Well! I did run the Half Marathon in Montréal on Sep 24 which is part of the Rock N Roll series of Marathons worldwide.
Leading up to the race, the training went well. I did the half marathon distance two weeks prior to the race in 2hr19 at what was for me a conservative pace. Taking 10 minutes off that time would be easy on race day, so I thought. Little did I know.
About a week prior to the race I started to look at the long term weather forecasts for Montréal. It did not look good but the weather guessers often get it wrong especially that long in advance. However, as the week went by the forecasts did not change. It was going to be hot and humid.
I was hoping that the organizers would start the race earlier than the planned 9:00AM start and on Thursday (Sep 20), they announced that the full marathon race (42.2K) was cancelled because of the expected heat. Those that were registered for that race could run the half marathon instead or get reimbursed. With regards to the half marathon, the start was going to be one hour earlier with a time limit of three hours. The earlier start made a big difference in my decision to go.
On the day before the race, the forecast was for 30C with a humidex of 39C in the afternoon and no clouds.
Given the forecast, I had resolved that I would do it with a goal of simply finishing under 2hr30 and use extreme caution so as not to get a heat stroke. I would also take in more liquids (water & Gatorade) than I would normally in a race of that distance and I would walk while taking in the liquids.
I estimated that I could run one hour at an easy pace before the heat slowed me down and that is exactly what happened. The announced humidex at the time of the start was 29C. I took off at a conservative pace and after about one hour I started to feel the heat. When we were shielded from the sun by trees or tall buildings I could still do a shuffle but when we were directly under the sun I had to take some walk breaks as my head was getting very light. A lot of runners were doing the same walk and run shuffle.
I was quite glad when the finish line came up and that I was under the revised goal of 2hr30. My official time was 2hr28:09. At the finish line I was at times walking like a drunk until I could get some food and liquids in my stomach.
According to the official results, I was 8,632 out of 18,644 registered and 156 out of 316 in the men 60-64 category. Those numbers are misleading because as far as I can tell, there were only 11,611 finishers. Thousands did not start the race or did not finish it.
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loginSunday (Oct 15) I revisited the 10 km run I did last year as a comeback 10 km race. Based on my last track workout two weeks prior, I knew that last year's time of 57:08 would be easily beaten provided the weather cooperated. Well, I beat it by 3:44 for an official time of 53:24. I was 2nd out of 7 in my age category (60-69) and 35th out of 242 overall. I was quite happy with those results. For the first time ever I followed a pace bunny. I followed the 55:00 pace bunny to 7 km and then I went for it as I still had a lot of juice left. He really helped me hold back at the start, thus the reason that I was able to do negative splits.
Here's a picture taken by a professional near the finish line.
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loginI am now planning to run another 10 km race this coming Sunday in Moncton. It will be my last race this year.
