Road 2 Hope Hamilton Half Marathon Race Report

OH! The Road 2 Hope half marathon! The traditional season ender for me for lo, these past three years! Why not make it a fourth and complete almost a week's worth of ugly race shirts and medals?!?! Truth be told, I've always had a great race at this half marathon and it was no sacrifice to me to run it for a fourth time.

The fall season was really, really strange. I didn't train for any PBs for myself. Once it was confirmed that I'd gotten the pacing gig for the Niagara Falls Half Marathon, I concentrated on that and continued to enjoy the bike. Rather early on, I mentioned to Emma that if she wanted to go for a Sub-1:50 PB here (if Oakville didn't work out), that I'd be game to pace her (figuring that I could hold the pace... )

So race morning came and that was the plan.

The hallway we had planned to meet up in was blocked off, so we removed ourselves to the gym, but the cell service was spotty. We finally met up with everyone we were supposed to and made our way outside.

Best race memory #1: Squatting on the edge of a forest with nothing but a foil blanket for privacy with about 15 friends and strangers, all in the name of avoiding a port a potty line. That was a first.

The first half: KM 1-10

So, we made our way to the embankment/start area/clusterfuck that is one of the hallmarks of this race and tossed our pre-race warm stuff and waited for the gun. Besides Emma, there was: Sam, Patty, Amy and Kim. Everyone except Kim wanted the sub 1:50. No one but me had a paceband (customized to another hallmark of this race - the 4k of downhill). So, no pressure.

I might as well steal this from Kim as well.
Me, Sam, Patty, Amy, Kim, Emma

Gun goes and we're.... o f f... ish. Clusterfuck of congestion just to get on the road where I rhetorically ask, "Why don't they start this one the road?!?!" No problem. Gotta get to a 5:12 here and for the next 5k and we're golden. The first km comes up at 5:19. No problem. 7 seconds. Easy. I consider starting  to talk and banter and then I realize I'm not pacing for real and that I don't need to lighten the load and be the Best!Pacer!Ever! These gals are my friends. They already know I'm awesome. Look at the tights.

Speaking of tights, I didn't worry at all about them following me despite my short stature. How can you miss those tights?! I even make it easy because my short-legs are of the double wide/thunder thigh variety so there's more to love see.

So its fine. Sam's right behind me, and so is Emma. I'm settling in. This is feeling easy! I'm cruising on Mud Street and hear and see someone hock a loogie right behind me. I discreetly wipe my ass. "Um. Obviously I didn't spit on you! I'm a pro spitter!" Sam chimes in behind me. Okay, okay! Time to hit the downhill!

We have 5 seconds in the bank once we hit the downhill. I'm doing mental math like Stephen Hawking and and pacing like I've got the clif bar balloon stick in my hand. Hitting the down hill is the easy part. WooHOO! Follow the tights, gals, follow the tights!

We get on the Red Hill Parkway and I realize we don't have Patty. Sam tells me she dropped out in the early Ks which is likely for the best considering her calves. (Check out her blog - she ran a smart race). We all exclaim about the beauty of the down hill! If only all races were like this! If only this race was a 10k! If only I could run 4:26/km so effortlessly all the time. 

Whoa. Let's reel that in a bit, eh?

All's well though as the weather nemesis of my race year shows up and we're hit with a headwind which doesn't make it as easy as it should be (asshole). 

We finished the section with 26 seconds in the bank.

5:19-5:07-5:10-5:07-5:12-4:56-4:56-4:49-5:02-5:11, time: 50:49, pace band: 51:15

The End. The brutal, ugly (except for the tights!), end: KM 11-21.1

I'm not going to sugar coat it here. I was feeling a bit like Blerch. I had legs, I had breath, but I had no gumption. I hadn't taken a gel yet, so when the next water station came up, rather then running through it, squeezing the cup and drinking on the go like the pro racer my tights demanded, I walked to take my Island Nector Gu (Ya mon!). The 11k water station comes at the off ramp on Barton street, so it meant that I could walk the incline there as well. This is also where I got my first (of many, obvs) comments on the tights. After ripping the chewed gum off of my dollar store gloves, I set about to catch Emma and Sam back up. I was pacing after all, we had only the last half and we had time in the bank. What could go wrong?

You idiot - have you not even raced anything this year? What about the headwind? 

I caught Sam and Emma just about the time we hit the trail after the bricks and was like, "oh, hey girls!" Then I took the lead again. At this point, any sense of racing or getting to the end with a 1:49xx went, "Oh, fuck you." I just... couldn't. 9k to go and I gave up on myself. Quickly, I said to Sam, "Just keep her at 5:15s, she's got it." Sam looked at me like, WTF are you doing? I can't even read my watch! Didn't we just have a whole conversation about drug-store reading glasses. And then... I left them behind.

First things first. Music. I had put my shuffle on my small waistband pocket and had put the earbuds into my cleavage so I fished them out and turned on the shuffle. The playlist had 1h30m of music and I blasted it into my ears and took off. I could see Emma and Sam in the distance. We started to get to the red bridge that goes over the QEW and things started to feel good. Maybe I just needed the Island Nector to kick in? Hey, I'm doing awesome! Sub 5min/km pace! What the heck! Oh, we're on a downhill. HAHAH. Okay. 

Then, I'm on the lakefront path and things aren't quite that easy anymore despite the fact that Taylor Swift is telling me to Shake It Off, Shake It Off. Still, things aren't horrible. I've still got friends. This headwind and I pretty much have a goddamned blood pact by now. 

Around this time, I decide I'll probably finish 1:50-1:51. No worries. Respectable. Then, the 1:50 pacer passes and I hear her say, "Ya, we'll make up some time here." She had one person with her that I could see. Now, far be it for me to tell you how to pace, but personally, with 6k left in a race, I'd rather be trying to slow down than speed up. Just me. As she passes, another round of, well fuck this, goes through me and I decide to walk the next water station. Then, low! A vision in pink leggings - I see Sam.

S A M!!!

She turns, and we are joined once again. Destined finally, to finish a race together!

The rest of the race goes like this:

ME: Hold on, I've gotta put these earbuds back in my cleavage again.

SAM: If you angle your head for the trajectory of the spit, you'll never hit anyone, but you've gotta judge the wind too.

ME: Oh my God! We're going to actually finish together (thinking, don't sprint past me at the end)..

Sam: YAY! (I guess there will be no finish line sprint.)

Best race memory #2: After many, MANY, "I LOVE your pants!!! I love your outfit!!!" and both of us saying Thanks, I say to Sam, "Obviously, they are talking to me!" Sam: They are probs talking about me! Random guy in the God Awful race shirt: No! They are talking about me!!! Sam: Must be your original outfit.

We talked before the race (when we saw Captain American) about how it sucks to get passed by the people dressed up during a race. I mean, looking good is one thing, a costume race is another, but a random person dressed as a hot dog who passes you is just a bit too much.

Random Hot Dog dude passed us at about 18k. 

Sam and I didn't speak, but our shared look clearly communicated, are you fucking kidding me?!?

Then I saw a photographer:

Me: A photographer!!!

Sam: Hunh?

Me: Race Photos!!!

Sam, Eh, what?

Me: Take my hand, Sam. Take my hand. SAM, HOLD MY HAND!!!

Srsly! Who has the best tights? And pit stains!

Then, I realized that I hadn't tapped the 20k sign the week before. How could I forget! I can't believe it!!! As it came into view, I told Sam I was going over and tapped it. She started to pick it up here and I was dying. There is a little incline right before the turn the the finish line and I always hate it. It is just BRUTAL! Then, we're on the straightaway in the chute to the end. I start waving my arms in the universal "Make some noise!" gesture to get us all the cheers our tights we deserve and I quickly see a commotion at the end with paramedics working on a downed runner. Sadly, Richard Greidanus passed away.

Knowing how badly the guy down shook up Sam last year, I grab her hand again and yell, "Look away, Sam, Don't look!!" Thankfully, she thinks I mean don't look at the clock and we finished together and as above, holding hands. 

5:11-5:21 (GU)-6:03-5:12-5:39-5:52-5:40-5:25-5:41-5:34-5:18-1:24 (for 260m), split: 1:02:30, time: 1:53:19, pace band: 1:49:45

Well, that's the season done. Day two of off season and I'm enjoying it by doing nothing so far. Look for a bit more activity in the next while as I lay out my 2015 plans. They are familiar and big, and this year, no matter what the weather or my body throws at me, I hope to complete them all.

Road 2 Hope Hamilton Half Marathon Race Report

I'm not sure how to even start this one! Let's just say after an entire summer dedicated to getting a certain result (1:45 half marathon finish) and a horrible first attempt at going after that goal, I'm not sure how to put this day down. This day was perfect minus not sharing the end with Sam!

I have run four half marathons this fall (My hometown race, The amazing Picton half, and the above mentioned STWM half marathon). Running the Hamilton Half Marathon was never part of my 2013 race plans, but when Irina told me that she was going to run the full marathon and Sam had the day off, it was a perfect way to finish the race season. Plus it gave Sam and I a back up in case Scotia didn't work out quite as we hoped (guess it was a good plan!).

Pre-Race

Sam picked up my race kit so I didn't have to go out to Hamilton on the day before. As it was daylight savings time, I didn't have to get to bed too early. I set two alarms, and was out of bed, showered and on my way (a bit late) to Sam's house with a Tim Hortons stop along the way (digression - I'm loving my new pre-race breakfast - plain bagel with butter and cheddar, small coffee with two cream and an apple juice). Sam was driving Emma, Patty and Amy and we were picking everyone up at Patty's house. Before we knew it we were at the race end, on the bus and at the start. We met up with a bunch of people and hung out trying to defrost our feet! Irina demanded a photo!

Amy, Emma, Irina, Sam, Patty, me

As you can see, I didn't play nice with the #burlingtonskirtbrigade but it turned out I was perfectly dressed. Sam and I decided to hit the outdoor portapotty's and made the exact right timing call as we got out into the start crowd as they were counting down 30 seconds to go. Shouldn't we be on the road up there?

The plan. The start: KM 1-5

My plan (and Sam left it up to me), was to take full advantage of the 4k of downhill on the Red Hill Valley Parkway. Thus, we were going to run 5min/km for the first 5k, 4:45/km for the 4k of downhill and then be able to run 5:05/km for the rest of the race.

What my plan didn't take into consideration is that we'd be so far back at the start due to our long potty wait and the complete lack of corrals at the race (they REALLY need to sort that out!). We were off and on the road. I said to Sam, "Find the holes. Let's go." and we began to pass and weave like mad women. I took the lead and Sam just stuck with me. I realized that my right shoe was way too loose though and I stopped to tie it before we quickly moved along. It was worth the 0:15 of time.

Sam's pink socks behind me.
After four plus races, I finally threw this sweater away.

We finally got out of the weave by 1k and settled in, still passing but things opened up. I recognized things from my past two times running this race and I pointed out the snake line of runners across the farm fields to Sam. We got onto Mud street and things really opened up for us and I begin to anticipate the downhill on the expressway with glee.

Sam ran with a handheld but I did not. Instead I ran through all water stations and took one cup of water at each. This worked out perfectly and I'm going to work on this more so that I can do the same in a 30k or marathon race. Around 4k, Sam gave me the first indication that our Scotia fates might be reversed on this day when she told me, "You may have to leave me." I protested, telling her it was our combined victory lap and we both put it out of our mind. The downhill had arrived.

5:20-4:56-4:52-4:46-4:58. Total: 24:52, pace band: 24:53. 

The Red Hill Valley Parkway, KM 6-9

We hit the downhill and I did my best to keep us to plan. It is so, so easy to get running really fast on this part of the race. It just feels so easy because there is SUCH a huge downhill for so long. Good thing that the wind was pretty relentless which was helping to keep things difficult. Still, from time to time, our pace crept to 4:25 and I had to tell Sam it was time to reel it in.

We tried to draft off of tall men, but that didn't work as the wind was coming from the side; it was not a head or backwind (it never is, right?). Of course I was having a good day, so the wind wasn't much of a factor for me, but the reports I've read on DailyMile suggest that it played a bad role in many a race run. 

Sam struggled here despite the easy downhill running. We heard some people talking about their brush with Krista Duchene at the start line (pfft, we stood beside her in the portapotty line!). That reminded me of how I pull through some runs, when I pretend I'm coming from behind to win the Olympic marathon. In order to take Sam's mind off of what she was feeling, I gave here my play by play (please use British accents):

Allison Curbishley: Well, Steve we didn't expect this!
Steve Backley: Not at all, Allison! Nicole Macpherson of Canada was never expected to be a factor in this Olympic marathon but she's held her own with the Kenyans all day.
Allison: They don't know what to make of her, Steve!
Steve: She'd been keeping pace with the lead pack all day and with just under 10 kilometers to go, she made her move to drop the lead pack
Allison: A risk that paid off big time as she runs the final mile without any challenge
Steve: A true testament to love of running, she won the Canada lotto and dedicated her life to making the Olympic standard and team Canada
Allison: And now at 39 it looks as if she'll bring home the gold for Canada...
Steve: Doing it all in a SKIRT!

Let's just say Sam's laughter wasn't the only one I heard. 

I plowed through another water station and couldn't find Sam. There she was, coming back to me. I saw on the overpass ahead that there was photographer and I pointed him out, "Give us a big smile, buddy!"

Too bad the photog wasn't in on the plan!

By 9k, I knew I needed a gel and cursed myself for not taking one with the last water station. This was the only time I regretted not having my own water. I took the gel anyway and it worked out fine. Things were getting harder and the downhill was over. We were still right on target: "Sam, we have a minute in the bank! Right where we want to be!"

4:45-4:37-4:44-4:43 (gu), split: 18:49, total: 43:41, pace band: 44:47

All by myself. KM 10-15

We hit 10k at 48:40. I told Sam that she just hit another 10k PB and she looked at me like she didn't give a crap about that at all. About anything. She told me again to just go without her. I told her I wasn't ready yet, that we were still running the 5 min per KM required. "But you have so much in the tank." "Uh sure, maybe if the race ended at 11k!" Finally, Sam found the words to get me to go: "Please. I'll feel so bad if you don't go and run the race you have in you." That did it. Thanks for that gift Sam. Next time she faded, I didn't look back. I just kept going.

The first thing I did was put in my earphones. We were getting off of the highway at Barton street and I looked at all of the spectators and had a good chuckle as I recalled this moment from my race with Ali last year (when she yelled at her husband for not being ready to take a photo!). Quickly, we headed up on to the trail and I started to find the running a bit more difficult. No problem Nicole, this is why you have the buffer. Just get going and try to stick with the 5:05/km pace. I was able to run on those weird brick things, but I did have to walk up one paved hill. I only walked the hill and then started to run as soon as possible again. This was somewhere around 13k. 

At this point, I was starting to scan the spectators looking for Marlene who was going to be along the route cheering. I also got a huge boost by getting to the out and back portion and seeing the runners coming back toward the finish. The great thing about having run this race for the past two years is that I knew what was coming. Out and back, on to Beach Blvd and turn around to the end. I saw Marlene and gave a huge wave and high five. I was keyed in and was really watching my pace band at this point.

I knew the goal was within reach.

4:59-5:03-5:10-5:23-4:44 (huge Marlene boost!)-5:04, split: 30:23, total: 1:14:04, pace band: 1:14:39

Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. KM 16-21.1

I get to 16k and know that I just have to hang on. At this point, my stomach is starting to bother me a lot. I think that maybe I should take my second gel, but I don't. I actually focus on my stomach pain. I realize that this is my core complaining about my lack of cross training or ab work. Something I will work on, starting immediately. I kept running and moving. I would look at my watch and try to keep it around 5 min/KM. The wind is not a factor for me at all. My stomach just hurts. You have abs you know! You should give us some love from time to time! I run through the next water station and stop just after to take a quick walk. 10seconds. Let's go.

We hit the turn around and the wind really is a non-factor as we're sheltered. Keep going, keep going. Now I can see the other runners heading to 16k and I start to look for Sam's pink socks. I don't see them, but it gets my through two very fast KMs. At 18k, "I will wait" by Mumford and Sons comes on and this song always makes me think about thanking God for everything. So I spend 18k running with the following mantra: Thank You God. Thank You God. And it's for everything. Everything I'm lucky enough to have in my life. I get these moments while running from time to time and I always celebrate them. What a gift it is.

Someone calls to me just before 19k and I just wave (it was a DM friend, Laura). I see Marlene again and she's on the park bench clearly yelling my name and cheering me on. I go and go and go.

I hit 19k and my watch says 1:34:19.

I've got it. I'm going to do it. 10 minutes. Just. Hang. On.

And all of a sudden, my legs are like: Pffft.

My legs just hurt so bad. The Red Hill Valley Parkway is laughing now. 

Still, I plow through. Hang on. Hang on.

I am with a man in blue and I'm sticking with him. I run and run as hard as I can.

Of course the 20k marker gets hit and its time to take off.

Which is really more like. Hang. ON.

I know this part so well. Uphill. Turn the corner. Race to the finish. 

I can hear the finish and taste the victory. All of a sudden there is a man down in front of me with people all around him. I see them roll him on his back and someone assumes a CPR position. As I run past I think, "I should stop." And think, "They've got it under control."  all at the same time. He ended up in the hospital.

I can't think more then that because its time to turn that corner and run to the finish. I KNOW I have the 1:45:xx. And I celebrate.

5:09-5:16-4:52-4:58-5:03-5:05-1:29 (311m, 4:46 pace), split: 31:52, total 1:45:56, pace band: 1:45:00

"1:45:xx counts" I tweet. And so it does.

Gun: 1:47:23

Chip: 1:45:56 which is a 3min35sec PB from Scotia, two weeks ago!
Place: 471/1750

Gender: 150/1004

F35-39: 34/148

After

I cross the line with an ugly cry. The man at the finish grabs me and shakes me a little: ARE YOU OKAY?!?!?

I'm just so happy!!!!

He laughs and releases me to get my medal. I get it and my strange hazmat coat and beeline for the finish to watch for Sam. I see her quickly and run to find her. She's super upset at seeing the man who was down and ran an amazing race anyway despite her bad day. We find Amy, Emma and Patty and celebrate them as they each got PBs! Sam drops us all off and I drive home and spend the rest of the day like any other Sunday. Except there was this:

Race season is over. I'm glad I was able to finish with this one. Next up? Three weeks off and then Boston Training begins!