The Harvest Half Marathon

Man, what an incredible morning! It's a gorgeous fall day, and it's just perfect for running a half marathon.

I was at the MidSun Community Association by a quarter to seven. It was dark, but beginning to lighten along the east horizon. And chilly. The sky was clear and sparkling. I finished the dregs of my Starbucks, climbed out of the car, and began stripping off my jacket and warmups. I managed to get my racing bib on, after dropping a safety pin. It was very dark in the parking lot and it took a while to find it.

Then it was inside to see what was up, use the washroom, then outside to run around a little, use the washroom, do some stretching, use the washroom.

At five minutes to race time, we all gathered in the cul-de-sac out front. The clock counted to zero, and someone came through the crowd yelling out instructions and stuff - no sound system here.

After a little bit, the crowd in front started moving, and we shuffled out onto westbound Midlake Boulevard, then northward on Bannister Road. Bannister drops toward Fish Creek Park and under Macleod Trail, then turns into Shawnee Gate as it climbs back up on the other side. But then we turned west on Shawnee Drive, still climbing. At the top we headed north again, and descended into Fish Creek Park.

I haven't run in Fish Creek since Tru and I did a short run last spring. It's absolutely beautiful down there, as all the cottonwoods are turning golden, and losing leaves, so there are mounds of them to run through.

The trail continued east and at the far end of the Greenfield picnic area was the first water stop. Two and a half years ago, this is where I would start those forty minute, three km runs that were mostly walking, and painful. Today, I breezed through the area in fifteen minutes or so.

Another water stop at Bow Bottom Trail and then we met the river, and followed it north. A short distance past the Bankside picnic area, we were directed off the paved path, down into the river's gully on a shale path that took us back toward Bow Bottom.

Then south to Lake Sikome. The route went all the way almost to the south end of the lake, before doubling back to the road up to Sun Valley Boulevard. I knew this hill was coming and I was wondering how I'd do on it. I can't say that it was my best hill climb, but I still was pretty aggressive in tackling it.

The turn onto Sun Valley marked the 18 km point, and then it was straight running, west to Midlake Boulevard. And a short distance up that, we followed a green belt that ran south and west of Lake Midnapore. I knew we were close, but there's no sign of the finish, until we came around a berm, right at the 21 km marker. So a hundred metre sprint across the finish line.

As I came up on the line, I glanced at the clock overhead. 1:50 and some seconds. Someone handed me a water bottle, which I guzzled on the way into the building, to stock up on bagels, cookies, muffins, bananas and orange juice. And in a few short minutes, someone came in with a handful of papers that she taped up on the wall.

I was 118th across the finish line, 34th (I think) in my age division, and my chip time was 1:50:03 - 10 minutes and 5 seconds faster than the Calgary Half back in July. I'm very happy with that. I'll post the official stats later, when they post them.

I'm especially happy with the results because I've been fighting off a cold for the past few days. I fully expected to wake up this morning trying to hack up a lung. But for now, it's staying up in the sinuses and flirting with the throat.

But here are the GPS results:

Today's run:
Distance: 19.87 km. Time: 1:39:16. Average speed: 12.0 kph.
Rest distance: 1.45 km. Rest time: 11:00.
Total distance: 21.32 km. Total time: 1:50:16.

Shoes: Saucony Grid Phoenix (Blue)

Weather: Clear and 5C to start, but by the end, sunny and 16C.