October 2010: BMO Okanagan Half

6:15am – alarm hasn’t gone off yet. I roll over and look at the clock. 6:15. Good. Time to get a little bit more sleep.

6:30am – alarm goes off. I’m feeling good. Well rested. Awake. Grab some grapefruit juice that I bought on Saturday and drink that for breakfast.

6:40am – Get dressed. Number pinned to my top. Chip affixed to my shoe. Gel in my water belt. A second gel in my pants pocket. Room key and debit card in my long sleeve shirt.

7:00am – Enough with the nerves. The Cowboy and I walk over to the race. It’s raining.

7:10am – Arrive at the race right before the marathoners take off.

7:15am – Marathoners start. Rain lets up. Yay. Head inside the tent to drop off my shirt as I decide I don’t really need it, as it’s 15 degrees out.

7:25am – I head over to the start. I hate being rushed. Although I’ll have to stand there for 20 minutes, I figure it’s better than pacing around on the grass. I find the 2:00 finish time and line up there wishing The Cowboy good luck.

7:30am – Rain starts up again. I start jumping up and down to keep warm and stretch out.

7:42am – National anthem is sung. Still jumping to keep warm. It’s raining harder now and I’m pretty much soaked.

7:45am – We start. It takes about 2 minutes for me to cross the line. I start my Garmin so I can track my pace and time. The pace bunny is quite far ahead of me. I weave through the crowd to catch up, but try not to go out too quickly.

1km – feeling good. Warmed up. No problems with my shins yet.

2km – meet up with my clinic instructor. We start to run together.

5km – run the first 5km in 27 minutes. Faster than I’ve ran it before. And that’s running 10 and walking 1. Decide I’m on pace to finish in under 2 hours.

7km – crap. I have to pee. Maybe the 500mL of juice wasn’t such a great idea after all. Debate whether or not I want to pee. Decide to keep running.

9.82km – about halfway. And well on my way for finishing under 2 hours. Still have to pee. Decide not to. Finish my gel and feeling good with the extra energy.

12km – starting to feel tried now. The pacer has extended our intervals. Instead of walking after 10 minutes, we’re walking after 15. That extra 5 minutes feels like it’s going to kill me. Oh yeah, and I still have to pee.

15km – only 6.1km left to go. Elapsed time? 1:19. I know I can run 6km in 34 minutes, looks like I’ll finish under 2:00. Feeling good. Still have to pee.

16km – only 5.1km left to go. Easy. Still on track. Still have to pee.

18km – only 3km left go. I’m going to do it! The pacer is cheering us on, telling us to keep ahead of him and we’ll make our goal time. I feel good, shorten my stride and push a bit harder. Still have to pee.

20km – only 1.1km left to go. My legs hurt, my legs are tired, I’m not sure how much more I can push.

21km – only down the chute to go. My turnover increases, my stride is good. I’m running upright, arms pumping. I can hear the announcer announcing names, but I don’t hear mine.

21.1km – stop my watch at the finish. Breath heavily. Pick up water and my finishers medal. The Cowboy finds me. We compare times.

Mine – 1:58.40 – met my goal.

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