Calgary Half Marathon Race Report

Calgary Half Marathon

I guess it would start with being lucky enough to have a friend pick me up and take me to the race as parking would have likely been brutal. My friend Dom and I arrived early to the race, walking around and getting things settled before changing. I’ve only ever done two Half Marathons before, both in Half Ironmans, so I thought it would be interesting to just do the run and maybe be able to run the whole thing, perhaps even do decent as both Half's I've done are around the 2:30 mark. As for my uncertain calves I had a new piece of kit to help me along, my Compressport US calf sleeves. Traditionally it is a definite no-no to use new things on race day, but I figured what the heck, I’m not really racing anyway and I figured the extra support was worth it vs. any other problems that could arise. As we made our way to the start line Dom realized his GPS watch was not going to work. He had some pretty serious goals for his Marathon and as I was just going out for a nice run, I gave him mine; I really needed to race off feel anyway.

            The gun went off and I started just behind the 2hr pace bunny. It took me a few minutes to get through the start gate and I took off at a nice, calm, and leisurely pace, passing some and being passed by others.

            As I strolled through the first few KM’s truly enjoying what was going on around me, a thought came across my mind. Thousands of people in front of me filled the streets bobbing this way and that and all I could think was this is exactly what The Walking Dead must be like, AWESOME! With a smile on my face I carried on at a nice little pace (rhyme time bitches) for the first 10km, taking down a GU gel (my fav) around 7km with no pain anywhere in my body, yes! I passed through the 10km mark feeling like I was barely working and figured I was somewhere just under an hour; turns out I was right and came through in 56:52 averaging a 5:41min/km pace (this makes perfect sense as I find 5:40min/km to be my normal pace if I'm out for leisurely run). It was at this point I started to think, hey my calves are good and I feel great so why not step up the pace a bit. I stretched my stride out a bit and increased my stride length and began to pass people, a lot of people, which opened that dangerous notion that I could probably pass even more people if I kept running at this pace, whatever it was. 

Yes I "stole" this picture, but I did so using ingenuity so it's OK.

     Kilometers 10 through 14 went by without much excitement, though I developed an ache in my right knee, which surprised me as it was my left knee that plagued me the entire summer before, calves still okay though. At this point I was doing all the passing, not a single soul was catching up or passing me. So instead of easing off due to the pain, in a race that did not matter at all, 5 weeks out from a race that meant everything, I carried on picking off person after person. As I neared the 16km mark I saw the Marathon KM Marker and it said 37km. After doing some horrific math in my head (usually something I'm competent at), or more than likely assume that 37km also meant 17km I decided I was really going to push it the last 4km, little did I realize I still had 5km to go. My knee leveled off at a painful ache, but nothing debilitating, leaving the only conceivable option as running faster. After the first KM of increasing my pace even more, I came across the 17km marker for the Half. A moment of confusion and then realization had me pull on the reins a bit. I knew I didn’t have the fitness to keep it up for 4km more. The next 3km I kept an even pace and found a few people to run with ensuring I wouldn’t slow up. 
     With about 800m to go we were entering the Stampede area. For me, this is go time. I caught and passed a few guys that had passed me only 400m prior. My high school Biology teacher and track coach always had a rule at training: Always. Finish. Hard. Be it a training run or race. So I took off as fast as my legs would carry me, weaving in and out of people. We were funneled to an area between two fences, about 3m wide, and rounded a few corners. I was beginning to fatigue but concentrated hard on maintaining my finishing speed. I was sure the finish was just around the next corner and took off with all I had left only discover there was another corner and about 100m of straight track after that. As I approached the last corner I caught up to a fellow that had passed me around the 15km mark. I blasted past him and a few others to cross the finish line breathing heavily and feeling quite spent. Looking up I saw a good friend that I didn’t even know was down for the race, gave her a hug and headed out to find some nutrition and another friend. I came in at 1:54:37 average a 5:26min/km. This means I ran the second half averaging a 5:13min/km pulling in a negative split, something I am rather pleased about. My end result was nowhere near the sub 1:40 I had envisioned weeks prior, but I was happy with the performance and quite pleased that not a single person passed and stayed ahead of me after the 14km mark. All I had left to deal with is a rather painful knee, a knee that happened to hurt in the EXACT same way and place as my knee did last summer. The only difference, it was my other knee.

Official Time: 1:54:37. Calgary Half Marathon Finisher Medal