Police Half Marathon Report

It was a gorgeous day out there! Sunny and a bit warm at the start. Lots of wind and the route took us through some hilly parts in Toon Town. Who knew I would have flashbacks of that little marathon I did down east exactly a year ago with the hills? Up, down, up, down, down, down, up. I am changing my running routes as I had no idea we could tackle those hills in this town!! The bottoms of my feet were sore from running some of the downhills...specifically Pembina and the Broadway Bridge. Omgosh...

The first 5kms were fun. It was warm, and chatty, I felt like I was at a cocktail party. Lots of people to talk to and some good laughs about this and that. The route started and ended at the Police station so we got to run through downtown...and my downtown parking spot was a block away from the start/finish...bonus.

The second 5km were also fun. I love running along the river in this town. There was no wind (yet) the 5 and 10km runners had turned off so it was just me for most of the rest of the route. I would like to thank the girl in the light blue top with pigtails...I chased you the entire way. She did not stop once. I made it my mission to stare at her back and if she stopped, I would take a walk break...but darn it...she ran the entire way!

The third 5km were starting to get a bit hard as the route took us all the way out to Whiteswan Drive and turned back and then up a nasty, long, windy and winding path. I knew this path existed, but had no idea how tough it was to get up. Or maybe it was the 15km in my legs this morning...hmmm... Through some residential areas in River Heights and then down, down, down Pembina...wow, the bottoms of my feet hurt!!

Finally back onto the riverbank, the bridge coundown started. We have several bridges in this town so whenever I am on a tough run, I just count them down...Circle Drive...Train bridge...through some more residential North Park areas...more friggin hills...UP the College Drive bridge (frack I hate running up that bridge...its long and slow and a nasty sharp uphill just as you get off at the top)...UP to the Broadway Bridge...and back DOWN Broadway to the Police station. That last bridge was ridiculously windy...like gusts of that Saskatchewan wind...with all the dust from the prairies included. Yak. The nice thing about the Police organizing a run event is that they just close streets down...so we had one lane of each the College Drive bridge AND Broadway Bridge...kind of cool...I chased a white van in traffic the entire way down the Broadway Bridge...hahahahah!

Anyway, it was a great run for me! I was in a super mood the whole way, chatted most of the first 10km...never felt bad or tired...my legs loved running today. Finished in 2:06 which is a bit off my personal best, but I will take it! Considering I only started training for this in early March (had ran only a handful of times between September and March...) when we were on our trip to Disney and Phoenix...I had no cold weather excuses...took my run gear and ran nearly every second day...with this race in mind...so I am super happy and a bit proud that I toughed those hills out and ran most of the entire way!!

Happy Easter weekend to everyone!

Today...

...I run a half marathon!
I signed up at the very last minute, as in 10:00pm before the midnight cut off, to run the Police Half Marathon. Am I ready? Short answer...NO!!
Long answer....I have been running, I have been getting long runs in, I have found some great gals to run with on Saturday mornings, they will be running too...I will rack this one up to peer pressure....
And I want to run because I can.
My sister called me this week with very devasting news about her 37 year old friend battling cancer. Its very upsetting and my heart aches for them and their family.
Its going to be a gorgeous morning, I will put my iPod on, I have downloaded some aweseome new tunes and I am looking forward to a couple of hours to myself running along the river bank here in Saskatoon.
What better way to spend a Saturday morning?

didn't think I could do it...

Sunday swim day today. Filled my truck up with gas on the way out to the pool...$72...today was the last time I drive to the pool...on my bike...every sunday from now on!!! I have even googled mapped a route...all set!

Today's workout was a warm up...and then 5 x 300s. First, third and fifth one at your 1500 meter race pace...numbers 2 and 4 at your 400 meter pace. The repeat times for my lane were on the board as 5:30 minutes per 500...okay...no problem!

Yeah right.

I swim with boys and their testosterone...so they decide to make our repeat times 5 minutes. Okay...now we have a problem.

We did the first one in about 4:16....holy....mother....of....god. I could not breathe, my arms were dead, 4 more of those? Thank goodness I had brought my legs with me to the pool...yesterday was only a 12 km run...my goal after that first one was to hang on for dear life. I considered moving down a lane...we had lost one dude...but I made my mind up to just try.

Let's call it a pride thing.

Throw out the goal pace. I was just trying to keep up and not embarrass myself.

A little guts goes along way!

Kept up with all my runs this past week...My hip hurt like a bitch after the 18 km run last Saturday so opted for some less intense stuff and just run for the hell of running. Have decided to run the Policeman's Half next weekend (Sat) AND the big daddy...Queen City Marathon in September. The full 42km. My run in Boston has not sat well with me all year. I can do a much better job of a marathon. And I have a training partner this time around so it should be a good time until those last 5km next September....

Sunday morning swim

I must have really wanted to swim today. I had gotten an e-mail from our swim director reminding me the Sunday swim was at HBAC this week rather than out at the Shaw Center.

However, I missed that the time had changed!

I show up at HBAC...there is nobody there. So I start thinking, maybe it was a different day that the location had changed? I jump in my truck and head out to the Shaw Center. Gotta love Saskatoon, one end of the city to the other in minutes....obviously we were not swimming at Shaw...there were 1000 cars in the parking lot, 2000 people in the pool for some age group swim meet. So I drive back to HBAC. Sure enough, our swim actually started at 9:00am. Duh. But I was in the water at 9:03-ish...again, gotta love living in a small-ish city!!!

Here was our workout:

20 minutes continous swim - so basically, swim a few 100 meters, stop and visit, swim some more, stop and pretend to stretch, swim a bit more. Oh LOOK! The 20 minutes are done.

8 x 50 meters alternate kick and swim...build through the 50. My legs hurt like a mother-f*cker. I sort of forgot that I ran 18km yesterday...I had no legs to speak of for swimming. Bummer.

Main Set: 15 x 100 meters. On your pace time, leaving in about 3-5 seconds. So a touch and go set. I led the lane for about half. We had decided as a group to start at 1:45s and work our way down to 1:35s. Holy hell...I led the for 7 of these things but could not get down to the 1:40s. Bummer. On a normal day without that big run the day before....quite possibly....but not today!!

Saturday morning run

Last night was the wine and cheeze night with the Just Tri It gals at our locally owned running store, Brainsport. Was a good time. I spent far too much money BUT I will blame it on the wine! Saucony came back with their Omni shoe and let's just say I shouldn't need running shoes for a very long time! I LOVED that shoe...but they took it away for one year and now its BACK! Hello Future PBs!!! maybe...

Got home at a decent time but was reading on the Just Tri It site some had their cars sleep over on Broadway...hmmm... I guess I missed the after party!?

Since I am such a focused athlete (ha!), I had to get my shit together for an 18km run this morning.

Up in lots of time as I like to eat (lots) and get organized and have my visit from the poop-fairy. The Saturday am run group was meeting at the Farmer's Market and I started from the weir and ran back to them. Dear Husband gave me strict instructions to be home by 9:00 as he had to get to a job today...aye aye Captain! The run started tired and slow and just super heavy legs. I was hating the first 10 minutes. But the beauty of meeting up with others is you know they will be looking for you and there is no way you can bail. So I told myself, to run to them and figure it out from there. Found them and they were doing their pre-run walk and....they have this ritual of walking for a good 5 or so minutes before they start running. Some visiting and some laughs and some plans made for the run. After that I felt pretty good! Was a gorgeous morning. Dumped my jacket and mitts in the truck at the weir...this was a huge mistake...on the way back, about 4km left, we turned back into the wind and holy hell...my body and hands got so cold. I ended up leaving my Saturday am group and busted a gut, ran my ass off to get back to the truck. I was THAT cold! Could not feel my hands and ran a few minutes alternating them down my pants at the back...I am sure that was a sight. You do what ya gotta do! A long hot bath felt great at home!! (At least I did not stop and pee on them as one local Ironman dude did last year...he got a flat, his hands were cold so he peed on them to get them warm enough to change his flat...this is a rumour but he is also super competitive so I do not doubt it!)

All in all, got 18km done! I am ready for that half marathon in two weeks! I know it ain't going to be a fast one, but at least I know I can get the distance in. Yey!!

Next up is a bike ride to swim practice tomorrow.

Did I mention I want to get 2000km in on my bike this summer? I have given myself until September 30th. I know, I know....some put this in on a long weekend...I, however would be super pleased if I get that kind of mileage on a bike!! So far I have 20 in from my ride to and from the Just Tri It group ride...only 1980 to go!!!