Calgary Half Marathon.... the pitter patter of thousands of feet!

May 31 saw my first race of the year, The Calgary Half Marathon. Having done a half last year with no training, I was really curious to see how things would go given the amount of running I have been doing. The day started with my alarm going off at 4:45.... a nice sane rising time for the weekend! I shoved down a couple pieces of toast and headed off to pick up Jack and then my Mom. The race had a new venue and course this year. It started over in Bridgeland where the old General Hospital once stood. The race course basically wound around the zoo, through downtown and then dumped us on to Memorial where we did an out and back section. But I jump ahead. It was really fun to be back at a running race, they are always really well organized and seem to run like clock work... not to mention you the race tshirts are always great!

After seeding myself at the front end of the race we were off! Nothing like that burst of adrenaline to run a 3:50 first km! I would say the first 10km went really well, came through in about 45 minutes which was where I wanted to be. After that, from about km12 to km16 it started to feel some cramping in my hamstrings and started to loose focus, I knew things were off kilter when I had to stop at two water stations. Once I saw that 16km sign, I finally got back into the game and finished my last 5km really strong. All in all my final time was 1:37:30..... not quite the time I was hoping for but a respectable time. Oh yes and apparently while racing I can't do math. I figured that if I came through 10km in 45mins then I would be able to run a 1:30 race. Yea.... forgot to factor in that 1km extra..... so all in I was only about 3 minutes over where I wanted to be. Something to aim for next time!

All in all it felt really good to tie up the laces and hit the pavement. I don't know if the course was the most interesting (probably because I run a good part of it on a regular basis) but still good to get out and challenge the body!

Next up.... Wasa Lake Triathlon!