The race report that won't be: Around the Bay 2017

So, my first ever DNS.

Going all out with the photoshops today

Back it up two weeks. My piriformis syndrome was acting up a bit, and after tweaking my knee during a run off the bike, I decided to pack it in on running for a few days (look at me being all smart and shit).

But I wasn't feeling great. I was getting headaches every day - nothing major, just enough to be annoying, and feeling just kind of blah. And given the minimal running, my Trainerroad workouts were feeling oddly hard. Last Saturday in fact, I woke up, looked at the 3 hour TR workout I was supposed to do, and just knew there was no way. I subbed in a 90 minute tempo/sweet spot workout instead, and had to drop the intensity by 10% when I couldn't get my heart rate and breathing under control. That's pretty unusual for me.

I just figured it was taperitis (is there an ICD-10 code for that?) and didn't think about it much. If I'd looked at my resting heart rate info on Garmin Connect, maybe I would have realized sooner what was going on. Maybe.

Monday night I was in the middle of making some baked eggs when I essentially had to flee the room because the smell was unbearable. Lying in bed, the alternating fever/chills, body aches, and pounding headache kicked in.

Yep.

Influenza.

So Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday essentially became complete writeoffs, and I got really sick of Netflix asking me if I was still there. And also the colour of my bedroom walls. Yesterday was better as the fever and aches subsided and I was able to move around the house without needing to take naps after each outing to another floor, and today I feel pretty OK other than a lingering cough and sore throat. But it's pretty obvious that running the race tomorrow would be a terrible idea and an unpleasant experience (honestly, I probably wouldn't even make it 5k).

So that sucks, But I'm not even really upset about it. This would have been my sixth ATB, so it's not like I'm missing out on my first time ever doing the race. I am going to miss getting to hang out with my running/tri friends, but there will be other chances for that. It's a little annoying to have spent the money (and I wasn't able to get the deferral option before the deadline), but sunk costs and all. I don't think I was in shape for a PB, but I got what I wanted out of training, which was to start to feel fast again. So really, it's OK. Now I can focus on resting after this stupid illness and then getting ready for Guelph Lake.

(I may look at the Mississauga half as a sort of consolation prize, if I can get in some solid workouts - might as well take advantage of my current conditioning, after all. However, not making any decisions until I'm more fully recovered from being sick)

That said, since I'm feeling much better other than the cough, I still want to support my friends and teammates in some way. So I'm going to try my hand at a bit of race photography and hopefully get some semi-decent pics of the people I know (and I won't even charge as much as the race photographers!).

(Although I reserve the right to bail out of this whole idea if it's pouring rain. In that case, y'all are on your own).

Good luck to everyone I know running, and look for me staring with puzzlement at the DSLR I only sort-of know how to use most likely somewhere between the 16-17k mark*. Give me a wave and I'll and take your picture!

*possibly the 19k mark instead if I get down there and the lighting won't work for what I have in mind at that location. One or the other.

*taps microphone* This thing still on?

Time to blow the dust off this thing and maybe play a little catch up, shall we?

Now, what did I write about last? Right. Road 2 Hope. Where I set up my training paces for ATB. Which is now about 3 weeks away, so sort of missed blogging that entire training cycle. Oops.

Obligatory run proof picture.

I've been primarily focused on running, trying to get back my speed. Thanks to a killer training plan from Coach Z, I'm feeling pretty good. The paces that were oh-so-hard back in December are getting easier and easier.

Run volume is up over the last few years - even the year I was marathon training!

It's been a lot of volume, compared to what I've done previously, which has made for some interesting very early morning runs and even the occasional evening run when that was the only time I could fit things into my schedule. I don't enjoy evening winter runs - it's just so hard to talk myself off the comfy couch to go out into the cold, and the darkness plus heavy evening traffic makes me nervous. The sheer volume of drivers who can't be bothered to use their damn turn signals is astonishing. Fortunately due to the relative mildness of the winter, I was able to use the track for some of those runs, where even though it's dark at least no one is going to make a left turn directly into me!

Night runner attemps to set up cool instagram photo and has total fail. This was the best of the lot. I should just stick to taking pictures of food, really.

So yeah, definitely haven't been slacking on the running. Nor have I been slacking on the cycling. Just finished the high volume Olympic base training plan on TrainerRoad, which was good if occasionally painful fun.

Rearranged a whole level of the house and now I have a real paincave.

I started the build plan this week, although I will take a break from it around ATB to allow for taper/recovery. The main triathlon goal race this year is Guelph Lake I in June, with the Milton sprint beforehand as a warmup and Niagara in July because if I'm going to do two Subaru series races, I might as well add a third to get in on the series point thing. Then Iron Girl in August for fun. I'm not sure at this point if I'll do any late season triathlons. Since the current plan is to maybe possibly think about running a marathon (!) at Road 2 Hope in November, I will probably want to focus more on running at that point. Dunno. That second half of the year is a bit up in the air.

Trainer selfies all basically look the same.

Swimming is...well I've been to the pool, usually twice a week. Occasionally three times. Sometimes once. Holding pattern there; basically just maintaining fitness. Pool hours are a pain in the ass to schedule around, and I lack the motivation to really put in the kind of effort that would be required at this point to make significant improvements to my swim. So, I play mermaid a few times a week and call it good.

The band is an evil torture device.

So that's the catch up. Lots of run and bike, a little swim, and a big race coming up. I'll be back with a race report in a few weeks.

Oh, goals? You want to hear about my ATB goals?

Well, the answer is I don't know. Although this training cycle has gone really well and I'm feeling pretty strong and in good shape to match last year's effort, a lot will depend on how my back is feeling on race day. I've been diagnosed with piriformis syndrome - a somewhat dubious diagnosis for various reasons, since the evidence base for its existence is somewhat, shall we say, nonexistent.  The cluster of symptoms is real (and I have all of them!), but the exact underlying cause is somewhat questionable. But that said, identifying that my 'hamstring' pain really originates in my low back has been a gamechanger in treating it - rather than weeks of pain, with the right treatment I can get it calmed down within a day or two, using stretches, foam roller work, and my best friend the heating pad.

But when it's flared up speedwork can't happen. So if I'm in a rough patch around the race (or it flares up during the race), well, speed will be out of the question. So at this point I'm largely planning to keep my training partner Fab from going out too damn fast over the first 10k, then will see how things are feeling. Hope for the best, but prepared to jog it in if I need to. I've certainly run this race enough times now that I don't have anything to prove to myself - and my main goal this winter was to regain my run speed, which I already know I've done. So no matter how the race ends up turning out, I'm happy with where things are right now.

Around the Bay 2016 race report

...and it only took five tries to finally learn how to pace this race properly. It doesn't matter that I intellectually know that going out too fast will cost me late in the race (especially as the distances get longer). Somehow I have to experience it myself to really believe it. Over and over and over again.

I have not been very smart with this race in the past. Although I've gotten better every year!

This year? A+. It was a good day. Two races this year, two PBs. And I continue my streak of PBing ATB every time. Also my streak of terrible finish line photos for the year, although I'd kind of like to end that one.

So how'd the day unfold?

As Nicole put it, the ritual is soothing.

First up, last second wardrobe change with the addition of a vest to all that stuff up there. Since it turned out to be pretty damn cold at the start. 

Got a ride with my brother to the race, arriving stupidly early as we always do. Tradition! Other guy is my husband, Steve, bundled up before his first ever ATB. Thanks to Irina for the pic.

You see how early we are? Practically the first people there! Yes, we are the people who actually show up at 7 to your party when you tell us that it starts '7-ish'. Sorry.

Hung around being nervous, visiting the bathroom, etc, while the running/tri friend crew gathered.

That's a lot of very fit people. Again thanks to Irina for the pic!

Ivanka was going to start the race with me and Steve, but at some point on the way to the start we lost her (foreshadowing: I could have titled this race report "Ivanka Lost and Found"). We did see my friend Christina and also ran into Mari in the start corral. It's so fun to go to races and meet so many people I know! Some encouraging words, shedding of throw away layers, and we were off.

First 10k

5:31/5:23/5:24/5:29/5:24

5:22/5:24/5:25/5:21/5:19

10k: 54:02

There were more people in the way this year than I remembered from last year - maybe because of the self selecting corrals instead of requiring people to prove their times, or maybe they just weren't policing things on the way into the corrals. At one point I had to dodge a woman walking. WTF, dude. But overall it wasn't too bad. And it helped a bit to keep that first km on target, as my pacing plan was to try and stay closer to 5:30 for the first few km, then work down to 5:25/km.

Early in the race. I can tell because I'm still wearing my gloves, my ponytail is super enthusiastic, and Steve is with me (awwwww).

Still overshot my target a little bit (it's so hard not to with all the race excitement!) but I kept things largely in check for the first 5k. Looking at some of my past ATBs where I've done crazy things like run the first 3k at 5:17/km?? It's a big improvement in pacing! It helped having my husband alongside reminding me to keep it easy. We also found Ivanka again early in the race for a bit and ran more or less together. At around 5k Steve decided to pick up the pace and disappeared into the distance.

And shortly after I lost Ivanka. Again. She's a tricky one to keep track of! Maybe I need to get her one of those kiddie leash backpacks.

My legs, to be honest, were feeling like garbage through the first 6-7k. It seemed to take a really long time to warm up and get them on board with the whole race thing. So although the race was going well, my confidence was not super high. Which in the end may have been a good thing, as it helped me avoid the temptation to speed up! Took a gel at 8k without any issues.

The wind on the Burlington St section of the course was at our backs, which meant I was a little too hot, but it was handy to have it pushing us up the overpass hills. I don't mind running through the industrial section of Hamilton (to be honest I find it a lot more interesting to look at than the run-down neighbourhoods the race used to go through), but the three additional hills definitely change the flavour of the race a bit.

10-15k

5:23/5:29/5:24/5:23/5:25

15k: 1:21:06

The run along the beach strip, where I manged to basically waterboard myself grabbing a drink at the water station. You'd think I'd have mastered drinking water at this point in my life. YOU WOULD BE WRONG.

I think this photographer was just before the water station where I almost drowned. Happy happy joy joy.

Ended up running behind/with Sam and Nicole for a while, but I was in my own little world since I was in a good pace zone/groove and rudely didn't chat or ask them how things were going. Sorry guys, got my race face on.

When I hit the 15k timing mat at the lift bridge I was feeling great. I was a little ahead of my goal pace, although not so much as to be scary. Just enough to know I had some wiggle room for the hills. And it was looking good to be under 2:45 gun time as well as chip time. 

16-20k

5:25/5:23/5:27/5:22/5:29

20k: 1:48:12

I was in the zone for this section. Took my second gel, and just held pace pretty well. People always say the last 10k of ATB is hilly, but really the hills start right when you turn onto Northshore, with a gradual incline up to King Rd. But I was feeling really good! In fact I was kind of marveling at how great my legs felt. A couple of people from my tri club were out at King with our team flag and I made sure to snag some high fives for encouragement. That sort of thing really helps! Hit the 20k mat feeling like a million bucks.

21-25k

5:42/5:49/5:23/5:28/5:19

25k: 2:15:53

This is the danger zone. This is where you tackle the two LaSalle Park hills. In my experience, this is where you learn if you ran that first 10k too fast, and just how much that is going to pay you back. IN PAIN. #melodramatic

21 includes the first Lasalle hill. I don't try and kill myself maintaining pace on that one. There's no point. Accept that you will slow down and hope you can make some of it back later. Or that you have enough time in the bank to compensate. Natalie from the tri club was waiting here on her bike and rode a bit of the hill with me, telling me I was looking really good and strong. And I was feeling good and strong. First main hill done. Thanks, Natalie!

22k was also a bit slow because I walked the water station to make sure I got some fluids down. If there's one thing I learned at the Chilly, it's that you can walk for 15 seconds, get down your nutrition, and then restart strong. It's worth the little time sacrifice. 

The second Lasalle hill, though. Oh boy. All aboard the pain train. My legs were not happy with the climb, and let me know they were really, really ready for a break. Shut up, legs. I pushed forward and brought the pace back down once I crested the hill (which takes approximately a thousand years because that hill is mad deceptive).

Where Northshore turns up to Plains, it was time for another round of my new favourite game, OMG Hey That's Ivanka! And not the fake Ivanka like the girl I yelled hello at earlier in the race who turned out to be someone else!

It was a happy thing to have someone to run with, because we sort of traded back and forth who was pushing a little harder and who was falling behind. I don't think we actually spoke to each other (I may have muttered some curse words about running in general at one point), but just having someone there is so helpful. I was starting to fall apart a little bit. Not too much, and I kept pushing, but ohhhhhhhhhhh it was hurting. "I'm never doing this race again. Finish this race and you never have to do it again" was about the only thing I was thinking.

26-30k

5:28/5:41/5:30/5:15/5:15

30k: 2:43:21

In km 27 I was struggling. I felt like I was on the edge of giving up. I remembered how last year I kind of fell apart completely with less than 2k to go. I decided to give myself 15 seconds to get in my emergency bottle of Skratch and hope that would give me a boost to get through the last few km.

Those last 3 km took approximately 10 million years to actually run. It was a bit of a blur. Ivanka fell behind at some point (lost again! Damn it!), and then I realized the guy I was running behind was my husband! I'd caught up to him. He ran with me for a few minutes (I think we made it past the Grim Reapers together) and then he told me to push hard and go. So I did. Dropped the hammer with 2k left, telling myself 10 minutes. Just ten more minutes. 

It really, really hurt.

Running is the worst. I better go faster so I can stop sooner.

And the arena wasn't getting any closer.

Why is this last km taking so long??

But I could see on my watch I was going to be around 2:43 if I could just. keep. going.

Turning the corner, almost done pain face.

The sheer agony of the run to the finish - and the sheer joy when you hit your goal, the pain stops, and you know you did the best you could have.

So.... close...

Chip time: 2:43:21

Gun time: 2:44:55.6 (pretty tickled I got in under 2:45 gun time too!)

Overall: 1614/5255

Gender: 457/2589

Age group: 82/385

This would be a great finish picture if it had been taken by the camera on the other side of the chute. Sigh.

I'm so thrilled with how this ended up. I paced it well (which is really clear from my placings through the race - at 10k I was #2001. By the finish I'd moved up almost 400 places!). I was strong. When it sucked I kept going. I earned that PB, not just in the race, but in the many many hours of training I've put in this winter. Very, very satisfying.

I love this race, and I'll be back again. I've done it every year since I started running and it's my big benchmark of improvement every year. Why stop now?

Aren't we adorable? So happy my husband finally joined me for this race! He's already thinking about next year.

Putting together a nice collection of these!

Around the Bay taper week

Took a pause in the Muskoka training plan this week to prep for an attempt at a PB at Around the Bay. Which meant, taper!

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 2000m swim, 8k run
Wednesday: 2200m swim
Thursday: 6k run, TR Black (1 hour aerobic)
Friday: rest
Saturday: TR Taku-1 (30 min aeorobic)
Sunday: 30k Around the Bay; TR Recess 40 (40 min recovery)

I kind of felt blah and gross for much of this week. Which isn't entirely unexpected with taper. Or with the amount of food I ate over Easter weekend. Or with all the leftover Easter stuff I was eating (damn coworkers leaving candy in the kitchen). Geeze in retrospect no wonder I wasn't feeling great! I ended up switching my plans around and taking the easier option in a couple of places, since taper is supposed to be about resting and building energy towards the race, not killing yourself doing a workout you don't really feel up to.

Obvious shirt choice is obvious for pre-race intervals. Turns out it was also foreshadowing for this year's ATB shirts.

Overall, though, it went well. The end result was I hit the start line feeling pretty good on Sunday morning. But you'll have to wait for the race report for all the gory details on that!

Ordered something from Amazon for Sam. This is the item and the box they sent it in. WTF??

 Spent entirely too much time agonizing over the weather forecast for the race. There's really no point in even worrying about it until the day before, and yet I still found myself checking multiple times a day (really, what else was I going to do with all the free time I had this week? Clean the house? HAHAHAHAHAHA). In the end it turned out to be a pretty great day for racing, but as the snow was flying on Saturday evening it sure wasn't encouraging!

Not much else to say since I'm saving all the good stuff for the race report. I'm mean like that.

This weeks plan:

????????

It's recovery time after the race, so I'm just going to make this up as I go along. Cannot wait to get into the pool tomorrow, though. My legs are sore and a swim always helps! Although the good news is I'm not nearly as wrecked, physically, as I was after this race last year. I'll be good to restart the training plan next week.

Muskoka base build week 3 + Around the Bay race week!

Another solid week in the books!

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 1900m swim; TR Owens (60 minutes VO2max) + 3k brick run
Wednesday: 8k run; 2100m swim
Thursday: TR Phoenix (90 minutes tempo)
Friday: TR Petit (60 minutes aerobic) + 8k easy run
Saturday: 17k long run
Sunday: TR Makalu (3:45 aerobic) + 9k brick

Ended up flipping a few things around on the schedule due to Easter travel commitments, and I wasn't able to fit in a third swim. But overall, a great week!

Just standing in the rain after a brick run, as one does.

The Tuesday brick is feeling pretty good, and gives me a way to add a few more run km into the week without being too taxing. After ATB I'll likely continue that and eventually build it up to 5-7k. It's also a nice way to recover after the VO2 workouts - my legs seem to feel better with that little bit of running, rather than just collapsing directly onto the couch.

Cootes Paradise on my Wednesday run

I had a couple of really good swims this week, and the trainer rides felt great too. Starting to get really antsy to get back outside, though! Still a ways away from open water swimming, but hopefully after ATB the long rides will move outside again. I will likely stick with the trainer on weeknights. Partially because there's a lot of benefit to trainer rides (can hold steady effort, targeted workouts, catching up on movies and TV shows, safe), but also due to scheduling. It's a lot easier to schedule my trainer time around the kid's activities than it is to schedule riding outside.

(I also kind of want to knock out a 100k trainer ride, just to say that I did it. I guess we will see what happens with the weather in April!)

Saturday I got to run with my husband and brother on the country roads near my parent's house, which was a lot of fun. Even though they are both faster than me so it ended up being a little more tempo-ish than was probably ideal. And there was the little matter of the giant angry dog that chased us early in the run. He didn't get any closer than about 150m or so, but he was a very large german shepherd-esque beast and we really weren't sure how we were going to deal with the situation if he caught up to us. So we got some unplanned speekwork there.

My husband looking back to see if it had stopped following us while I'm all 'nope, I'm out of here, losers'. Not sure why my brother was taking pictures. Maybe he was going to throw his phone at the dog.

With my brother, pre-dog attack.

Too many damn hills in the country. Stupid glaciers.

Sunday, after my stupidly long bike ride and brick session, it was off to the inlaws for Easter dinner. I restrained myself from elbowing any small children or elderly people out of my way to get at the food.

Man, holiday meals after a big workout are the greatest thing ever. ALL THE FOOD.

Next up, Around the Bay. The weather is looking increasingly shitty, but I can't do anything about that. Goal is to get that sub 2:45, hopefully by a few minutes rather than a few seconds. Plan is keep calm, cool, and collected for the first 5k and NOT GO OUT TOO FAST LIKE I ALWAYS DO. This race is an especially bad one to start too fast, because you will pay hard on the Northshore hills. As I've learned. All four times I've done this race.

Time to rest up to have the best shot at another PB for the year:

Monday: rest
Tuesday: swim; pre-race interval run (6x400m @ 5:00/km with 400m recoveries)
Wednesday: TR (60 minutes - either a easy sweet spot workout or an easy aerobic ride, depending on how I feel)
Thursday: swim; 9k run with 5k at race pace
Friday: rest
Saturday: TR Taku -1 (30 minute easy)
Sunday: 30k Around the Bay; TR Recess 40 (recovery)

If anyone out there has any pull with the weather, please to turn off the wind for Sunday morning. Thanks every so much.

Muskoka 70.3 build week 2

Another week done. Two weeks until Around the Bay, so it's time for everyone's favourite activity, agonizing over the weather forecast. Yay!

I'll allow it.

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 2100m swim; TR Shortoff +1 (1 hour - VO2 max intervals) + 3k brick run
Wednesday: 12k run; 2100m swim
Thursday: TR - McAdie (1:30 - over/unders)
Friday: 8k easy run; TR - Petit (1 hour - recovery)
Saturday: 27k easy run; 2000m swim
Sunday: TR - Phoenix (1:30 - tempo) + 7k brick run

Really solid week! I was somewhat surprised to realize, while poking around my Veloviewer stats, that that's the most running (distance wise) I've done in a week in a quite a long time. I ended up at 57k this week - the last time I ran that much was September of 2014! And what's amazing is how good it feels. I really think all the aerobic slogging I've been doing on the bike is paying off on the run. It just feels so much easier.

My favourite local climb

I also added a second brick workout in this week. I've been considering it for a while but I was kind of waiting for daylight savings time so I wouldn't have to do the weekday brick in the dark. I have no problem running before dawn, but I'm more reluctant to run on dark evenings - there's just so much more traffic in my neighbourhood in the evening. But now that sunset is later I'm more comfortable doing that run. I'll be keeping it short (3-5k) for a few weeks, though. No need to add on a long one there at this point.

My feelings on the week. Also fulfilling the awkward selfie quota for the week.

So running feels good, just in time for the big spring race. Can't complain about that. The bike is going well - loving the variety of workouts in the Trainerroad plan. A little VO2 suffering, some aerobic, some tempo. And of course, the return of over/unders, which are basically a little glimpse of hell.

My one regret on the week is we forgot to take any pictures on the group long run! What the hell, Sam, aren't you supposed to be on top of these things? My husband was able to come, and we convinced Zindine to make the trek to Burlington too. Just too bad Nicole couldn't join us.

A group picture would be better here than my pasty winter legs.

 Random food pictures because #hungrytriathlete:

Mmmmmm, granola. Needed a bigger bowl.

The whole food situation is a problem right now, really. Twice this week I woke up in the middle of the night starving and had to go eat a handful of almonds before I could get back to sleep. This is an issue!

TACOS OMG YUM

Stuffed my lunchbag so full I could barely close the zipper this morning - and it's all been eaten already.  Fueling without resorting to an all-junkfood diet is getting difficult.

So what's the plan for this week, other than eating all the things?

Monday: rest
Tuesday: swim, TR (VO2s) + brick run
Wednesday: some sort of interval or tempo run
Thursday: swim. TR (long tempo)
Friday: EZ run; TR (recovery)
Saturday: long run
Sunday: TR (long aerobic) + brick run

(since the workout names aren't very illuminating, I'm going to start listing the TR workouts by their purpose instead)

With the holiday weekend and all the travel we'll have to do to see family, swimming on the weekend probably won't happen. What can you do. Just hope I can fit everything else in!

Around the Bay 2015 Race Report

The light makes that second one look gold, HAHAHAHAHA. It is not. All bronze.

Around the Bay #4 is in the books. I have always had a lot of trouble pacing this race. 2015 would be no different, but the end result is something I'm pretty proud of.

So what happened?

Race day, just like last year, dawned cold, leading me to second guess all my clothing choices. That is also an Around the Bay race tradition. But I resisted the urge to overdress and stuck with my long sleeve and crops combo - basically the same thing I wore for Road 2 Hope, since that worked there and conditions looked similar.

Amusing myself pre-race.

My brother picked me up and we got to Coppsthe arena (whatever it's called now) absurdly early, as is our family tradition. It's all about tradition with this race. It was nice to relax and have time to chat nervously with the rest of the Daily Mile crew as they arrived.

We were much less sweaty and wearing a lot more clothes in the pre-race pictures. Thanks Irina for the pic!

Soon enough one last trip through the bathroom line and then Amy and I headed back to the open corral (everyone else had corral seeding and got to be fancy up at the front). We worked our way to the right position by the pace signs, and within a few minutes we were off.

Amy and I going to work. I'm way too cool for this race in my sexy shades.

Amy was planning a somewhat slower pace, so it wasn't long before I was solo. The plan was to run 5:28/km.

(as an aside, I'm super impressed with how well the corral system has worked over the last two ATBs. My first two ATBs the first km or two were a mess of dodging walkers - since they started the corrals I've been able to get to pace almost immediately, and no dodging around anyone)

1-5k: 5:25/5:24/5:24/5:21/5:23

Not so much with the 5:28s. Saw Patty for a bit, and we wondered what on earth was going on with the pacers. Not only was the 2:45 pacer well ahead of us, the 2:50 pacer was too! In fact for the first 3km the 2:50 pacer was in front of the 2:45 pacer (and he was well under 2:45 pace, too). I overhead the 2:50 pacer say something about her Garmin not working, so I knew I would need to just ignore the pacers and try not to let it mess with my head to have them in front of me. The 2:50 pacer did eventually fall behind, but it took quite a while. At least it gave me something to think about for the first part of the race!

6-10k: 5:29/5:32/5:26/5:20/5:25
10k split by the race clock: 53:36

The first 10k felt great. Obviously. Too fast. Although I did settle the pace down a little over the Burlington St. rollers (I'd forgotten how steep that first one is. And the second one you don't get to the downhill for quite a while so it felt like that km took forever). Around the ramp and over the 10k timing mat. Feeling fantastic. Even chatted briefly with another runner about triathlons (she was wearing a tri club jacket from a town where I'm doing a tri this summer). Took a gel at 8k, as usual. All systems go!

11-15k: 5:24/5:27/5:26/5:28/5:34
15k split by the race clock: 1:20:34

On the beach strip I found myself running with the 2:45 pacer, and he now seemed to be hovering around the 5:28/km or so I was aiming for, so I stuck with his group for a bit. There wasn't any wind, and I was starting to overheat a touch (I'd discarded my gloves within the first 3k of the race). I was a little worried about my clothing options, but nothing to do about it at that point. Crossed the 15k timing mat at the lift bridge feeling strong and confident.

16-20k: 5:19/5:27/5:29/5:26/5:36
20k split by the race clock: 1:47:41

After the lift bridge the route is no longer sheltered by houses on either side, and it felt like there was a bit of wind. Nothing too bad, and I took a gel at 16k. Spotted a Daily Mile friend (Ivanka) and said hello.

And then we turned onto Northshore. And it was a little like a switch flipped in my legs - my quads suddenly started to quietly protest. Although the true Northshore hills come later, km 18 and 19 have enough elevation change that you can start to feel it. And then 20k has the first real hill. The pace was no longer coming easy. And it got colder, so at least I was no longer worried about being overdressed!

21-25k: 5:50/5:41/5:37/5:40/5:33

Womp womp. Oh, those Northshore hills. Doesn't seem to matter how often I run them in training, they still kick my ass in the race. I ran them stronger than I ever have before during the race, but I couldn't get my legs back under me to ride the downhills fast enough to keep the pace under 5:30/km. When I crested the second big hill (the one after Lasalle Park) I was mentally preparing myself to take full advantage of the small downhill you get before you turn up to Plains...and got smacked in the face with the first real headwind of the day. I tried to tuck in behind other runners but it didn't make much difference. So instead of taking it strongly it became a struggle.

26-30k: 5:46/5:45/6:12/5:31/5:22

That little bit of headwind on the last part of Northshore? A gentle breeze compared to what awaited me on Plains and York. It was nasty. Many curse words were muttered. Again I tried to tuck in behind people but the wind just seemed to snake around them and it didn't help.

Longest. 5k. Ever.

I was somewhat delirious when I spotted this photographer, and I literally just copied the hand motion of the guy in front of me. 2 km to go? Bunny ears? Victory? Table for 2? Who the hell knows.

My quads had moved from quiet protest to picket signs and flaming oil drums and chants of Solidarity Forever ("What do we want? To stop running! When do we want it? Now!"). All I could think about (other than my burning quads) was getting some sports drink. I don't know why I fixated on that. I had water left in my Simple Hydration bottle, but I really didn't want water. And that's where that 6:12 came from - I grabbed a Gatorade from the last aid station and it tasted like heaven. The jolt of energy was exactly what I needed and I ran the last 2k in as hard as I could.

The smile is only because I know I'm about to turn into the stadium and it's ALMOST OVER.

Artist's rendition of my epic finish, since the photographers seem to have missed it. I used to work for a graphic design software company. I think my talent is obvious*.

*I wrote help files and user guides

Chip time: 2:45:15.4
Gun time: 2:46:59.7
Overall place: 2166/7277
Gender place: 657/3425
Age group place: 112/525

15.4 seconds.

15.4 seconds.

So on the one hand, AUGH. But on the other, I ain't even mad. The obvious culprit was that stop at the very last aid station - if I hadn't stopped, I wouldn't have had that 6 minute km. But if I hadn't stopped and taken the Gatorade, maybe I wouldn't have pulled out the faster last 2k and my overall time would have been even slower. If I could go back and change anything, I'd have grabbed the Gatorade the aid station BEFORE that one. That might have helped. But maybe not.

On the verge of falling over, but sure I'll stop for a pic.

At any rate, I am incredibly happy with this race. Yeah, yet again I didn't pace it properly, but I did a hell of a lot better than I ever have before. And I got my 2:45! When I think about that it's almost unbelievable to me. Paces like this were a distant, crazy dream a few years ago (my first ATB? 3:29). In addition, I got a 7+ minute PB running significantly fewer miles in training than I did last year. Again, that seems a little crazy, but it's working for me. I don't see myself going back to being a single-sport athlete when it's clear that multi sport suits me so much better.

Post race, I met back up with my brother and the DM folks and a few others. Everyone was highly amused by my sudden inability to walk. Or climb stairs. Or stand up. My quads were NOT HAPPY. Seriously when I tried to get out of my seat to take a picture with my brother it took me about 2 minutes and the help of two other people. I think I hurt less after the marathon!

'Little' bro (I never get tired of that joke, sorry I'm not sorry) set a huge new PB too!

Post race via our official photographer Irina. Fingers crossed next year you are running this with us again!

Mr. Silver medal Zindine

Finally, I want to say thanks to my 'unofficial coach' Zindine. I think I first met him at the ATB expo last year, and over the last year I've gotten to know him and his lovely wife Irina (photographer and ironman Irina!). Zindine helped guide me through buying my road bike last year, preparing for the duathlon, and then getting a indoor trainer and figuring out winter bike training. He and Irina even gave me a speed/cadence sensor for my bike to help me get totally set up. He recommended both the bike and run training plans that kicked my ass all winter long, helped me make modifications when needed, and is just absurdly generous with advice, congratulations when things go well, and commiseration when things don't. Getting put on the right track to training plans that work for what I want to achieve and that fit my abilities and the time I have available to train has been huge for me. I really don't know what I would have ended up doing without his advice - I doubt muddling through on my own would have been nearly as effective. Thank you so much for all your help, Zindine!