Wednesday, November 6, 2013

London Lady's Half Marathon Recap

Posted by Anonymous

We only learned about this race a couple weeks ago when Michelle saw someone had liked the page on Facebook, so it was kind of a last minute decision to sign-up. It is a local race, with the proceeds supporting the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at a local hospital, so I feel that it is good to participate in these events that help our community.

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Saturday afternoon, I headed over to the expo to pick up our race packs. There were a few booths but I failed and didn’t take any pics! Sorry folks. There were some clothing booths, some supplement booths, some other race booths etc… Kinda the norm for an expo.

The race pack included a long sleeve tech shirt, some hair product and coupons for a local hair salon and a hand-made necklace, which they gave out instead of medals.

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My favorite pasta place to go in London, ummm, maybe anywhere, is Spageddy Eddy's so this was a perfect excuse to go there for dinner Saturday night and get my spaghetti and meatballs on.

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Sunday morning started out early. I set my alarm for 6am, but with the time change, it threw me off and I was awake at 5:30. So up I got. Turned the coffee pot on and fired up my computer to do some blog reading. I enjoyed a couple cups of coffee, then I was off to meet the M & M family. We arrived at the venue around 8am. The first race (5km) was scheduled to start at 8:30 and the Half Marathon was to start at 8:45. It was a really chilly morning so we made sure to layer up more this time.

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The 5k started shortly after 8:30, so the Halfers lined up at the starting line for the 8:45 start.

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We started about 10 minutes late. The course had to be changed a couple days before the race so I was already not really looking forward to the course (epic mental fail!). It was basically, two loops, soooo… boring. Oh well, I put my iPod on and off I went. I had to go faster than I wanted to start to get passed the mob of people at the start. The paths are narrow so there was not a lot of room to maneuver around. I wanted to treat this as a training run and not put a ton of effort into it. I was also suffering with some sort of foot discomfort so I was not sure how my foot was going to feel. After the first 1k, the crowds started to thin out so that I could get into a comfortable pace and lock it in. My foot was a little sore for the first couple of kilometres so I just took it easy. The discomfort started to ease up after about 2k so I turned it up a notch and found my locked in pace (4:52/km). I maintained that for the first half. As I was going into the last 3/4 of the 2nd loop, I was approaching the walkers who were on their first loop; so again, pace was up and down to weave through the crowds. That lasted for around 1 km. I looked at my watch and realized I had lost some time so I worked at gaining some of it back for the last 1/4 of the run. What was good about this race is that I passed the start/finish area 3 times before coming in for a finish so I was able to see my fans cheering squad a few times and get some high fives.

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That was really a boost. The first time through, I was so excited when I spotted my sister there too! Its amazing how seeing your loved ones really encourages you along! When approaching the finish area, about 500 m from the finish, the path split. I was glad my gang was there, cuz I did not know which direction to go in so they pointed me in the right direction.

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Me asking and pointing at which direction I needed to go

Once I figured out the way I tried to sprint the rest of the way but it was difficult. It was up a hill then down a hill and around a sharp corner to the finish.

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I ended up finishing in 1:43:47/4:54 pace. Not a PR but it was my 2nd best time and the best time this year out of the 4 Halfers that I did. I placed 2nd in my AG, and 14th finisher overall. Not too shabby!

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Pro’s to this event: Local with a local cause, a lot of great prizes, pre-race live music, enough water/Gatorade stations, bathrooms along the way,great food for after the race.

Con’s to this event: Walkers and runners all started together, not enough people to direct the flow throughout the race, prize hand-outs not organized very well.

All in all, I am really glad that I participated. There were definitely some shortcomings with this race but it is the first one put on by this group so I am sure they learned some things for next time and they raised money for a needed cause.

I hope everyone has found there way to the CHALLENGE LOOP to sign up for the #thirtyin30 challenge. Be sure to post your pics on IG, Facebook and Twitter so we can follow your progress. #thirtyin30 #runvember

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Have a great day everyone!

10 comments:

  1. Great job! I love that you hear about a race and just jump in - I think that I would race more if we had races around a lot and I could just decide at the last.

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  2. Abby @ Change of PaceNovember 6, 2013 at 12:39 PM

    Congrats on a great race and speedy time!
    Walkers on the course frustrate me. I think it's great they're out there, but it's tough when it's a looped course and they're walking a couple or few people abreast.

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  3. You are so speedy! Looks like a fun race! Are you wearing capris with compressions socks? Just curious. Might try that!!!

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  4. Thanks Kim! Sometimes last minute is the best because you do't have time to stress about it!

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  5. Thanks Abby! It is good that they are out there but I think sometimes they may forget there are runners out there too.

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  6. LOL, funny! There is usually quite a gap between my time and number 1 but thanks for the vote of confidence!

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  7. Thanks Teresa! Yes, that is what I am wearing. Don't judge lol :)

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  8. katie @ fromicecreamtomarathonNovember 8, 2013 at 9:03 AM

    Awesome job girl!! Congrats on placing too!
    That's interesting that you got a necklace instead of a medal, and you got it BEFORE the race too?
    I love your outfit! I have a half this weekend and just might be copying your style!

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  9. Ha ha thanks Katie! You are such a great encourager! Copy away!! Just be sure to send me a pic!

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  10. Thanks Amanda!

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