Woke up at about 4. Because I could not sleep and for some reason I did actually set my alarm for 4. Consumed my traditional Egg and Cervelat scrambled egg breakfast (yea yea seems heavy but its what I do). Had no coffee and minimal water. I did have to make it an hour drive into Vancouver and THEN find parking and sky train and bathrooms. No time for extra water logging.
Friend C arrived 5 am. Drove to Vancouver. Found a cheap parking place. Deal! Oh, it is not open yet and we have to kill 10 minutes sitting in the car in the parking lot until the gate goes up...... We are also not the only ones! So we spent that 10 minutes getting our stuff together so that we weren't doing the exact same thing once we were parked, wasting more time,,,,, turns out this was a good decision.
Park and hustle our butts to skytrain, and BAM! We are really on our way. The temp outside wasn't too bad, I wasn't freezing in the cotton tshirt I had over my run shirt. Didn't need gloves or a hat. The day was going to be soooo nice and sunny!!!
We follow the line of half marathoners to the start line... over a kilometer away but whatevs, we know how to use our legs.
We need to pee. NOW. We start running to pass all the people walking so that we are just that many more people closer to the front of the porta potty line ups! We chose a line, we chose a new line and we commit.... Turns out this is one of the rare times my line switching (in any aspect of life.. grocery, border crossing, etc) pays off.
Now friend C is a pace bunny and we have 15 minutes to use the toilet and get up to the corral... I don't make her wait, I will see her later.
I make my way up to the corral and I see PINK awesome! That is my home. Except in my haste I totally get into the corral behind me, and really far into it too before I realize that I could move up into my actual colour. Not a big deal but lets face it, I would rather stay ahead of that many more hundreds of people!!!! I relocated myself just in time, although I got a few funny looks for pushing forward, but mostly because we were packed like sardines in there.
The elites go. The next corral goes (can't remember colour, blue maybe) and then its our turn, yay!!!
I am giving the Hoka's a try again. My lulu socks (Although I am thinking I need to try something new) and the usual other gear. I am also rocking a water belt (Nathan) rather than my pack, after all.... its 21, there are water stations, I will be A OK.
Finally it is our turn to go and I have a pretty good run. Uneventful really. My shoes bugged me again where the tongue is sewn in.... blister from that. That happened around maybe 10 km and took a few km before I could 'move' the issue so it wasn't rubbing there. I didn't have to stop to use another toilet. Nothing crazy, just a smiley run. Oh I tried to smile for all the camera guys but I probably just look like I'm wincing, or just awful... I am sure.
I thought I was going to start with a LSD pace of maybe 7 ish minutes a km but that apparently was going to be 6:30 and less... I didn't know I was going to keep it up... it just happened!! Too many people around with the 2:15 goal (which was where I put my goal when I signed up, a year ago, before I signed up for a full marathon)....
Anyways around the 10 mark I realized that if all went well I could possibly PR it! I played with this idea during my blister embarking km and decided..... we will see.... I am not going to push any harder than what I am doing.... I also switched from a run 10 minute walk 1 minute interval to a run 3 minute walk (or slow run) for 30 second interval.... and what do you know, my 2nd half of the run was actually a few minutes faster!! Not a PR though, and again that is okay... I was not at all training for one.
The run was over. I finished. My blisters are back and they are ANGRY. In fact my feet are really angry looking :( When this next 1.5 months is over I am going to be so so so kind to them... they do not like this marathon running as much.
We walked around a bit, got changed, found some friends, chatted, enjoyed the sunshine..... it was freezing cold in the shade though!! And then headed home for lunch. I took no pictures though. My phone is massive and once I get it in the running belt it does not come out, it takes several minutes to work it in there so it is just not worth it.
Anyways, that is my race recap!
Next weekend : Mothers day and possibly a 32 km training run.
2 Weekends... Rock and Roll Portland road trip!!!!
1.5 month.... Rock and Roll Seattle!
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