Queen City Half Marathon Race Report

So, not really close to Justin's 1:50 prediction...however, still really happy with my new PB of 1:57.25!! Yippee!!

Left the city around noon yesterday with three other gals. Had a great trip, talking and laughing and sharing stories. Got to Regina in good time and did a wee bit of shopping, had lunch, made our way to the hotel. Laid around the hotel for a bit before heading out for some supper grub. Was super tired when we got back to the hotel as my 2 year old is a "rocker". Yeah, I grew up in the 80s and love to crank the music from that era but what I mean is he rocks his head back and forth at night and kicks his legs and it wakes me up and keeps me up many nights. I hadn't slept a full night in many weeks so I was looking forward to being at the hotel and a solid nights sleep!! Had a hot bath and crawled into bed and we watched tv for a few hours...another HUGE treat!! Had a great sleep...awesome!!

Up and at it in good time. It was cold and the weather channel was telling us it wasn't going to get much warmer so had a debate on what to wear...girls will be girls, even at a half marathon. Got to the race and stood in the porta pottie lines for a bit, stretched a bit, kept with my pre-race routine of not warming up...

We made our way to the start and I handed off my bag of gear to ChrisG who came all the way just to cheer for us!! That was very cool. Thank goodness she was there cause I had left my friggin gels in my bag and realized when I was smack in the middle of the starting crowd...made my way to the edge of the crowd and sprinted to where she was, dug through my bag, got the gels said a huge thank-you for saving my ass to Chris...cause I was going to check my bag but she insisted on carrying it for me!!...sprinted back to the start line. So I did get my warm up after all.

Justin's race plan was to run about 4 km and get into a groove and then just run. Shannon was with me at the start and she took off like a bat outta hell and I told myself "Don't eat the paste!" So did my thing and felt really, really good. Had decided not to wear my Garmin as I wanted to run one race on feel this year. There were a couple of girls that ran right behind me pretty much the entire run who had a Garmin, so I had a good idea of what I was running anyway as they chatted and discussed pretty much everything and sang church hymns (?). The things you don't want to know about strangers.

Got to the 10km mark, looked at my watch quickly...53 minutes...holy crap, this is as fast as I have ever ran a 10km!! I was on fire!! Then shortly after that, a kid about 2-3 years old ran out onto the path and I had to either

a) knock him over

b)hurdle him

c)move way to quickly to the left side and dodge him.

My insticts chose option c. Crappy. As my left knee friggin ached for the rest of the run. It is still super duper sore and I have been limping on it all day...shitty!!!! (Just a small vent here....lady, I have a kid that age and you wouldn't let him go free in a parking lot, so why would you let him go in a herd of runners?? I did not think it was "cute" at all!!! I know how fast they can get away from you so please keep a careful eye on him!!!)

Anyway, ignored the knee, ran the best I could, a huge mental victory as I walked only the very last aid station...MADE myself run that last 4km. The same stretch that nearly killed me in May...After the half in May, Justin had told me "It hurts to go fast. Everyone hurts those last few kms...you just need to keep running."

Was super happy with the result. Was a bit off of Justin's prediction but let's remember where I started from this year! A 2:12 back in February...and my previous best (around 2:04) was well before having children which is seriously, a different lifetime.

And my running mates, Shannon and Dana also posted personal bests so it was a terrific day for all of us!