Race Afterthoughts and Week #3 training

The Bluenose Marathon is over for another year....and what an event it was!!  Mother nature blessed us with very cold temperatures for the morning run (my garmin said feels like -1).  No offense boys...but if I had balls...I'm pretty sure they would have been frozen!!!

Gun time was 8:10am for me...right after the full marathoners.  God bless Goodlife Fitness as they did a preshow to keep everyone warm.  It was a 'dance' style warm up...and I'm not coordinated at the best of times...but add cold to my muscles.....lets just say it wasn't pretty.  The only part I had down pat was the 'jump, jump'.  I looked around me at one point and I was the soul individual up front doing trying to do the dance moves....everyone else had moved back. It's very hard to slink away when you are up front!

The Race

It was a late minute decision to register as you know from my previous post.  Heather and I were up early and at the Expo on Saturday morning to beat the crowds.



Heather went snap happy.  LOL

Gotta be part of history

The course route is fairly flat for the first 2.3k or so.  Then you make your way up Citadel Hill, around the top, and back down, followed up by a downhill run to the turn onto Brunswick Street.  Here was my running gear (again...I hate selfies):

 



I had wanted to go in a t-shirt and my new arm warmers (thanks to Heather) but it was just too cold.

I felt really good at the start and had to remind myself that I was using this as a training run...do not push it.  There were runners with me the whole time...there was not one point that I could look around and see no one.  I was happy with my finishing time of 30.33 (per chip time) given I was training through it and continued to run after I picked up my medal!  There are race photos...but they are awful and will not be posted.  LOL

I ran to the car in an attempt to chase down Heather and Matt who were doing the 1/2 marathon.  I was driving parallel to the street they were running on and every time I looked over, all I saw were runners.  I was like 'man....how are they running just as fast as I'm driving?'  I finally managed to get ahead and stopped for a brief second to cheer them on.  They are speedy runners!!!  Heather finished with a strong 1.37 that SMASHED her prior PB and Matt ran injury free for the first time in months with a strong 1.24. YAY! I have no idea how they run that fast for that long a period of time.  Check out Matt's tank...the after shower must have hurt like crazy....ouch to chaffing!!!

And there you have it....The Scotiabank Bluenose Marathon recap.  Congrat's to all my friends who ran and made PB's!!!!

In terms of my training for the week...I managed to get one run in prior to yesterday.  That was a solid 5.6k on Thursday night.  I ran in the trail the first 1/2 and then jumped to the road at the turn around point.  It is amazing the difference you feel in push off when you go from gravel to payment...I felt like I was flying. :-)  The good news is that the cardio seems to be fine...I'm just weary of my ITB.  Next week calls for a repeat of this week with a couple 5.6k and a long run of 8k. 

Oh....and I have to put this pic in....mom dropped by to visit on Saturday afternoon and the doggies loved it.  She feeds them leftovers of whatever she happens to be munching on....bad mommy!

June is a busy month for running:

• Soul Sisters on June 8th in the evening (5k).  2,500 women running with firefighters handing out medals at the end and giving hugs.  YAY!
• Johnny Miles on June 15th - maybe 10k
• Epic Canadian (a new 5/10k run for Dartmouth around lake Banook) on June 29th.  I am registered for the 5k but spoke to the organizer who said it's easy to upgrade to the 10k if I choose.

What races are you doing next month???