2010 Calgary Half Marathon

I dressed for running, attaching the timing chip to my shoelace, and pinning my bib to my windbreaker. It was chilly and wet when I walked out the door just before 6:00 am. At least there was no wind, but I wore my rain jacket over a fleece on the walk down to the start line for the Calgary Marathon and Half Marathon. The web site said there was no parking near the area, and suggested taking the train. I think the nearest train station to me is about the same distance as to the start line, so walking seemed the best choice.

The walk warmed me up some, too, and got my legs loosened up a little bit. I got to Bridgeland and the park where all the tents and activities were set up, and walked across to the bag check. I stuffed my jackets into the bag that came with the race kit, and stuck on the sticker with my bib number. Then queued up at the porta-potties.

Once through that, I walked and stretched and did some light running to warm up some more, then queued up again. Then some more warming up. I probably should have queued up a third time.

Alexandra appeared out of the crowd as I stopped to stretch my calves at the curb. She took a couple of pictures to send me, my "before" picture, though there would not be an after pic. She was not running but would be handing out medals at the finish line.

About then it was time to queue up for the start. I pushed through the crowd to and got as far up as the 2:30 sign (the expected time to complete the half marathon) before the crowd got too thick to push through. And then it was waiting for the start.

When the start gun went off, it was the usual pushing forward two steps, then standing for a minute while the three or four thousand runners ahead of me funneled through the start gate. I shifted from shuffling to running about five paces from the start mats.

The crowd was pretty thick, and Centre Avenue is a little narrow, so it was slow going for awhile. Turning onto 12th Street didn't make a lot of difference even though that street is wider. It stayed a little congested down to St. George's Avenue, across Memorial and around the zoo. By the time we got to Inglewood, we were spreading out a little.

I was just following the crowd, trying to keep to my own pace and playing tourist a little bit. Turning down 21st Avenue at the Shamrock, I missed seeing those pillows they put on the street to add a punishing bounce to any car that drives over them over 30 kph, and nearly fell. I watched for them all the rest of the way through Ramsay.

After crossing the Elbow River, and getting onto 12th Avenue, it was pretty calm. No standout events, other than the comments while we passed Berard Callebaut Chocolates on 1st Street. that they would have made for a popular aid station.

On 17th Avenue, I was swept along. We made the volunteers for the Lilac Festival on 4th Street wait to cross while we ran through. 17th Avenue went by quite fast.

At 14th Street, the underpass seemed steep both going down and climbing back out, especially as we kept climbing to the top of the bridge over the Bow. The loop around to go underneath and on to Memorial was memorable, as we joined up with the 10K runners who came straight down Memorial from the start line.

From there it was a long slog. I don't know why it feels like such a long slow stretch. It seemed to take just a little time to cross Crowchild, but from there, it felt like miles and miles to the turn around point. It came up fast too, after looking for it for so long.

Flowing eastward, the crowd had thinned considerably, but we were a steady stream along the river. There were a surprising number of people on both sides of Memorial and on the overpasses cheering us on. I remember approaching 10th Street, but not crossing it. I don't really have much recollection of that stretch until we crossed under Centre Street.

I was glad to finally turn up Edmonton Trail just after passing the 20 km marker. Turning onto 1st Avenue, the long hill ahead seemed invisible, and I really didn't notice it much as I climbed it. I guess it's not all that steep.

From there we crossed over to Centre Avenue again, and I kept steady all the way across the line. Nothing left for a sprint to the finish, I was just glad to be done.

Alexandra was there handing out medals with several other volunteers, and she was quite excited that I finished in under two hours. The hug was a nice greeting along with the medal - thanks Alexandra.

I got a Mylar "blanket" but the thin sheet of silvered plastic didn't keep the cold away for too long. I gulped my bananas and cookies, got my jackets from the bag check, and called it a day. I had a good run.

My GPS results:
Distance: 19.71 Time: 1:46:32
Average speed: 5:24 min/km. (11.31 kph)
Rest distance: 1.59 km. Rest time: 11:00.
Total distance: 21.30 km. Total time: 1:57:32.

The official results are here.
My official time is 1:57:02 for a pace of 5:33.
I was 957th out of 2787, 618th out of 1119 males, 48th out of 111 in my age group.
L n K