Blue Nose Weekend

Another half-marathon under my belt. There seems to be something physically wrong with me as I keep getting slower and slower with every race. I’m only slower by a minute or even seconds, but aren’t you supposed to be getting faster with time?

Side note: I did end up finding my Garmin about 2 minutes before heading out. It was in my work briefcase… why? I don’t know!

The half-marathon went well for the most part. When I woke up on Sunday morning, the rain was not very inviting! Once I got to the starting line, the rain was reduced to a drizzle, so it wasn’t so bad. It drizzled the whole way, so I was wet, but at least it wasn’t a downpour.

Around what I thought to be the 5 km mark I looked at my Garmin for my time and pace and I was cruising! According to my Garmin I had done 6.2 km in 30 minutes (I normally do 5 km in 35 minutes). Something was definitely wrong. Not long after I saw the actual 5 km marker and realised my Garmin was somehow adding kilometers to my route. Since the Gamin uses satellites to measure distance, I figured it was a one-time blip in the system. I would just calculate my distance based on an additional 1.2 km. No problem, right? At the 8 km marker my Garmin was reading 9.5 km… yet more mileage! Grrr. I decided I wouldn’t think about it for the time being and would just look at the pretty trees and listen to my music. I was feeling good as I entered Point Pleasant Park – at which point Betsy apparently screamed at me and waved while she crossed the other way, but I was totally oblivious to her as my music was so loud. OOPS. :-) I tell my clinic students that you should avoid wearing headphones, but if you do wear them you should keep the music low enough to be well aware of your surroundings. Ummm… do as I say, not as I do.



Generally cheering crowds add to the excitement and fun. However, at some point in the park I crossed a group of girls from Dal University who were just simply annoying! They were standing at the foot of a really steep hill (I’m talking 60 degree incline most likely) and screaming at the runners to run up the hill. I happened to be in a walk break at the time (I walk 1 minute every 10 minutes), and groups of them were screaming: Run up the hill! Run! Don’t walk it! Run! Gah I felt like saying, Shut the hell up! They weren’t encouraging at all they were just plain annoying.



Not long after coming out of the park, I found my sister Christine cheering at the side of the road. She ran a bit with me and asked how things were going. I checked my Garmin for distance and I was at 42 km! What the ???? My Garmin had added another 30 km to my distance. I think it was mad at me for loosing it. I clearly couldn’t trust the distance on my Garmin.

Once I hit Beaufort Street I knew I would be taking on the bulk of the hills as I climbed back to the finish line. The hills went surprisingly well! I ran all of them and felt really good.

The last 5 km is what killed me… it usually is the toughest part. Since I didn’t know how far I had to go and wasn’t sure what the last few km looked like I felt lost. :-( I kept looking at my time thinking I was almost there, but never seeing any markers. The mental game really got to me. I would speed up thinking I was close to the end, then have to stop and walk because I was running too fast too early.

When I finally crossed the finish line I was so emotional I started to cry. Come to think of it, I don’t think I have ever crossed a finish line without crying. Hah! You just get overwhelmed by the emotion of it and you are just so physically tired that it all comes out. I was upset with my time and frustrated that I let the last 5 km get to me. When you run your first half-marathon you can say you don’t care about time, because you just want to cross the finish line. However, when it’s your fourth it’s hard to say, “it’s ok, at least I made it”. Of course you made it! There was never any doubt you would make it! It’s your 4th one, it’s not some kind of miracle you crossed the line – you’ve done it before! By the time you do your fourth half-marathon you’ve run 20 km at least 12 times. Add to that the fact that I have run a full marathon, I’ve probably done the 20 km distance close to 20 times. It’s not “new” anymore.

Well, at least training is over for another few months and I got a really nice technical shirt and medal to add to my collection. Maybe next time I’ll cross that finish line sooner. One can always dream.