Police Half Marathon race report

I really enjoyed running the Police Half last year so it was very easy choice to sign up again this year. I like the course and there seems to be a fair bit of crowd support and volunteers. And I think I have mentioned before that I like running races that I have perviously run to judge where I am with my running, lol. Sooo here is how it went.....

I wasnt sure how the weather was going to be today but I was hoping for no rain/snow at the least. Luckily it did neither...just no sun. I was at Mount Royal relatively early at 7am and walked around looking for my friends but no dice. I decided to race with my ipod last minute, walked back to my vehicle and grabbed it. At the time it was helping with the boredom, lol. Before I knew it they were annoucing that it was 5 mins until start! By the time I got ouside I had been in the start line for 30 seconds mad and it was go time.

Right off the bat I felt pretty good and fell into a nice pace (about 5:05/km). The crowd wasnt too bad right off the start. I find that normally its horrible and claustophobic (and I am not claustaphobic). I thought I had recognized someone in the crowd a little farther up and it was a fellow blogger Leana. We had never met but I recognized her from her blog. It was nice to meet you Leana and I am sorry for misspronoucing your name. I have a friend that has the same name but different pronounciation. Hope you had a good race!

So back to the race...I felt really good at 10k. My time was about 50 mins and my pace was steady. But I decided to back off very slightly for the next 5km. I felt it was a harder section and didnt want to kill myself for the rest of the run. I took a gel and some water and contiued on.

At km 14.5 ish was the hill in Weaselhead which I didnt find that bad. I still felt pretty good at this point. No walk up the hill for me! I was glad that this part of the race was done. Pretty much flat from here on in.

I started back into my 5:05 ish pace and things were going well. But then at 16.5 km I noticed a bit of tightness in my left calf...and then a few minutes later my right. F&$#!!!! After a few minutes they went into cramp mode. I had to stop and walk them out. As the race went on I was able to stave off full on cramps but I was very close. Each time I stopped and walked briefly which helped. It was a bit frustrating but not much I could do.

The last couple of Km's were a bit better and not as tight. The last km I just ran and had no plans of stopping for the tightness. I could see that it was going to be close for my sub 2 hour goal. I gave it a good go down the chute and crossed the line at 2:00:04 by chip. I was almost 4.5 mins faster last year but I was ok with the result. I am already looking forward to the Calgary Half.

After the race I came home for some daddy/son time and let my wife have some alone time. I had planned on having a nap with Logan but he had other plans. So I ened up just playing with him for a while. Later when Shelly got home I headed on down to the basement to do an easy hour on the trainer. And I did just that...an easy hour, followed up with some stretching. Feeling pretty good tonight....we wull see how I feel in the morning!