The 2010 Police Half Marathon

Okay, this wasn't looking too great last night, when snow was coming down in great, fat, wet blobs, so thick at times I couldn't see more than a block. When I got up this morning, the snow had stopped, but it was pretty white on lawns and stuff. The street looked wet, and I hoped it wasn't icy.

I was up early, had a good breakfast, and took my time getting dressed. Definitely a day for the thermal tights. I resisted the urge to put on an extra tee, but brought one just in case. I headed out, first to Starbucks, then to Mount Royal University campus. I was early enough that I got a parking spot quite close to the starting line.

I wandered a bit, ran around the parking lot lightly, warming up. Then I went inside and walked into the big room where everything was being set up. It's a broad space, with a running track around a huge pit. Bleachers on one side with spaces between allows you to walk down into it, where volunteers were picking up safety vests and instructions. There was a stage in the middle, and people were already lounging in the seats.

I stretched a little, suddenly feeling some tightness in my hip, and at that moment realized I had forgot my Garmin. I stood for a moment, considering what to do. For a 10K, I wouldn't have bothered, just go run, but for longer distances I rely on it to time my run walks and keep me on pace. Yeah, I know, it's a great big crutch.

It was still over an hour until start time, so I ran to the car, then drove home to get the darn thing. I was back within half an hour, but by then the people were pouring onto the campus, so instead of drifting along with a line up searching for parking, I just pulled into an overflow lot across the street on the old army base.

I got the bib pinned to my windbreaker, and threaded the strip of plastic with the timing chip through my shoe lace. Then joined the crowd crossing the street heading to the race start. One visit to the bathroom, and it was fifteen minutes to go. One more visit and by the time I got out the door and into a spot in the starting crowd, it began to surge forward.

There's always a bit of adrenalin in waiting for the start, and then when we start moving forward, we aren't quite sure it's started, but the people in front of us start running, though sometimes it's more like running in place. And then as people spread out and can take bigger steps, there's the sound at the starting mats. When a chip crosses a sensor, there's a beep, but at the start, it's a million beeps all run together making one long continuous beee-e-e-e-e-e-eep.

The run was pretty nicely paced for the first ten minutes. With width of the lane and the number of people, it kind of throttles you back a little. It's kind of nice since you don't have to worry about keeping a lid on the adrenalin and over doing it at the start, cuz it's too crowded to go fast.

I made some headway along 50th Avenue, and down 19th Street. At the tennis place, we turned onto a narrower road to the water treatment plant. Then onto the narrow path, well, narrow for a few hundred runners, down to the dam holding back the Glenmore Reservoir. On the other side, it stayed narrow, all around behind the Rockyview Hospital.

Just past the hospital we wound through the small neighbourhood of Eagle Ridge. And then onto a narrow path again to the Heritage Park parking area. The trail crosses several driveways in and out of the parking lot, and at every one, on either side of the roadway, there was a post in the middle of the path, to keep cars from trying to drive down the walking paths. I managed to stay aware of most, but one almost caught me, and I managed to sidestep it just in time. I wonder how many people run into those things.

Along the rest of the path to 90th Avenue, lots of people were hooting and rattling cowbells and other noise makers. That part went by fast. On 90th, I immediately faced a long gentle hill. Last year it seemed to go forever, but today I was over it quick and down the other side, to the entrance to the marina.

Last year they routed us through a playground which had a weird zigzag entrance on each side, impossible to run through, and only wide enough for one person at a time. This year we stayed well away from that weirdness, and were on the main path on the south side of the reservoir.

I knew that long descent was coming, steep and winding into the Weaselhead Flats area, where the Elbow River comes into the reservoir. It seems to take forever to get to it, and once there it was long and winding and steep. At the bottom, it's a straight flat stretch to a foot bridge over the river, and then a long climb up the hill again on the north side.

Where the energy came from, I don't know. I powered up that long hill, barely slowing down from my usual running pace, which of course was not the pace I was running today. Maybe it was adrenalin or something, but I was pushing pretty hard out there. The couple of times I checked my pace it was around 5 min/km, and while I couldn't maintain that on this hill, I probably managed to keep it under 6 min/km.

At the top, I took a walk break, then it was the long stretch, running along 66th Avenue. I had no idea how far I had come. On the other side, before windy hill down I saw a marker for 13 km. Near the end of 66th, I spotted one for 16 km.

I was starting to feel it. My pace was becoming challenging to keep up to, but I found that any grade I was on didn't seem to affect it much. I powered up the walkway over Glenmore Trail, and down into the neighbourhood on the other side.

We zigzagged back onto 19th Street, and about the tennis place, I took my last walk break. I didn't notice the place there at all, just houses on the left, park on the right.

That last bit of rest helped and I felt good as I turned onto 50th Avenue. I didn't see any more markers, so had no idea how much farther I had to go, but I just put my head down and ran. I pushed hard, hoping I could keep it up, and I passed a lot of people on that last kilometre or so.

Coming up to the last curve, the crowd was loud; that was kinda nice. About 150 metres from the finish line, I stretched, lots, and did a full sprint. I passed one girl, who was pushing pretty hard, but she really kicked it down after I passed her, and she passed me. She never got more than a couple of metres ahead of me, but we crossed the line flat out.

After that I got my medal, and was trying to stop vibrating, chugging water and gasping through a coughing fit. After a few minutes, I went inside to scarf down a couple of bananas and cookies, and call it a day.

Today's run:
Distance: 20.07 Time: 1:43:45
Average speed: 5:10 min/km. (11.61 kph)
Rest distance: 1.32 km. Rest time: 11:00.
Total distance: 21.39 km. Total time: 1:54:45.

Shoes: New Balance 769 (Blue).
Today's earworm: Pure L n K
Weather: Cloudy and 2C, and a little breezy.