Toronto Women's Half

Sometimes I feel like as a runner, I can get jaded about the distances I'm running. My mom has run 4 marathons in her running career and probably about 10 half marathons. On the same day as the Women's Half, my dad was running in the Ottawa Marathon. In comparison, 21 km does not seem like a big deal. But it is a big deal. Even though it's "only" the half marathon, it is still a long freaking way to run. That's like running from Whitby to Scarborough. I had been hoping for a faster time than 2:15, my goal had been sub-2:10, but I started out too fast and my body quickly betrayed me. At about 8 km I felt like there was no way I was going to finish that race. But my mom stayed with me the whole time and kept me going until the very end. But I could barely stand afterwards. Nick pretty much held me up as a hobbled my way over to the bathroom and tried not to throw up.
At first I was a little disappointed that I didn't run the fast race I had been envisioning, but considering the amount of pain I was in when I was running, I am just happy I completed it. I think I had been so focused on running at a fast pace that I had pushed my body way past limits in the last month. And as Nick has pointed out to me, every race cannot be a PB. I know my body can run a 2 hour half marathon, and some day I will do it again. In the grand scheme of things, I ran 2:21 on my last half marathon, and 2:15 on this one: still a 6 min difference. :D

It's a Long Run

So sometimes the run is all about the physical... and sometimes its about the mental. I did my final 21 km run on saturday before the Women's half in 2 weeks. Saturday was a day full of crappy weather, which I was thankful for when I started the run (I hate running in the heat), but it quickly became humid. 20 mins into my run, my entire body was drenched in sweat and rain. Still, I was going strong, not at as fast a pace as last time, but I purposely ran slower because I didn't want to burn myself out 2 weeks before the race, where the pace actually matters. But then I hit the 13k mark...and it all fell apart. I was feeling some aches, but physically I was ok. What was lacking, was my mental focus. I was exhausted and emotionally spent (and feeling very dehydrated as the humidity had caused me to drink all my water earlier in the run). At about 15.5k I knew I needed some encouragement so I called Nick and hearing his voice made everything a thousand times better. Feeling a little stronger, I continued running. However 15 mins later, I felt my body giving up on me. My head was throbbing and I knew I was desperately in need of some water. So I called my wonderful boyfriend again and begged him to bring me some water, which thankfully he did. 10 mins later, with 2.5 k left, he found me and I don't think I've ever been so happy to see his face. He refilled my belt and gave me a water bottle to drink and I felt instantly better. With some final words of encouragement and a kiss, I went on my way determined to finish the run (there's that stubbornness again). After all of that I made it home, and picked up my pace significantly during the last couple kms (although I think that was more out of a desperation to get home than a renewed feeling of strength).

And now, 2 days later, I'm still feeling tired. I had my usual rest day on Sunday, and woke up this morning to go for a short 5-7k run and just couldn't bring myself to do it. I even got up and started getting changed, but it wasn't happening, all I wanted to do was eat... and eat.. and eat.. and eat.
Hopefully the extra day of rest will mean that I will be ready to go tomorrow. Now if only the weather will cooperate....

Sporting Life 10k

Yesterday was the Sporting Life 10k race in Toronto, my first race of the year, and my first race since last fall's half marathon. This race was a bittersweet moment for me. My goal was to run a comfortable sub-hour race, which I did (56.13), but it wasn't exactly comfortable. Given that the race was on Sunday, and I ran the distance of a half marathon at an incredibly fast pace on Friday, I definitely underestimated the amount of time my body would need to recover. Within the first kilometer my legs started feeling like lead. I could feel my hips tightening, and my legs felt heavier and heavier as the kilometers went by. I felt like I was trying to sprint through mud. Given that there were no km markers (I found out afterwards that there were... but the wind had twisted them around so they were hard to see... a lot of help they were) I had no idea how far I had run and how far I had left to go. Trust me, I have never been so glad to see a finish line, and have never wanted a run to be over so badly. Looking at my watch as I crossed the finish line, I was filled with a little bit of disbelief, I had still run a PB even though I felt like my body had taken a severe beating. So I guess the bottom line is that I am happy with my time, but I wish I had run a stronger race. The silver lining of all of this I know that I can keep up a decent pace when the only thing my body wants is to curl up and sleep on the side of the street. A promising sign considering my next goal is to run in the Scotiabank Marathon come October.
And now I just feel motivated to run in another 10k race... and this time have a happy race.