Marina Runnerz Marathon 2018

The Sunday that went by saw my 2nd Half Marathon for the year. It was a smidge disappointing after the fantastic run that I had had at the CRHM two weeks prior to this one. I was hoping to finish in 2:15 or at least a sub 2:20 which would have made for a new PR. The route shown was a nice, straight stretch down the East Coast Road and back and the weather prediction showed a rather pleasant 23°C / 24°C. I thought that I had my goal in the bag!

Mistake number 1: It was not a flat course. There was a gentle, consistent incline & decline throughout the route. It was slight but created enough resistance to slow down my pace here and there. Especially towards the end.

Mistake number 2: It was humid as hell! The weather was muggy making it seem hotter than it actually was and I could feel my system heating up. I periodically drenched myself with water and ended up stopping at every aid station to do that and to hydrate.

Mistake number 3: New(ish) running pants. I've had the tights that I wore on this particular run for a couple of months now and I have worn them a few times - but for short runs. These tights have slight compression properties and are more constricting than my regular pants. 4 kilometers into the run on Sunday and I felt like my muscles were already fatigued and I was feeling like I would normally feel at the 15k / 16k mark. I chalked it down to the humidity at the time but in retrospect maybe it was the tights? I'll never know for sure but I'm not taking my chances with these tights again... However cool they look!

My plan was to break the route into 3 7K segments and run each one at 45 minutes - finishing at 135 minutes. 1st 7K was good I finished it in 44:46. I lagged at the 14K mark by 2 minutes and from there it went south. I guess I was keeping a steady pace through out but kept feeling fatigued and ended up taking quite a few walking breaks. Towards the end, my right hip flexor was feeling the strain and the bad voice in my head kept telling me "Stop. Its enough. Just walk the rest of the way. You have nothing to prove." Pfff. Seriously! Running the distance takes as much mental strength as physical. Finished in 2:22:46. A minute and ten seconds slower than my PB. I guess I'll just have  to work on beating it another day.

Cool Runners Half Marathon 2018

What an amazing day! About 12 hours since my run this morning & I'm still riding my runner's high! :-)

The Cool Runners event came back this Feb after a year's break. Its a small event and in the past, I have found it to be well organized and a very pleasant event. The last time I ran the event, I had run in the 10K category but this year I opted for the 21.1K distance. Considering the facts that it was a double loop HM and that I have another HM coming up in 3 weeks time, I was in half a mind to switch my category to a 10K. I am so glad that I didn't.

Early mornings are still very pleasant here in the City so it made for great run weather today. The run started early at 5:00 am. I had a target time of 2:20 in my head as I started out. (Given that the whole of last year I spent in bettering my 10K time, I thought this was a very doable target) I had divided the run into 7 segments of 3K and each segment I was to complete in 20 minutes. I found myself finishing each segment well in time and up until 18K, I was spot on target. In fact it looked like I might have made it in under 2:20.... But somewhere in that last three kilometers, I found myself fading. The feet & ankles were aching (could be because I wasn't in my favourite on shoes) I could feel the muscle soreness developing and it seemed tougher and tougher to push myself. I took a short 500 meter walking break at 19.5 and willed myself to continue running to the finish. 

About 300 meters to the finish line I met a couple of run buddies from the Nitros and they very sweetly ran with me till the finish line shouting encouragement and pushing me on. 2:21:35 was my finish time. It was an incredibly awesome feeling! I had just beaten my PB by 12 minutes!! But even more incredibly, as I finished, the timing organizers came up to me, noted my bib number and asked me to stick around for the prize distribution since they felt I had a podium finish. And surprise! surprise! when the prize distribution came around, it turns out that I came first in my age / gender category of 16 - 45 women and 2nd among all the women. (I discovered later that there were only 16 women who participated in the HM category). All in all, a fantastic run that ended in an absolute  high!

My next run is three weeks from now. Hoping to better this timing and push for another PB... :)