After two very early days (4:30AM alarm) I did not want to get up for this race morning! However I knew it was my 13th half for 2013 and there was no way I could miss that... so up I got very slowly, I was a little sore but nothing that would keep me from running. Thankfully I had spent the time laying out my clothing and race stuff the night before because I surely would have forgotten something half asleep if I hadn't. I headed off towards Nikki's house and then we picked up another runner from our local Running Room Run Club. Traffic was a breeze and we were out at UBC in no time at all.
For the second time this weekend we had to contend with some large restroom lineups but when you gotta go, you gotta go! Bag check was pretty simple but it did cost $2 (donation). And then there we were in our corral ready to go! The other friend from run club we had picked up was feeling a little nervous about her first half marathon and was in the corral behind us, we decided to start with her, so that was exciting! I had a feeling she'd be a speedster and I wasn't wrong -- she passed us just before the 5km mark. This was definitely a slow start for me, I knew it would be, my legs felt like lead after the race the day before. Typically I start a little TOO fast but after only a couple of minutes it was clear I wasn't going to be able to manage anything faster than a 6:00/6:10 km pace. The first part of this race is actually identical to part of the UBC Fall Classic course I did back in November, its a little loop I'm not particularly fond of but I had heard after that there would be a lot of downhill!
I started to recognize we were leaving the university grounds and I felt a little sad thinking I had missed a friend who was supposed to be a course marshal somewhere "near UBC". Just as we rounded the corner on our first long downhill stretch there she was, hooray! Of course we had to stop for a photo!
After a quick hello, we were on our way again headed towards Jericho Beach, an area where I spent a lot of time running when I lived downtown, I haven't run there since then so I enjoyed that stretch. We had to make a pit stop for Nikki here but the lineup for the port-a-pottie seemed pretty short.
Once we got going again we ran into one of the professional photographers on the back of a motorbike. We got some really great shots here!
There was another incline up onto Cornwall St but it wasn't too bad and because I knew exactly where I was and how much further we had to go and I was okay with it. The only other hill was going to be leading up to the Burrard St bridge. We ran into the Lululemon cheer squad just as I "thought" we were almost to the bridge. A bunch of them had the same shirt on that I did so that went over pretty well and we got some awesome cheers. Then to my surprise we turned off Cornwall away from the bridge, no!!! I felt a little defeated because I didn't know about this extra loop buy thankfully with Nikki's help I got through it! Finally we were running up that long steady incline across my favourite bridge in the city. I felt great in this section mainly because everyone around us had started walking and we were still running!
Coming off the bridge we were in the home stretch with 2km to go! There were lots of spectators lining Beach Ave which really helped because honestly after that much running in two days that last kilometre seemed to take forever! I had a slight panic attack when I saw the sea of runners on the seawall but then I realized they were doing the 5k which is a completely different route and our finish line was just up ahead like I had originally thought, thank goodness! For the second day in a row, it was an uphill to the finish but we managed okay with some extra cheers on the sidelines from some of our Langley Running Room group leaders!!!
Finally our double race weekend, my 19th half, and 13th for 2013 was complete!
We came in at 2:18:42 not what I was hoping for on a mostly flat course but for the second race day in a row I suppose I should be happy I was at least consistent and I got to run both races with a great friend!
I was more than happy to put on my pyjamas and compression socks when I arrived back home:
Great job! Love the photos.
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