Saturday, May 27, 2017

Fool's Run 1/2 Marathon

Some time last year I decided that I wanted to run a spring half-marathon.  I read about the Fool's Run and decided that it was the one for me.  Since it was in BC, it took a lot of planning.  I asked my Mom to go with me as support.  We planned to go out the week before to get used to the time change and so that we could have a vacation together, visiting Victoria and Nanaimo before we arrived in Sechelt to stay with Hilary's parents.

In October, when mom was visiting, the plan changed from her coming out to support me, to her walking the half-marathon!  She figured she walked 5k every day already, so with 5 months to go, she could increase her mileage and be ready to do 21k.

However, neither of us were really able to train as well as we wanted to.  I struggled with a bad knee early on, followed by a frozen shoulder. We both had to deal with the winter weather.  Mom's solution was to take her walking indoors by going to the mall before it opened.  I spent a lot of time at the indoor track - not a fun thing to do.  My longest run at the track was 13k, or 52 laps.

We headed into the race feeling great.  We had 3 goals:  1) Don't die.  2) Finish the course. 3) Have fun.  I have to say, all 3 were a struggle.


I did really well for the 14 km, maintaining an average pace of 10:50 which was well within my goal time. Then I hit the hills.


That was 4 kms of a constant uphill climb of more then 100 m.  I was done.  I ended up walking the rest of the course. By the time I hit the downhill section at km 18, my legs were toast.  My only thought at that point was to just keep going and finish.

Mom is a speedy little walker and spent the entire race about 400 meters in front of me. She had underestimated just how hard this was going to be and just before the final turn into the park with the finish line, she collapsed onto a railing at the side of the road.  She just couldn't go another step.  I quickly caught up to her, got her to lean on me and we continued on.  We were not giving up goal #2 within sight of the finish line.  We crossed together, hand in hand with a finish time of 04:08:31.
.




After comfort food, showers and well deserved naps, we celebrated.




Mom has declared that "no thank you, never again" will she do a half-marathon.  Me?  I've already signed up for my next on in the fall.  Crazy, I know!

MEC races 1 and 2

On a whim this year I signed up for the MEC race series. 5 races between January and October, all of varying distances, but for a really great low price. I have already run the first 2.

Race One was on January 29th an went through Point Pleasant park.  This was the first time I had ever run in the park and I was a bit worried about the terrain.  Would it be muddy or icy?  It turned out to be a beautiful day, not too cold and the ground was perfect to run on.


This was a 5k run and I finished with  a chip time of 00:52:32.

Race 2 was on April 30th.  Originally I had signed up to do the 10k.  I figured it was a month after I would have finished the Fool's Run Half-Marathon, so doing 10k should be a piece of cake.  Then I checked out the course!



The course started inside the fort at Citadel hill, went around the outer star, up and down the hill leading to the fort (twice), through the grass moats and back into the fort over cobbled walkways with really short doors.  To do the 10k, you went around twice.  The idea of running up that hill 4 times was enough to get me to knock my registration done to 5k.  

The day was clear, but cold and windy and it was a really tough course.  I knew I would struggle with the hills, but the grass in the moat was wet, making it slippery, cobble stone is not fun to run on and trying to duck through doorways while faster runners are trying to pass you is almost impossible.


I finished with a chip time of 00:55:48, which given the route, I was very pleased with.


Believing (again)




It's been almost 4 months since I've updated here.  In that time I've had 3 races that I've wanted to recap (and will get to today), but I just haven't been able to find the words to do it.  Because starting about 6 months ago, I stopped believing in myself.

I didn't believe that I was  real runner.
I didn't believe that I could finish the races.
I just didn't believe in me.

Slumps are hard to dig yourself out of, but I am coming round.

I have a new half-marathon to train for and a plan to follow.  My health is (nearly) good. The weather is almost enjoyable.

I've decided that since I AM going to believe in myself, no matter what, that I've added the message to my body - permanently  - so that I never forget to believe in myself again.