The End Justifies The Means. Kinda?

Well, yes.  The ‘kinda’ will be explained as this blog entry progresses. Today was supposed to be a ‘B’ race, which means that it wasn’t a priority to PR.  My last race resulted in a PR, but it was in spite of one major stupid decision I made – being a slave to my watch instead of going on feel.  I figured at some point I would have the opportunity to put that lesson into practice.  I just wasn’t expecting to do it in my next race.

In front of the Olympic Rings from Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics

Our friend, CP, kept on encouraging me to sign-up for the Whistler Half Marathon – beautiful (and, err, challenging) course, not crowded, really well run, and great local support.  I missed out before the race filled up but won a contest and snagged an entry.  When I discussed this race and another race I have in 3 weeks with Coach Kim, we decided that the latter race would be the ‘A’ race and this would be the ‘B’ race.  So we would work on pacing plus I wouldn’t feel pressured to do something awesome with 2000+ feet of altitude and with some climbs involved.

Racing in the mountains was a new experience, so I was a tad nervous.  We got up to Whistler 2 days before the race so I could get somewhat acclimated.  The weather in Whistler has been all over the place, so I didn’t know what to expect at 7:30am on raceday.  Woke up at 6am, room service was late and oh yeah, it was raining steadily. 

But we had some luck and the sun was starting to come out.  You couldn’t see all of the mountain peaks, but you saw enough blue skies and that was enough.  I saw CP at the start after my warm-up jog from the hotel, and before we knew it, we were off.  I thought I was going to be cold at the start but I actually felt really good in the short-sleeves and shorts.  Nice.

Coming down Blueberry Hill!

My race strategy with Kim was to do marathon pace for the 1^st 5-6 miles, then transition to half marathon pace for 4 miles, and then just give it whatever I had.  The 1^st 2 miles, which included a mile long steep climb along Blueberry Hill (well known to the locals!), went exactly as I wanted.  I felt good and thought that maybe altitude wouldn’t be an issue.  In the 3^rd mile, I stayed steady on the downhill, saw Marc and headed to Alta Lake – miles 4 and 5.

This ended up being a pretty tough stretch of the course with a deceiving quick uphill, which coincided with my bib ripping from the waist holder I wear. Normally not an issue but the timing chip was on it and I didn’t know where they would have timing mats. Holding it for the next 9 miles was not really a good option.  I figured out a fix but felt like I was working really hard at this stage.  Hmmm…

I was checking my splits and I was doing ok for the 1^st 5 miles, but I wasn’t feeling awesome about the fact that I was supposed to reverse split the rest of the course.  As we were in Canada, the mile marker signs were actually kilometer marker signs.  I knew what my 10K time should be, but didn’t really work on conversions (i.e., pace per km as opposed to pace per mile).  So it was kind of hard to gauge my progress. 

I hit 10K and was surprised that I was only a minute or two off of that PR.  Saw CP, who was about 2 mins ahead of me at this stage.  At the halfway mat, I saw that my pace was actually pretty good considering only one major hill remained.  But my splits remained higher than I felt like I was working.  I just chalked it up to the altitude and that mile 4/5 stretch.  Was disappointed, but stayed positive.  Again I would see KM signs but not have any idea what it meant in miles.  But after the last half in NYC, I learned that I should just trust my body and this was not supposed to be my “A” race anyway.

I saw Marc again at around 15K and went on to the final out/back section of the course.  It then occurred to me at the 16K mark that I essentially had a 5K left, which I know is 3.1 miles. Wow, were my miles were underreported by over a half a mile? Well, maybe my calculations are wrong.  Maybe my watch was wrong.  The course was marked wrong. Whatever. Just finish and see how it goes.  I wasn’t feeling great or strong, so again I attributed this to altitude and working too hard in the 1^st half of the race.

I’m getting closer to the end.  At every KM marker, I am looking at my mileage count and doing the math. Nah, I couldn’t have been THIS off with my math? Darn you, Excel! But can I hit my original goal time? I am literally confused (not in a medically concerning way or anything, but more from a pacing perspective).  I hit 19K and it seems like it took forever to get to the 20K mark.  But as I got closer, it seemed less and less likely that the course was wrong, especially when I saw the “1K LEFT” sign.

Obviously I am feeling tired in this last bit, but I am doing ok – at least better than I was in March in NYC.  I see CP in the last ¼ mile who yells something about 1:50 as I get to the finish, and see Marc.  I look down at my watch, am pleasantly surprised AND puzzled to see 1:49:03 (I always wait until I am past the photographers before stopping the watch).  Really, a new PR?  Wow.

Official new PR: 1:48:58 – 53 second PR on a much tougher course with altitude, some hills, etc. Stunning outcome considering this wasn’t an “A” race.  Hmmm….

After my last 2 PRs, I have to say that I wasn’t as pleased about them as maybe I should have been because I made some dumb mistakes.  This one felt REALLY, REALLY good.  And CP’s promises about the race being awesome with crowd support, picturesque course and being really well run?  Yep, check on all of the above.  Thanks, CP, and of course, thanks to Marc for being the usual amazing support partner that a gal can hope for.

CP and I post-race. She also ran a great race!

So the ‘kinda’ really references how I don’t know how the ‘means’ and the ‘end’ were impacted by each other because the culprit was the watch not recording due to the many trees and turns (thanks, PuddleThumper). 

P.S. – The ice water in Whistler is REALLY cold. Throw in some ice, and you have life changing ice bath conditions. My legs were numb for 5 minutes post-ice bath. Holy cow.