So today it was time for the Oakville Half Marathon. It was a great day for running, sun was out, a little cool but still just shorts and t-shirt running - a great way to start Fall today! Also a perfect opportunity to test out my foot - I have been having some pain in my left foot when I plant, it has been a bit better so today was the day.
I started out with the 1:35 pace bunny as that was my goal for the event. Bunny would be the right name as he took off like one! Within 3km he was almost out of sight and I was running 4:28/km, a couple seconds under the goal. While it was disappointing to lose the group it was a good chance to deal with running alone for the race and working on maintaining the pace.
I kept that pace up until just after the 7 km point where there was the hill - decided to back off and not push it on the hill loosing some time but trying to keep some gas in the tank. I reached the half way point at 48:13 and given how my foot was feeling, I knew that I wouldn't be making up the time to reach the 1:35 goal. It was time to dig in and do what I could to get to the end as close to 1:35 as I could.
The second half wasn't as good as the first, taking me 51:17, a slight head wind not helping matters out. On a positive note, the finish was strong and I got in at 1:38:30.9, just over 7 seconds from my best for the half.
Going to be time to take it easy for a bit, the foot is really bothering me, taking me some time to walk back to my car (only 3.6km away - I used that as my warm up before the race, running to the start). Despite stretching, I can't plant properly at all or run on it at this point - today is the worst it has been and the first time it didn't get better as I ran, it was the opposite. It's 4 weeks to the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon where I have registered for the full Marathon - hope my foot heals.
There were a number of Port Credit Runners running today - from my Half Marathon Clinic both David Wainwright (looking awfully good when I spoke with him at the end) and Barb Pomfret; from the Marathon Clinic, Michelle Mayo, Kevin Woon-Fat, Ericka Hastie, Chris Holloway and a few I didn't know the names of. In Amherstburg today, Teri Monti, Chuck Oateman and Simon Heath all ran the marathon, with Simon setting a Personal Best by 7 minutes! Way to go everyone. Great job by our Clinic in their Long Slow Distance Run today, running 16km - great job.
Whatever you did today, I hope you had a great one.
Be well, be happy.
No comments:
Post a Comment