A blog about my adventures as an athlete, adventures with athletes and just adventures!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

RUN THE NORTH SHORE HALF MARATHON


In training mode with North shore Athletics for the New York Marathon, while I am home, which is very infrequently these days, the plan was to run the North Shore Half Ironman.

As I felt I was falling behind in my training, I ran with my amazing running buddy Shelley the day before, just to get some kilometers in my legs-23 of em!! I was doubtful that race morning would be a "race" but my clinic was treating at the finish line, so I had no excuses to bail!

Morning of race: Jenn does NOT want to get out of her warm cozy bed, it is POURING rain, annnnd legs are a TOUCH tired from the long run the day before. But I managed to get myself to the finish line to set up all the Moveo tent and gear only to find that I have missed the last shuttle to the start.. Dammit, I knew I should have stayed in bed! Then some girl "my angel of the day" comes running up to me, super stressed as she is not from around here, and got lost and missed the shuttle, doesn't know where the race start is..... So we decide to hop in my car and hope that we can catch the start. We make it to parkgate village and the race start, in time to quickly get my race number, wait 5 minutes in the porta-potty line, say hello and catch up with about 100 people at the start. (Note: I did NOT have time to appropriately eat a complete breakfast OR remember to put a gel in my pocket.....uh oh!)

And as the next downpour started, we were off! I quickly realized that I wanted to run faster than I seeded myself and was trying to get past up to some clear road! Feeling pretty good, the race course took us along Seymour parkway and quickly turned and started climbing..... What? I thought this course was FLAT and Negative elevation??? The guy running beside me breathed heavily as we climbed the not steep, but lengthy climb "changed the course from last year.. Is more difficult!". Haha! Lucky for me!
But the course was Super-cool! After the climb we went up into a trail, which helped recover a bit as it was really slippery due to the rain so it forced you to slow down so you didn't bail! Coming out of the climb we ran through a great neighbourhood with the river running along one side and some really nice homes along the other, I had NO idea where we were most of the time and I run on the north shore quite a bit!
I was feeling awesome, for most of the race and wasn't really sure of my pacing, or even what I was really capable of running but tried to focus on keeping good posture, keeping my legs moving quickly and catching people in front of me one by one. I struggled along the last 2 or 3 k, but had a girl close behind me who had managed to stay close after I passed her just after the halfway point, so I credit her for keeping me running scared!

Coming in at 1:42, I was pretty happy as I figured my fitness alone would have me around 1:45, let alone having run pretty far the day before. My body does well is super-overload situations and this was a great reminder of that! The finish line was great, I haven't raced in so long, I felt a bit "out of the loop" it was great to catch up with people and enjoy the post race atmosphere (and 2-bite brownies!! That's why I race ha!). Always great to race a NSA race as well, and great to see people sticking around chatting, getting treatments at the MOVEO tent (yes, of course I treated after I finished racing!!!) and chatting about the next challenge that awaits.


That's about it, but I was inspired to write a quick report after realizing how much I LOVE TO RACE!!!

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