, and then Colleen and I drove to Sherwood Park while Sue brought Rob to the Calgary airport. My weekend finished with a delicious dinner and relaxing day with Colleen and her family before I flew home.
My race was very enjoyable and the entire weekend was perfect. I got to spend time with some wonderful friends, and we were all sad to see it end. But we are already scheming for the next one. Who is with us?
