St. Patrick's Day Run

This one snuck up on me, and I almost forgot about it. Friday it occurred to me that I needed to pick up my race kit. Saturday, I remembered that Byron had also signed up, so I picked up his race kit. He didn't make it, due to extenuating circumstances (he slept in). Boohoo for him, but it turned out OK for me, cuz I lost my beer ticket, and used his.

It was a cooler day this year, but without the wet snow. There was also one stretch behind the University of Calgary campus where the snow hadn't been removed from the road, and it was crusty ice. But mostly it was pretty good. There was a very light snow coming down, hardly enough to notice, and a stiff enough breeze to make it uncomfortable until I got warmed up.

I think I started too far back in the pack. I was about the same place as I was last year, but I think my pace is about a minute per kilometre faster this year. At the first kilometre marker, my average speed was just 8.4 kph. Lots of traffic to get past, but by the time we got half way and started the second ciruit around the campus, it was pretty evened out.

I felt really good through the whole run. In fact, I felt like I was needing to hold back, cuz I didn't know what I'd need at the end of the race, and if I'd have it. It was nice to pass the 9 km marker, because that's when I let go and found a natural pace that was comfortable, long and fast. I think I passed the most people in that last kilometre, excepting for the first two when I was in all the traffic. It seems like it takes about 8 km to get to that point, where the miles go by and it takes very little effort.

After, I checked the official stats, and my time was 50:40, and I think I was 125th out of around 700 runners. I can't remember exactly what I ranked in my age group, 26th out of 57 sticks in my head, but I may be making that up. I'll check the official stats in a couple of days. But here's what I got with my GPS:

Today's run:
Distance: 10.39 km. Time: 50:33. Average speed: 12.3 kph.

Weather: Light snow and -11C. Not as wet as last year, just colder.