Sunday, March 16, 2008

Comox Valley Half-Marathon

I am not sure how to present this race report.  I think I will do it in moments, in no particular order.

Hanging out with the Victoria crew before and after the race.  Stealing donuts and seconds of vegetarian chili and soup.

Chatting with the winner, Jerry Ziak, after the race and him having remembered meeting at a previous race.  His sincere interest in my running and plans for the year.  He ran 1:07 off base training.  

The understanding of how important my training has been as I saw a new PB (2:45 faster than before) crossing the finish line.

Only getting a true understanding of the hills leading out to the turnaround upon seeing them as I was running down them on the way home.

Mark Cryderman pacing me throughout the race.  Good conversation and support throughout (at least throughout the first 10k, couldn't talk that much after that point).
 
Hitting 10k at 35:00, right on pace for 1:13:50, which was my goal for the race.

Ollie Blake and Kristina Rody picking me up from the ferry in Nanaimo, enabling me to NOT bring my car across, and in doing so, saving me $100 on the day in ferry passage.

Meeting Ron, possibly the funniest driver of an incredible motor home, ever.

The course was dry and wind was not a big deal.  Perfect conditions.

Waking up at 5:00am to get to the ferry for 6:15am.

Pushing hard in the last kilometer - very hard - for a chance to make it under 1:13.

I need to learn how to run a marathon before I race one.

Getting out of the car, in the rain, and running down the road in Nanaimo to make the ferry home, with only a minute to spare.  Stupid ferry traffic, but a HUGE thank you Ollie and Kristina for driving!

Wondering if I would still be on pace after my splits for 6k - 10k were 3:35, 3:33, 3:45, 3:37, 3:31.

Watching Jason Louttit take the tangent on the first corner, making up 5m on Jerry Ziak and Ryan Day.

Placing 3rd in my age-group, but 4th overall.

Missing the Island.

Running with Ian Druce, but disappointed to find out that he had been injured.  He is training for the Paris marathon, but hopefully will consider Ottawa if his injury disrupts the lead up.

Phoning Simon and Eric to let them know how I did.  Finding out that my PB for the half is faster than Eric's!

Counting up to 20 and backwards from 20 so that I could focus on running.  I think it was Paul who provided me with this tidbit of info.  It worked.

Running in new race gear.  Thanks, Gray!

Negative splitting the race by a minute and change - I love downhills.  I was told to treat the race as though it was a 15k (Coach John) or 18k (Kelly Guest) race, and that was the best course info I could have ever received. 

Finishing in 1:12:52, going about a minute faster than what I thought would have been a great race.  





4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice work Brad, you killed it out there, good to see you again man. Best of luck with the rest of your races this year.
Cheers,
Mike

Michael said...

Congratulaions, very impressive! Best of luck with the remaining 30+ days...

Anonymous said...

Super! See you in Boston. :-)

B's D

Billy Jack said...

Nice work Brad.