A Disciplined Day

This particular image came to mind this morning when I woke up today - the first day of daylight savings time, meaning one less hour sleep than usual, to a temperature of -12C, (windchill of -17C), and was scheduled to lay down a 30km run according to my Boston marathon training plan.  And despite the line in my water bag freezing before I reached the 5km point in the run, I got it done.  I've heard the saying Boston Strong many times over the last year, but what do you call this type of strength?

The Chilly Half-Marathon 2017

The annual Chilly half-marathon was held on Sunday morning, March 5th, 2017.  For those living in southern Ontario, this is a great tune up race for those training for a spring marathon. I used this as tune up race for the Toronto Marathon last spring, and I paced at 4:52/km with a finishing time of 1:42:44. 

The race takes runners through downtown Burlington starting at city hall, heading west towards to the Skyway bridge, then back east along Lakeshore Rd up to Burloak Ave, and then turns around back along Lakeshore and finishing back at city hall again.   

This year in the process of training for the Boston Marathon this April, I did this race again to work out any kinks, and to see what pace I could hold during a long run under race conditions.  Optimistically, I aimed to keep a pace of 4:45/km, with a finishing time of 1:40:00. A little faster than last year, but hey, you don’t know until you try.  I’ve been comfortable pacing a little faster on my long runs this winter (2017) than last year (2016) so I thought why not see if I could hold the faster pace?  The tune up half marathon is exactly the place where you want to test out your legs without the risk of suffering significant consequences if the race pace falls through.  

The weather was colder this year than last year, and the windchill coming off Lake Ontario definitely took a toll on the runners.  Chapped lips were another race element I had to deal with, but windchill or not, we had all come to run and so we did. 

I set out planning to hold a 4:45, but getting swept up in the race, I ended up pacing a little too fast in the start, 4:35 for the first several kilometres of the run (this is closer to my 10km pace as opposed to my half-marathon pace).  I settled into a pace of 4:45 or so by the halfway point, but I paid for the aggressive start when I started to hit the wall by the 15km point.  I knew I couldn’t hold the pace I wanted and ended up slowing to a more comfortable pace of 5:00/km for the next 5km, but I was still able to dig in with my strong finishing kick for the last 1.2km of the race (4:10-4:44/km). 

Overall, I finished the 21.1km road race in 1:42:24 (twenty seconds faster than last year), holding an average pace of 4:51/km. So technically it is a new personal best for me. Although not as big a margin as I had been hoping.  Still a PB is a PB. 

For my age group I placed 18/149 = top 12%

Out of all females I placed 113/1222 = top 9%

So that’s a pretty good showing for my age and gender placement. 

I feel pretty good about my performance at the Chilly half-marathon, and its given me insight into how my training for the Boston Marathon is coming along.  Based on this performance, I think I’m going to aim for a pace of 5:00/km in Boston, which, if I hold will give me a finishing time of 3h:30m for the 42.2km course (26.2miles). I would be very happy with that.  Just six weeks left to go before I find out!  

With a strong support crew behind me who knows what I can achieve if I stay disciplined, keep putting in those long runs and spend a little more time on my foam roller to work out those aches and pains.