Greetings avid readers! Well, it has been a while since I updated this here blog, but it’s also been a while since my last adventure, so forgive me for my absence. Today’s topic will be the Royal Victoria Half Marathon, which took place on October 6, 2007. As you may have previously read, I have in fact participated in a previous half marathon, in the Comox Valley earlier this year. And unlike my foray into extreme distances in Vancouver, this particular race was a mere half marathon.
When I say “mere”, I am referring to a distance of 21.1 km. To many of you this may seem far, but to me, after having run my first full marathon only 6 months ago, half the distance doesn’t really seem that far. In fact, it seemed almost easy. Sure, I was tired after I finished, but I was also thinking “is that it?” Which leads me to believe that I may need to run another full marathon at some point, as the half left me feeling somewhat unfulfilled.
So for the numbers. As previously mentioned, the distance was 21.1 km, or for those of you who think this is still 1970, 13.1 miles. My previous time from the Comox half marathon was 2 hours and 4 minutes, which works out to about 6 minutes per kilometer. In Victoria, my time was 1 hour and 59 minutes, which works out to around 5 minutes and 40 seconds per kilometer. To the non-runners out there this might not sound like a big deal. So I beat myself by 5 minutes. Big whoop. Well, yes, it actually is. My “natural” pace (that is, the pace I run at when time is not a factor and I’m just out for a leisurely jog), is about 6 minutes and 20 seconds per kilometer. This means that in Victoria I ran every kilometer 40 seconds faster than the speed my body seems to like best. Big deal, right? 40 seconds isn’t a lot of time. Really? Well try doing it for 2 hours! That 5 minutes might not seem like that big a deal, but it is. Coincidentally for those keeping track, I ran the full marathon doing about 6 minutes and 30 second kilometers-which is damn slow compared to 5:40/kilometer. So yes, beating myself by 5 minutes IS a big deal. I’ll stop lecturing now.
As for the race itself it wasn’t particularly eventful. I ran for 2 hours. There were other people. So I’ll try to recount a few of the little things I remember.
Early in the race I was concerned that I would chicken out and decide not to keep the pace I had set for myself, so I decided if I could, I would find a person or group running the pace I wanted and just tail them for the rest of it. And it worked, for the first half. I found these two older guys who were running between 5:40/km and 5:30/km consistently, so I tried to keep up with them. One of the guys had an almost handle-bar moustache and looked a little like the Monopoly guy. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, go directly to jail. At about half-way I lost them on an uphill (damn those infernal uphills!), so I was on my own for the rest of the way. I was a little irritated for some of the race, because there we so many people I had to keep dodging around. There were around 5,000 in the half marathon. This might not seem like that many, considering there were twice that many in the full marathon in Vancouver, but with the shorter course, we didn’t get the chance to thin out as much. Which left me dodging the walk/runners when they were walking, and looking back over my shoulder every now and then to make sure if I swerved I wasn’t going to get beaned by anyone that came screaming up behind me.
Victoria has a beautiful course, though. It started in downtown and led us through a park, then down to the water. As we were coming back the sun was rising so there was a (and this one’s for you, Beau) pretty sunrise to look at for a few km. And the sun even came out for a few minutes near the end. Though a few minutes after I crossed the finish line it did start to rain again. Which made me a pretty happy I hadn’t decided to go for the full. Oh, and about 15 km into the race there was, and I’m not joking here, a beer station. Really. It was just someone outside their house handing out half-full cups of beer. And it was actual beer. I didn’t have any, but I saw them opening the cans. How cool is that? I’m sure they would’ve had a lot more takers if they were at to the finish line, though. It’s hard to run and drink at the same time, and when it’s beer you don’t want to spill.
I ran this race with a cold. Glen managed to give it to me about three days before the race and I spent those 3 days cursing him. Ask him, he’ll tell you. Though that morning I did feel much better, it probably wasn’t the best idea for me to be out in the chilly morning air trying to run fast for 2 hours while I was also trying to get over a cold. I went downhill in the health department for a few days after that. I’m just now starting to feel normal again (a week and a half later). So why didn’t I just not go? Well, number one is I’m far too stubborn to let a little illness stop me. Or stupid. I’ll leave that one up to you. Second, I worked my ass off for three months for those 2 hours. Third, I had already booked the hotel room, registered and paid for the race, and finagled several trades so I could get the weekend off work. So short of a nuclear holocaust, I was going to run. And I managed what is known as a “personal best”, so there!
After the race Glen felt the need to point out all the salt that had precipitated on my face. And it was a lot. I hope it comes through in the picture. I theorize it may have been because of the cold I was sweating a little more than usual, and with no rain to wash it off, it just stayed there. In a gross, crusty ring around my cheeks and ears. Yummy.
When I say “mere”, I am referring to a distance of 21.1 km. To many of you this may seem far, but to me, after having run my first full marathon only 6 months ago, half the distance doesn’t really seem that far. In fact, it seemed almost easy. Sure, I was tired after I finished, but I was also thinking “is that it?” Which leads me to believe that I may need to run another full marathon at some point, as the half left me feeling somewhat unfulfilled.
So for the numbers. As previously mentioned, the distance was 21.1 km, or for those of you who think this is still 1970, 13.1 miles. My previous time from the Comox half marathon was 2 hours and 4 minutes, which works out to about 6 minutes per kilometer. In Victoria, my time was 1 hour and 59 minutes, which works out to around 5 minutes and 40 seconds per kilometer. To the non-runners out there this might not sound like a big deal. So I beat myself by 5 minutes. Big whoop. Well, yes, it actually is. My “natural” pace (that is, the pace I run at when time is not a factor and I’m just out for a leisurely jog), is about 6 minutes and 20 seconds per kilometer. This means that in Victoria I ran every kilometer 40 seconds faster than the speed my body seems to like best. Big deal, right? 40 seconds isn’t a lot of time. Really? Well try doing it for 2 hours! That 5 minutes might not seem like that big a deal, but it is. Coincidentally for those keeping track, I ran the full marathon doing about 6 minutes and 30 second kilometers-which is damn slow compared to 5:40/kilometer. So yes, beating myself by 5 minutes IS a big deal. I’ll stop lecturing now.
As for the race itself it wasn’t particularly eventful. I ran for 2 hours. There were other people. So I’ll try to recount a few of the little things I remember.
Early in the race I was concerned that I would chicken out and decide not to keep the pace I had set for myself, so I decided if I could, I would find a person or group running the pace I wanted and just tail them for the rest of it. And it worked, for the first half. I found these two older guys who were running between 5:40/km and 5:30/km consistently, so I tried to keep up with them. One of the guys had an almost handle-bar moustache and looked a little like the Monopoly guy. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, go directly to jail. At about half-way I lost them on an uphill (damn those infernal uphills!), so I was on my own for the rest of the way. I was a little irritated for some of the race, because there we so many people I had to keep dodging around. There were around 5,000 in the half marathon. This might not seem like that many, considering there were twice that many in the full marathon in Vancouver, but with the shorter course, we didn’t get the chance to thin out as much. Which left me dodging the walk/runners when they were walking, and looking back over my shoulder every now and then to make sure if I swerved I wasn’t going to get beaned by anyone that came screaming up behind me.
Victoria has a beautiful course, though. It started in downtown and led us through a park, then down to the water. As we were coming back the sun was rising so there was a (and this one’s for you, Beau) pretty sunrise to look at for a few km. And the sun even came out for a few minutes near the end. Though a few minutes after I crossed the finish line it did start to rain again. Which made me a pretty happy I hadn’t decided to go for the full. Oh, and about 15 km into the race there was, and I’m not joking here, a beer station. Really. It was just someone outside their house handing out half-full cups of beer. And it was actual beer. I didn’t have any, but I saw them opening the cans. How cool is that? I’m sure they would’ve had a lot more takers if they were at to the finish line, though. It’s hard to run and drink at the same time, and when it’s beer you don’t want to spill.
I ran this race with a cold. Glen managed to give it to me about three days before the race and I spent those 3 days cursing him. Ask him, he’ll tell you. Though that morning I did feel much better, it probably wasn’t the best idea for me to be out in the chilly morning air trying to run fast for 2 hours while I was also trying to get over a cold. I went downhill in the health department for a few days after that. I’m just now starting to feel normal again (a week and a half later). So why didn’t I just not go? Well, number one is I’m far too stubborn to let a little illness stop me. Or stupid. I’ll leave that one up to you. Second, I worked my ass off for three months for those 2 hours. Third, I had already booked the hotel room, registered and paid for the race, and finagled several trades so I could get the weekend off work. So short of a nuclear holocaust, I was going to run. And I managed what is known as a “personal best”, so there!
After the race Glen felt the need to point out all the salt that had precipitated on my face. And it was a lot. I hope it comes through in the picture. I theorize it may have been because of the cold I was sweating a little more than usual, and with no rain to wash it off, it just stayed there. In a gross, crusty ring around my cheeks and ears. Yummy.
So that’s my experience running the half marathon in Victoria. Stay tuned for my next adventure!
