Chilly Half Marathon Summary

WHAT A DAY!!!! The sun was shining, the temperatures very spring-like and the race route was beautiful (lovely homes, great crowd and scenic waterfront). The race was very well organized, the shirts bright and cheery and the camaraderie of the Barrie Running Room contingent was supportive, enthusiastic and upbeat.





The race was set to start at 10:05 and for an hour prior, we debated on what layers we needed. At 9am there was partial cloud and a slight wind, but temperatures were supposed to be 9C and sunny I ran at roughly 10am the day before and a long sleeve layer over short sleeve base layer was more than enough, so I stuck with my plan and it worked well. I needed a gel between 8-10km so I am glad I packed one at the last minute. I could have used one more bottle of water on my Fuel Belt, but still managed fine and was decently hydrated -- not over, not under.

One of our group members/co-leader, Dave, committed to being my pacer for the race which was so generous. We have trained at similar paces through the season and he pushes me just enough. We started out very well and were keeping under 6:00/km pace, but at the 8km mark, I felt the heavy legs coming on and knew I needed that gel. That helped. By 14-15km, my tights hip issues started to re-appear and that gave me something to think about for 5km.

But with 5km to go, I was pretty jazzed, kept my cool and decided not to power-up a finish until a half km to go. Dave took off for his finish with 1 km to go and he finished a minute-plus ahead of me. That was great because it gave me someone to hug when I crossed the finish line.





We wandered around post-race and found the most yellow bananas I have ever seen, so I took two. We all know how much I love bananas. They served us, very appropriately, chili. Deeeelicious. With food in tummy we wandered over to cheer on the rest of the finishers.

Then it was time to get back on the bus and head home. We seized up a bit in those cramp quarters, but again the camaraderie was fun. Runners are a great bunch of people!

I ran a full marathon, rather pathetically, back in 1994 and have not raced a race since, save for the few 5K's that Kathy and I have run in the past year. And prior to July 2009, I could not run a full kilometer, let alone 30 seconds. So here we are, after focusing on training for this race all winter long through all sorts of conditions, across the finish line. I am so proud of Kathy and I. Bring on the next challenge (which is a 30K race on May16).

Here are my stats for this, my first ever full Half Marathon! ::

Jennifer Remazki :: Bib number 1238
1579 out of 2499 Finishers
657 out of 1323 Females Finishers
116th out of 221 Females 40-44
Gun time :: 2:10:49
Chip time :: 2:08:25
Average pace per kilometer:: 6:12