my poor neglected log!

I got swamped by work and an exam.

Anyway, the Hypo half went well. I was quite pleased. I decided that I felt so crappy that watching my watch or Garmin was only going to make it worse, so I went without. There were only two of us from the club in that race, and we started off together but we were too far back, I think, and I found a hole and he didn't. For the first few minutes I was trying to stick with a legion of gray jackets (from a running club in Montreal, I think), but they were going ever so slightly too fast. My feet were quite frozen and maybe the rest of me too...I needed to warm up. I hadn't done so before the race.

Anyway, I spent most of the race alone....once that initial rush/scurry was over, I was in my place, and that was that. I decided to keep one woman in my sights, and then she dropped out after the first loop. well, after a while, I started catching up and passing people. I caught one or two and then suddenly it felt like a race: mustn't let them catch up again. Actually, to be completely accurate: man, I'm going to feel so foolish if they catch up. And so Pride kicked in and revved things up. Sometime during the 2nd loop, I started breaking down the course....mainly, each straight stretch was a day; there were roughly seven of them in a loop, so that was a week. Four weeks: a month, plus the little bit at the end which I figured would seem endless. It's about five weeks until my husband comes back for R&R, so I really got into this. As the race progressed, my brain shut down and I lost count...near the end, I realized that February was going to have 30 days according to my reckoning. It didn't matter. The point was to feel like each little bit was a big accomplishment and yet quite short and apparently finite. THe visual aspect helped a lot more than I'd realized--last time I'd done this, I'd used miles, not knowing where each of them would fall, but it had still worked well--this time, I could see the intersection and charge for it. it worked even better.

It felt ok at first, picking it up, but I was continuing to speed up, I think, and I remember thinking at one point during the 3rd loop (near the beginning of it, I think) that there was no way I could go for pretty much half the race like this, but then I didn't want to have gone out too fast and then faded, so I kept going. And I kept passing more people. First it was people I had trailed, then people who I thought I'd never catch up with, then people who I didn't even recognize. I don't think I passed a huge number who had been ahead of me, maybe 8 or so? 12? I wasn't keeping track. To add to the confusion were the multiple loops and the early start for walkers, so there were people spread out all over the course and I was lapping people too. And there were a few times that I was drawing close to someone, and then thinking, hey, I should be passing them more quickly if I'm lapping them...and then I realized that, no, they were moving faster than that and they had actually been ahead of me...HAD BEEN.

I'm doing my best to write this up without sounding like a pig, lol. I felt more apologetic than triumphant--I was definitely on my own gear. A couple of times, I considered taking it easy for a bit and drafting off of someone else, and so I hung back a little, but that felt too constrained. I just had to go. I felt a bit guilty, but in retrospect less so than last year at this race--I drafted off a couple of people for about nine miles and then passed them. That's pretty low and slimy, I think. LOL. But actually it was the same sort of deal...they started to slow down but I was stuck in gear.

Anyway, I was starting to get really tired and I was getting more and more afraid that I was slowing down, so I tried to keep pushing, keep my strides light and fast...that definitely helped, too.

Each time I passed someone, I felt more apprehensive about them passing me later on, so I tried to pass them strongly, and then that momentum kept me going.

At this point, I had frost on my shirt and my legs were pretty tired....breathing-wise, I was ok, and I didn't really notice the wind or cold anymore.

And then, it was the end. The bit at the end had a bend in it AGAIN--gosh, I was pissed. This was my least favourite part of the old course: that 1.1k bit had a bend in it which was visually deceiving. Here, again, the same deal, and I could see people way off down past the bend...fortunately, I got more mad than defeated, and I got to the bend and the volunteer told me to turn around that pylon right there. I asked him again to be sure. The thing was only a few metres away. Gosh, how nice!

The stretch back was, well....I counted down with the trees at first, and then I realized that the finish line was closer than expected, too, so that put a big lift in my gait and that was that.

It was an amazing race. I'm definitely leaving the toys home next time. They wouldn't have helped anyway....I would have probably pushed myself over the first 5K or so (5k: 25:36, which is slow), and then crashed. My 10k split was 50:53 so that meant that the last 6.9 miles went by in 53:35ish min (I think)and knowing that I was going that speed at the time might have freaked me out. Too fast! lol. So, honestly, I think having the numbers would have been a disadvantage. My body wanted to start out slow and pick it up, and there wasn't anything to stop it from doing so.

This makes the Winterman marathon an easy call: no Garmin either. That's going to get pretty trippy. It's 5K loops too, which is nice....but 8 of them and I'm already fretting about losing count!