First half is in the bag. I'll focus on the positives here since my overall feeling about the race was "Meh."
First of all, I think I'm going to like this distance once I'm in better shape/have a better feel for it. I'd rather face the slow burn.
I drove up to Vancouver the night before and stayed with my friend and sometimes training partner Dave. The border agents were very nice to let me through despite my expired passport. SIDE NOTE: Driving through Vancouver on a Saturday night is worse than any driving I've experienced.
I was slightly concerned last night when I um... didn't go #2, but the concern grew to worry when the streak continued this morning. After a 24 minutes jog nothing had shaken loose, and I ended up on the starting line expecting to explode halfway through the race. It is, shall we say, unusual for me to run much distance at all without my stomach having something to say about it. But my body behaved and I made it through problem free. Not only is this a default PR, I expect it to be my no-poo PR for a long time.
Temps were warm and muggy. 70s during the race and sunny. The first half was mostly shaded, but the second was under the sun. The course is pretty flat with a few rolling hills and net drop of ~80m. Starts at University of British Columbia (and I thought BYU's campus was big), and ends art Stanley Park, running mostly along the waterfront.
My general race plan was to start at 5:25-5:30 for the first 3 miles and ratchet the pace down as I felt comfortable with, hopefully sneaking into the 1:10 range. That went out the window right away as the first mile was 5:16 (slight downhill). It felt easy, so I wasn't worried. 2nd mile was 5:26 and 3rd 5:35 (slight uphill) and it all felt right. I was in a pack with the 2 lead women and a handful of other guys. I had a brief internal debate about drafting on women and found I wasn't above it. At the start they announced these girls had gone 31:40-something at Payton Jordan this year, so I figured I couldn't honestly hang with them for long in my current shape. Their early pace was perfect, though.
5k-10k had some rolling hills finishing in a big drop down to 10k. Around 6k they both threw down a strong surge and my prideful and competive side compelled me to follow. In retrospect that was stupid. I recall a couple of sub-5:20 miles, then a 5:06 down the long hill. I had 33:38 on my watch at 10k. I was still feeling good and thought I might have a 1:10 in me.
I took some water after 10k and found I am terrible and getting the cup to my mouth in stride. I think I dumped one on a volunteer. Hazard of the job? After that fiasco, I just dumped them on my head.
The first slight uphill after 10k told me differently. By 12k I was starting to struggle (40:15, which I think is a slight PR over Bloomsday). I told myself to hang on till 15k and see what happened, but the 2 women and the other guy in our pack slowly pulled away. Each uphill drained me quickly. I started to see 5:35, then 5:39, then 5:40 appearing on my watch. 10 miles was 54:30. I believe 11, 12, and 13 were 5:45, 6:00, 5:57 and I limped in the last 0.1. 20k was 1:09:0x, so roughly 35:30 for the 2nd 10k.
Positives: My first taste of the distance wasn't a complete disaster. I've got lots of room to grow. It's still early in my season, and once I start cranking out higher volume and workouts, I expect the fitness to come around nicely. I know what to expect the next time around and have a new respect for the distance. Also, the course was gorgeous. Couldn't have asked for better scenery than following the waterfront of Vancouver for 13 miles.
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