REVEL Mt. Charleston Race Recap

So the saying about what happen in Vegas....

Late last year I was contemplating what spring race I wanted to do.  The usual standby being either Goodlife or Mississauga, leaning towards Mississauga as I hadn't done that one in a while and I'm still not too convinced that the Goodlife course is or has been properly measured.   While browsing around the Runner's world forums late last year, I got my first hint of this race in Las Vegas as supposedly a fast course. It fit in well with the training schedule and was the week before Goodlife/Mississuga. To summarize the course basically has a 5000 ft (about 1500m) elevation drop from start to finish.

Truth be told I was contemplating making another BQ attempt but was pretty sure I wouldn't be in much better shape at the end of the training cycle as I was last year so ultimately was going to expect the same result of running a BQ time, but probably not making the cutoff.  The way I looked at the 1500m elevation drop basically meant that there would 1500m that I wouldn't have to run as it was essentially given to me free.

The plan was originally to see how I did at Around the Bay and if I couldn't hold a 3:10 marathon pace for the 30k , then I would think about doing Revel Mt. Charleston.  No I didn't quite hold a 3:10 pace (barely) during ATB and it felt a bit harder than I would have liked so I started giving serious thought to the downhill race after ATB.  The problem with that was the race sold out at the end of January. However I continued on with the training targeting Mt. Charleson hoping that I would get in off the wait list. .  On a whim, I also decided to post an ad on Craigslist seeking a bib just before Around the Bay.  The transfer policy for the race is quite generous letting people transfer right up until practically race day.   I figured if someone didn't contact me by the time the taper would start, I would extend my training by one week and do Mississauga.  Luckily a few days before the taper, I was able to secure a bib. As it turns out there were a few people looking to unload their bibs on the race's facebook page the week leading up to the race (as this was after the refund period) so I think if you're quick to act and monitor their facebook page like a hawk, you can probably secure a bib quite easily even if it's sold out.

I decided to travel down on Thursday for the Saturday race.  The weather forecast was looking okay.  Just above freezing at the start (at 7000 feet) and kinda warmish 16-17C at the finish line by the time I was expecting to finish.  This was the best I could hope for because the temperatures in Vegas in the week prior to the marathon had highs in the 30's.  The wind was also co-operating coming from the north west as the race generally run in an north north easternly direction for most of the race and a southernly direction at the end. One thing I hadn't planned on but started to worry me was a collegaue was telling me about the difficult time he had when visiting his brother in Utah and that it took him a week to get acclimated to the thinner air and here I was giving myself one day to adapt. I hoped that the downhill portion would make up for the thinner air and any difficulty I had.

Picked up my bib on Friday at a smallish expo. I did need to buy some gels which I did. I also got to try a neat device called the Rapid Reboot which is compression system. You basically stick some hipwader like air bag things around your legs and it pumps air into the bags which compress your legs.  Felt like a good massage.  Would love to own one but at $1000US for the system, not cheap.

Then decided to drive the course to get an look at the elevation and to see if there were any hills.  The course profile is a bit deceiving since 5000 ft of elevation drop tends to minimize the appearance of any hills. There were a few which I took a mental note of.

Got some take out pasta to eat back at the hotel but had difficulty eating. Forced myself to eat even though I wasn't hungry.

Race started at 6:30 in the morning and buses were leaving the finish line at between 4 and 5am.  This actually was okay for me as I tried to stay on east coast time which means wake-up time was 3:30am or 6:30 east cost time so that wasn't an issue. I stayed on the strip and required about a 20 minute drive  to the bus pickup location which was in NW Vegas.  I was expecting the casino to be empty at 3:30am in the morning, but it was still quite lively.  Got a couple of strange looks dressed up in my oversized throw away clothing strolling through the casino.

Ended up on the first bus to arrive at the start line which meant first dibs at the portapotties.  It also meant an almost 1.5 hour wait until race start.  The start line is actually located at a place with a bunch of little cabins and a chalet that has a restaurant.  Last year, the chalet was closed and people had to wait outside. This year they opened it up so that people could stay warmish which was great as it meant I wouldn't have to wait out in the cold.  There was only a limited capactiy so once it filled up, they prevented people from going in so good to have been one of the first ones there.  Chatted with some people and talked hockey with a couple of people from Boston and Vegas. Kind of odd. I guess the first thing people bring up when they find out you're Canadian is hockey.

So with 30 minutes to go, left the warmth of the chalet and did one last portapotty stop.  Actually had to wait for a bit and didn't get in until with about 10 minutes to go.  Headed to the start line and just barely had enough time to drop off my gear and settle into the start area.

As for the plan, I decided that I was going to run this without a HR monitor nor a pace band.  I thought that 3:15 would be easily doable based on the fact that I did 2:15 (and change) for the 30k distance which predicted a 3:15 marathon, and that anything under that would be due to the downhill portion, alas my 1500m of not having to run.  While I had hoped this might mean 3:10 or better, Anything beyond what I've been able to run these past few years would have been good. 

The race started and I was beside the 3:15 bunny.  The first half mile of this race is actually uphill and is probably the steepest uphill of the race so I decided I would take the first mile easy.  The uphill portion in the first half mile is all but negated by the downhill portion for the remaining .5 miles of the first mile so I wasn't too worried about that.

1 mile: 7:40

Hit the first mile well behind pace, but wasn't too worried since the downhill portion was about to begin.

2 mile: 6:55
3 mile: 7:02

So down the mountain we go picking up speed. Now you really have to appreciate the grade of the course. Mile 2 has about 300 ft of elevation drop and mile 3 has over 200ft.  For comparison, Goodlife Toronto has about 350ft of total elevation drop also over the course of a few miles, but I was about to repeat this elevation drop for over half the course.

4 mile: 7:16

So mile 4 appears to slow down back to my regular marathon pace, cause I think there was a hill on this portion. At this point of a race, you shouldn't be hurting, but my legs were aching a bit and I felt like I was huffing and puffing more than I should.  With the course starting out with an uphill, it's hard to gauge effort and then launching immediately into 7 min/mile pace doesn't leave much time or room to recover.  I had read a lot about trashing one's quads on downhill races so I was trying to mitigate that by running efficienctly, increase cadence, not overstriding and letting gravity pull me down, but that doesn't seem to have worked as I could feel my legs were not fresh.

5 mile: 7:08

As originally laid out mile 5 was supposed to have this little loop that runs into a parking lot, but they had some difficulty with getting a permit so they had to reroute the course by eliminating this loop and then adding an out and back later in the race.  At the time, I thought this would be good because the loop had a bit of a hill to it.


6 mile: 6:57
7 mile: 7:14
8 mile: 6:48
9 mile: 7:08
10 mile: 7:15
11 mile: 7:25
13 mile: 14:47 (Missed 12 mile marker)

So continue down the hill with a couple of fast miles and a couple of slow miles. With no pace band, I had no idea how far ahead of pace I was at.  I knew I was under 3:10 marathon pace, but how much under i wasn't sure.  I was hoping to get an idea at the half mark because that's where the half marathon was supposed to start. However due to the last minute course change and the elimination of the loop in the first half, the half marathon start line did correspond to the half marathon mark of the full.  I passed the 13 mile mark at 1:33:37. add on about 45-60 seconds for the extra 0.1 mile and I was pretty happy about the time.


14 mile: 7:31
15 mile: 7:28
16 mile: 7:30
17 mile: 7:28
18 mile: 7:26
19 mile: 7:22
20 mile: 7:24

After the half marathon, I started to slow down a bit.  I think  this was because of the wind from the north west.   After mile 13, the course heads in a north eastern direction so the wind which had been providing a bit of a tailwind for most of the race became a crosswind.  Still not too much to impede your effort and it was only causing a slight slow down in pace.  It was during this time that I started to think that I was getting dehydrated. As I usually do, I carried a gatorade bottle for the race that I drank from at each mile marker, in addition to drinking at each aid station.  After the half mark, I ran into some bottle issues in that the twisty cap on my gatorade bottle wouldn't twist open.  I ended up having to resort to unscrewing the cap to drink. I was careful not to drink too much before the race which in hindsight was a mistake.  There weren't too many aid stations, only 13 for the full marathon, 6 in the first half and 7 in the back half. I had taken only one cup of fluids at each aid station by this point which was maybe only a quarter to half filled.  Usually by the 30 km mark of a marathon, I will have finished my gatorade bottle.  By the time I had reached 19 miles this time, I still had quite a bit of fluid left in my bottle. My bottle issues and the few aid stations, it was clear that I wasn't drinking enough.  With about an hour to go in the race, I decided to just chug the rest of the bottle and hope to avoid getting even more dehydrated, tossing the bottle just before the 20 mile mark. 


21 mile: 7:33
22 mile: 7:54

Miles 21 and 22 were also a bit slower because I stopped to walk at each aid station to ensure I took in multiple cups of fluids.
 
23 mile 8:16

So mile 23 was where the race kinda fell apart.  Remember that loop that they had taken out earlier on in the race? Well they had to add that distance back in, which they did around the 23 mile mark. the probelm was the back portion of the out and back was directly into a strong wind that had been at my back for most of the race.  It was horrible, probably stronger than the wind that was at Goodlife last year.  Now 8:16 doesn't seem that bad for the mile split but you have to consider that the wind portion comprised only about 150m of mile 23 where I went from running about 7:40 min/mile pace on the out portion to over 9:30 pace on the back portion into the wind. There was still another 500m of this stuff that was going to be in mile 24. Add to this was there was slight incline which slowed me down further.  I made a time check at mile 23 since I didn't have a pace band and I knew that 3.2 miles remaining is a little over 5k.  I passed 23 miles at 2:49:30 and some quick math suggested I had  25 minutes to run 3.2 miles to finish under 3:15 which means I would have to run a little under 8 min/mile and this was still with about 500 m left of running into the headwind with the uphill that I had been struggling with for the past 150m.  And remember this was only to get me to 3:15, which was my BQ time. So I made the decision at this point that though I could possible make a BQ time, getting a time that would make the BQ cutoff which I would think would have had to have been at least 2:30 under was just not going to happen.  I had planned to take a few days in the Grand Canyon and do some hiking and didn't want to beat my legs up anymore then they already were so I walked the rest of the race.

24 mile: 14:14
26 mile:  25:23
26.2 mile: 2:08

I did try to slow jog a couple of times, but shut it down realizing there was no point. I did jog the last 0.2 miles of the race and ended up finishing with a time of 3:31:12.

To say I was disappointed was an understatement. I went into the race thinking that 3:15 would have been easy and that the downhill would have added to whatever cutoff I needed. I should have drank more at each aid station or at least chugged a bottle of water right before the start.  I definitely felt that I was working harder with the thinner and dryer air.  Maybe I needed more time to acclimatize to the altitude before the race? I can definitely say that it was not as easy as I thought it would be.   Looking at the Strava autosplits which shows Grade Adjusted Pace, it reports paces of 8:30's. It did not feel like I was doing 8:30 min/mile pace.

Polar Race Stats
 

Mile	Split	Time up on 3:15	Time up on 3:10
1	07:39.6	-00:13	-00:24
2	06:54.7	00:19	-00:04
3	07:02.4	00:43	00:09
4	07:16.4	00:53	00:07
5	07:08.2	01:12	00:14
6	06:57.4	01:41	00:32
7	07:13.8	01:53	00:33
8	06:48.3	02:32	01:00
9	07:08.2	02:50	01:07
10	07:14.6	03:02	01:08
11	07:25.6	03:03	00:57
12
13	14:47.3	03:09	00:40
14	07:30.6	03:05	00:25
15	07:27.6	03:04	00:12
16	07:30.3	03:00	-00:03
17	07:27.7	02:59	-00:16
18	07:26.1	02:59	-00:27
19	07:22.0	03:04	-00:34
20	07:24.3	03:06	-00:43
21	07:33.2	03:00	-01:01
22	07:53.5	02:33	-01:39
23	08:16.2	01:43	-02:40
24	14:13.6	-05:04	-09:39
26	25:22.6	-15:34	-20:31
26.2	02:07.8	-16:12	-21:12

.
So judging from the splits, I seemed to be doing all right up until the 22 mile with a 2:33 cutoff bank which then dropped 45 seconds in the next mile due to the wind.

Official Timing Results

On the plus side, the race gives out free hi-res race photos and videos. Mine look terrible.



As for the race, generally well put together. Very efficient, though I would have liked to see a little more fluids in the cup's at each aid station.  Though the downhill is nice, there's no shade at all for practically the whole race so if you have a nice clear sky, the sun is beating down on you as it was on that day. I should have worn sunglasses.  The wind helped cool you down so I never really felt warm, but I was definitely dehydrated after sweating way too much and not getting enough fluids.

Horrible Finish Line pic. Notice the salt stains.

So, I'm not sure where that leaves me for the BQ attempt for this year.  I've been giving some thought to maybe doing Erie again, maybe Hamilton.  This is all complicated by the fact that I got into the Berlin marathon through the lottery, though I'm not sure I want to go this year.  I would have if I had BQ'd at this race, but it's scheduled right between Erie and Hamilton.  Ideally, I would take a shot in Erie which might get me into Boston 2018, and if I don't succeed, I would have about 2 months of preparation to try again in Hamilton with their downhill course for Boston 2019. Doing Berlin in between would complicate that though I suppose I could try again in Berlin but that would be less than a month between Erie and Berlin which would be less than ideal.

So afterwards, spent a couple of nights in the Grand Canyon.  I had tried to do the Vegas/Grand Canyon thing back in 2010 when I did Boston 2 Big Sur, but it was really on a compressed schedule and I didn't really get to spend any quality time in either place, something that I've always regretted. Returned this year and had a much better time, though no hiking as legs were still quite sore from the race, even with the 3 or so miles of walking at the end.

Top of the world.

Niagara Falls Marathon 2014 Report

So the race starts. For people that have followed my blog for awhile, I occasionally post about a heart rate issue I have when my HR will jump by about 30-40 beats a second higher than normal. It doesn't happen during my daily life, only happens when I'm running, and doesn't happen every time I run.  I know that if I can start running slowly and gradually increase the effort, I can most of the time prevent the HR from spiking. With no warm-up, I was hoping to use the first km to gradually ease into my pace.  I had set my GPS watch to display average pace which I would use during the first mile to keep from going out too fast. The watch doesn't display HR when doing this.  I had seeded myself well back, just in front of the 3:30 pacer so as to force myself to hold back a bit.Target pace was around 7:24.

First mile started out slow and I was trying to hold back on pace while at the same time trying to locate people I could run with.  Eyed a couple of people who seemed to be running a good pace and pull in behind them. Watch was saying that I was running 7:24 pace which was right on target.

Mile 1: 7:35

Hit the first mile at 7:35 according to the marker even though autosplit said 7:24 which is okay. The first mile is kinda curvy so kinda expected. After each split, my watch reports average HR which showed as being in the mid 160's which was a good sign, so I thought.  By this point, I'm already 10 second behind pace and now running into the westerly headwind. I decide to start moving up a bit to try and get back on pace.

Mile 2: 7:23

Second mile seemed to be going okay and hit the second mile marker at 7:23 which is right on pace, but then I notice that my "avg" HR for that lap was  196 which means my HR was spiking. Damn. Looking back now, my HR started spiking just before the 1 mile mark.  Part of me wanted to stop to let it come back down, but I knew that this had actually happened in 2009 and it came back down on it's own after the bridge so I decided that I would wait it out and see what happens.

Mile 3: 7:32

Heading into the mile three marker, I get another  taste of the westerly wind that they were predicting and it wasn't pleasant.  While trying to sustain pace, I wasn't too happy with this split and with my HR spiking, the doubts started to creep into my mind. I was now 17 second behind where I should be and the effort level I was expending seemed a bit high. This could have been due to the HR or the wind.

Miles 4 and 5: 14:47 (average 7:24)

Mile 4 takes us over the peace bridge which didn't have a mile marker.  The bridge is directly west which meant headwind.  I decide to pull up behind one guy and draft off of him up the hill and try to pick up the pace on the downhill.  By the end of the downhill I pull up on a man and woman who seemed to be running along comfortably and think they might be good to run with. I start chatting with them and it seemed like their goal time was around 3:20 which was going to be a tad slow so I pass and start moving on.

Mile 6: 7:21
Mile 7: 7:31

Mile 6 takes us into Fort Erie in a SW direction where we do a bit of a loop. Both of these miles are into the headwind and recall that my HR is still spiking.  By this point in the race last time, my HR had returned to normal. Not this time.  Mile 6 is directly into the headwind and mile 7 includes the turn around portion with the last part of this mile with the wind at the back. Even with the HR racing, there's a noticable drop in HR after the turn around when the wind goes from a headwind to a tailone. During these miles, I think I pass two people who are going a bit slower than my expected pace so I'm basically running alone.

Mile 8: 7:34

Mile 8 even with the wind at my back was a bit slow. I think this is where I tried to take my first gel and perhaps this is why I slowed down.  I had decided to run with a gatorade bottle and had been drinking from that with every mile and had grabbed a cup of water at each aid station that I came across.  They were serving HoneyMax in these plastic cups and they were terrible for the pinch and sip technique that works well with gatorade cups. I ended up having to stop to gulp down the liquid.

Mile 9: 7:17

Mile 9 would end up being my fastest mile of the race with the wind at my back and I'm cruising right along.  

Miles 10, 11, 12: 23:40 (7:53 average)
As I mentioned basically from mile 5 to this point, I've basically run by myself.  there's also very little in the way of crowd support. I forgot to hit the lap button for mile 10, but my autolap put it at around 7:16 pace also which is basically heading due north with no headwind and some buildings to block the wind from the side. By this point, I had switched my watch to HR display and the HR was starting to worry me.  I had run marathon pace with the elevated HR for up to 12 miles or so during training, but I was probably burning through more calories then I would have liked. I had no desire to see how far I could push it, so realizing that the BQ was not in the cards, shortly before the 11 mile marker,  I came to an aid station and decided to stop to use a portapotty. Not that I had to go, but I needed an excuse to stop so the volunteers wouldn't start yelling at me to keep going. I stopped for two reasons, first to hopefully get my HR under control and secondly to let some people catch back up to me.  I realized there was no way I wanted to run the rest of the race by myself.  A non-BQ that I have to struggle for and run alone is just the same whether it's 3:16 or 3:30 and with the course after mile 11 starting to swing to the west into the wind, I thought it might be better to run with a group and have some people to block the wind for me. My watch says I spent about 25 seconds in the portapotty, when I left, the HR was still too high so I started walking.  I spent about a minute walking when finally the HR dropped back down and by then the couple that I had chatted with back at mile 5 passes by and so I decided to run with them for a while.  They were actually part of a mini group of about 8 people so that worked out well. 

Mile 13: 7:40
Mile 13.1 split 1:39:16
Mile 14: 7:35

So now running with a group, the pace had slowed down a bit and I was fine with that.  I hit the half at 1:39:16, but that's a bit deceiving because of the pitstop and walk break.  I was probably on pace to hit the half under 1:38. At this point, I was going to be content with just running the rest of the way with hopefully no more drama.  I was running behind the group and using them to block the wind. My HR had returned to the mid to low 160's which was a tad lower than what I'm guessing it would be while doing marathon pace. 

Mile 15, 16: 17:55 (8:55 pace)

During the 15th mile, I slowly start to make my way to the front of the group. I had been using the group to block the wind for me for a few miles and thought maybe I should lead at some point so I decided to move to the front, but as I was doing so, my HR spiked again.  I continued on for a bit and swore a little bit and then decided I had already spent enough time running today with the high HR, so I pulled over to the side and started walking, hoping that it would quickly come down so that maybe I could join back up with the group. I waited and waited and waited and ended up walking for about 4 minutes with the HR still high. It was hovering around the high 140's but I know that when walking this should be under 110 when normal. With 4 minutes gone, I did the one thing that almost always gets it to come back down and that is to stop and do a deep squat. I'm not sure why this works, but it does and sure enough within about 10 seconds of doing the squat, the HR dropped. I started back up again, but the group was a good ways ahead of me and short of turning the gas on again, it would seem that I would end up having to run the last part of the race on my own. In hindsight I should have probably done the squat sooner and then maybe I could have stuck with the group.


Mile 17: 7:44
Mile 18: 7:49
Mile 19: 7:39
Mile 20: 7:43
Mile 21: 7:43
Mile 22: 7:45

Miles 17 to 22, I decided to run by HR and try to keep it just above 160 as I had been doing while running with the group.  I don't really have any real memories from this section.  I pass the odd person and I think a couple of people pass me.  I'm also passing a few people who are walking the half who started at the same time as we did, but 13.1 miles closer to the finish line.  I'm content with pace and nothing's really hurting or twitching.  I was also trying to do the mental math, which was basically confirmed by passing by the 20 mile mark when I had exactly 10k to go and remembered thinking if I averaged 5 min/km the rest of the way I would finish below 3:30 with time to spare.

Mile 23-26: 33:52 (8:28 pace)

Shortly into mile 23, my HR spikes again and I end up walking for about a minute until it comes back down again.  At this point, it starts getting really windy and I have to slow down my pace. I also find that I'm really thirsty. I had finished my gatorade bottle back in mile 19 or so and tossed it at an aid station.  I definitely did not get enough fluids during this race and they really needed more aid stations and preferably ones that don't serve honeymax. There were a lot more aid stations the last time I ran this race, I think almost every mile. Also having some aid stations 3 miles apart is a bit much, I think.

I stop to walk at the remaining aid stations and gulp down multiple cups of water while also consuming whatever gels I had left. (Strawberry-banana gu's). I'm also staring to feel the making of a side stitch which finally comes to an incapacitating head during the last mile where I find myself running into a head wind while trying to climb a bit of a hill and the stitch is severely cramping.  I end up having to walk up the hill for my first and only non-HR, non aid station induced walk. A couple of deep breaths, some massaging on the side and a downhill the rest of the allows me to crest the hill and pour on the speed for the last little bit.

Finish time of 3:25:48

So that's it, you can see more info about the HR issues and drama and pace in the Polar route. The HR spikes just before the 1 mile mark. I didn't seem to lose that much time due to the walking.  Based on the autosplits, the first time when I came to a complete stop and walked still was about an 8:30 mile.  The mile where I walked for 4 minutes was just under a 10 min/mile.

While waiting for the bus to take me back to the hotel, I came across this trash can. I'm not sure why, but it looked funny at the time.

Got back to the hotel and headed straight to the Hershey's store downstairs to get me some junk food.

I didn't come close to doing the BQ, but think I could have done at least 3:20 if not for the forced stopping due to HR issues. While I had previously commented on maybe doing another marathon before year's end, that's not going to happen.  I think I've come a long way so far and this was a good bit of base training. Plus, I need something to motivate me to train over the winter. Previous times, as soon as I BQ, I get lazy.  Hopefully, I can work on speed and lower my marathon pace over the winter and try again in the spring. Not sure which race I will do yet, but I have lots of time to figure that out.

Day 3

Niagara Falls Marathon 2014 Pre-Race Report

To quickly summarize, I finished in 3:25:48.  I knew within the first 3 miles that 3:14 was going to be doable as the pace felt a bit too hard.

Going into the race, I still had some hesitation about my goal time.  While I had picked 3:14, I wasn't sure with the wind if it was going to be possible.  Added to that, I wasn't sure the speed was going to be there.  I've basically been doing my long runs a bit faster than 9 min/miles, but reading back through my blog, I noticed that in years past that towards the end of training, I was doing them closer to 8 min/miles so during the taper, the two long runs I did, I tried to do at 8 min/miles to see how it felt.  The first one was an 18 miler on a hilly course and the second one was as the 1:45 pacer for a half, the week before the marathon. Both times, my legs were a bit sore after. Looking back, maybe I should have done my long runs at a bit of a faster pace. 

Arrived in Niagara Falls and went to pick up my bib.  They had moved the expo. It used to be at the Skylon centre, but I think there were a lot of complaints about having to pay for parking so they moved it to a Shopping Mall about 9km away from the hotel.  Though the free parking was nice, I'm not sure it really worked.  You had to pick up your bib and clear immigration at one point of the mall, where they gave you a bag, you then had to go to another section of the mall to pickup your shirt and then you had to go to another section of the mall to pick up the "swag".  Of course no one mentioned the shirt or swag to me when I picked up my bib and I only stumbled across it as I was wandering around looking at the vendors who were are crammed into the aisles of the shopping centre, kinda like a sidewalk sale of running related stuff.

Going into the race, I spent a lot of time reading my previous race report from the last time I ran the Niagara Falls marathon and had hoped to repeat everything down to a tee. I stayed at the same hotel, and partook in the race pasta dinner.  A few things were different though. I think last time I was upgraded to a "Falls view" room which faces the falls. No such luck this time, I got a room on the third floor that faced a wall. No natural light whatsoever. Whatever, not too important for me and what I was expecting based on the booking. Last time, the pasta dinner was at the Crown plaza which was the hotel next to where I was staying, but this time they moved it to a dinner theatre place about a 5 minute walk away.  They had an inspirational speaker who talked about Rick and Dick Hoyt and they even played the "I Can Only Imagine" video.  I've probably watched that thing over 100 times over the years, but it still makes me feel emotional when I see it. There were quite a few people reaching for napkins to wipe their eyes after the video played.  They also had a U2 cover band play, but I kinda felt bad for them. Dinner started at 6:30 and they started playing at 8pm.  By then half the people had left. I stuck around for about 7 or 8 songs or so and by the time I left there were only a spattering of people remaining. Went to bed about 10:30 and prepared my stuff for the following morning.

Race morning gear, including passport

So race morning comes and I follow the pre-race ritual I did last time.  Heading down to the busses for the trip to Buffalo and tried to avoid the buses with Japanese tourists since my comments the last time about US immigration taking longer with such busses. In hindsight this was a mistake. At least with the Japanese tour group, you know that the tourists are going to have the right paper work because the tour group organizer makes sure of it. Normally, what happens, is the US immgration guy gets on the bus, collects everyones passport verifying that the passport matches your face, goes off to have them scanned and then returns and gives them back to us. For the japanese tourists, before the collect the passport, they take a bit longer to flip through the passport to make sure all the paper work is there, but it will be there. As it turns out, I ended up on a bus with a single Australian runner who did not have the right paperwork which meant the whole bus was held up as she was taken inside to be processed with the right forms.  The marathon website make this clear that you should get this paperwork done the day before the race. They should require non-NA runners to acknowledge this when they register.  We ended up being the 3rd last bus to arrive, but that was only because one other bus had a person with a similar issue and the last bus was the late late late bus which picked up any stragglers.

So by the time we arrive at the race start, there was only about 35 minutes to race time which basically means that my pre-race routine that I wanted to follow that I did last time wasn't going to happen.  Didn't even have time to go into the art gallery as I immediately had to start lining up for the portapotties since I'd been sitting in a bus for almost 2 hours by that time.  By the time I got out of the portapotties, there was about 20 minutes to start time and I needed to do a bunch of things, like find water for my HR monitor strap, load up on the nutrition, get a satellite lock for the GPS watch as well as change out of my warm up gear and drop the stuff off at the bag check.  The satellite lock took a loong time. Even standing still out in the open, it took a while.  I guess when you're located in a place that's over 150 km away from the last time you used it, it takes a while.

As for gear, even with the supposed wind, it was predicted be around 7-10C which meant sleeveless T weather.  A lot of people were wearing long sleeves and pants and I knew that it was going to be too warm for that stuff.  I should probably mention that while reading my previous blog posts, I realized that I wore the same sleeveless T for my two previous BQ's so I ended up wearing this time too. Superstitious, I guess. So after getting a satellite lock and changing out of my warm up gear and taking some time to collect my thoughts, there's about 10 minutes to start and I didn't have really do much of a warmup.  Basically my warmup consisted of about a 60 second jog to some bushes to answer nature's call one last time.  I really wanted to do a proper warmup like last time including trying to get my HR to spike, but there really wasn't time. Headed into the corrals where there was a moment of silence for the solider killed in Ottawa, the singing of the Star Spangled Banner. I looked around and the fastest pacer they had was a 3:30 so I was going to have to do this on my own.  I had a 3:14 self made pace band that contained mile splits and 5k splits. I picked up a 3:20 one at the pace expo, but that was in km and not miles.  The course was marked in miles with 5 km splits so the 3:20 band which only has odd numbered km splits (1,3,5, etc) wasn't going to be too useful.  Plus, in my haste, I ended up leaving it in my bag anyways so I didn't have it. 

So I line-up trying to get my nerves and hoping to hell that my HR wont start racing and I wait for the gun to go off...

Scotiabank Half Marathon Pacer Report

Did the Scotiabank Waterfront half marathon as the 1:45 pacer again this year.  This is the 6th year that I've done it.  Wow that's seems like a long time.  In previous years I've had to do the run/walk thing and in talking with the pace bunny organizer last year, it was decided that it would be switched to a continuous one this year.  I think when I first bunnied this race, the Running Room were going to be the original sponsors of the pacing team and there was a desire to provide as many run/walk bunnies as possible since the Running Room is a big fan of the run/walk system.  The biggest questions I've gotten in years past was whether there was a 1:45 continuous bunny and so finally I wouldn't have to answer that.

As a pacer, the sponsor, Brooks provides a free uniform which consists of a bright neon green T-shirt, a pair of shoes, a hat, a pair of shorts and a pair of socks.  I didn't actually get the socks this year. When we went to pick up the gear, the only socks they had were white socks with pink trim which were supposedly for the women.  Oh well, not  a big deal.  I decided this year to order one of the most expensive shoes they had as my free pair.  In previous years, I just got the Adrenaline GTS which is the Brooks shoe that I'm most familiar with, but last year when I almost pulled out of pacing, I realized that if I pulled out they were going to charge me $150 so if that were to happen again, I was going to make sure I got my money's worth so I ordered the Adrenaline ASR GTX which is a trail shoe which retails for $180. It's supposed to be waterproof and has Gortex material in it.  I think it will make a good winter running shoe and it looks cool too.  I also looked at the Brooks Transcend which is $190 shoe.  It's a stability shoe but is extremely light.  Maybe next time.

As Brooks is a sponsor, each of the pacer's is obligated to do an hour shift at the Brooks store at the Expo. I ended up going down Friday night after work.  We had our own little pacer booth setup with couches and stuff near the exit where we would answer questions.  I had a few people commented on the continuous switch this year so it appears to have been a sticking point with people.  Also had dinner with Alex and his wife who were up visiting while doing the Detroit marathon.

I spent sometime this year studying the elevation profile prior to the race.  In previous years, I just used the garmin to target about 7:40 min/mile pace for 10 min and then walk for a minute.  This generally worked out well, though I think last year, some of my miles were a bit fast.  This year, with being able to run continuously, I decided I was going to run more by effort level and adjust to the course profile. I headed into the corrals with about 10 minutes to start. This year we were given very specific instructions of which corral we had to be in and where in the corral we should be.  Apparently, there were complaints last year about bunnies not being in the right corrals. So I had to be at the back of the first corral, and the 3:30 bunny was in the front of the second corral even though technically we should be running the same pace. The start of each corral was separated by 5 minutes.  I decided to wear both the garmin and the polar watch again this year.  In previous years, I used the garmin to do the 10 and 1 countdown and monitor for pace and used to polar to see how I was doing overall. 

So as the gun goes off, we start off on University Avenue, heading north which is on a slight incline.  I figured out that the first 3 km should be the slowest of the race.  During the first km, I started to feel my HR strap starting to slip down. I distinctly remembered to tighten up the strap about 20 minutes before race start since that was the one thing I wanted to avoid and here it was slipping down. I usual try to grab the strap and yank it up, but when I tried to do it this time, I ended up unhooking it and it came completely undone.  So I grabbed it before it fell to the ground and started carrying it in my one hand. The other hand of course is carrying this big honking pacer sign and realizing that I only have two hands, I started thinking how the heck was I going to drink at the aid stations without slowing down.  Thankfully a woman running behind me recognized what had happened and she pulled up beside me and offered to carry the sign for me while I tried to get the strap back on.  Thank goodness for the kindness of running strangers. 

 1km: 5:13

Hit the first km at 5:13 which is a tad slow. I didn't really get a chance to warm-up and there wasn't any jostling for position, but I guess the first km is a little uphill and runs around the queens park circle so I suppose there's some ground that gets lost if you aren't running perfect tangents.

2km: 5:00
3km: 4:59

The 2nd and 3rd km are basically right on pace though I suppose effort wise they may have been a tad fast since these km are also on a bit of an uphill.  Crossing past the 3rd km we head south towards the lake on Bathurst. At this point, I announce that we are going to be running downhill and picking up the pace a bit. 

4km: 4:48
5km: 4:46
6km: 4:45

These 3 km are south on Bathurst and involve about a 90 ft drop in elevation.  I tried to keep this under control by not speeding up too fast and the people running around me didn't seem to be breathing too hard so I think the effort level was good.  I ended up running down the middle of the road between the streetcar tracks which was different than in year's past where I had to run off to the side due to the requirement of walk breaks which could potentially interfere with others when done suddenly.

7km: 4:55

Km 7 is technically downhill too but involves a brief climb over a bridge over some railroad tracks.  I had to back off on pace on this climb which is a bit steep, but it immediately descends again right after this.

8km: 4:55
9km: 5:03

Continuing on km 8 and 9 are on Lakeshore Blvd going west and are generally flat.  There was a little bit of wind here and I had to pull down the sign and carry it closer to the body for a little while. 

10km: 5:01 (Split of 49:25)

The 10th km involve a bit of a climb over an overpass and then an immediate descent right after.  I cross the 10km at 49:25 which is a 4:57/km average pace (should be 4:59) which I think is about right given that this is net downhill from the start. This represents a bank of 21 seconds.  Marathon Photo has a video at the 10k split and looking at it, there's a pretty big group that's running with me, much bigger than in year's past when I was doing the run/walk thing.



I pass at about the 19 second mark wearing the neon green shirt and carrying the sign.

11km: 4:52
12km: 4:56

Kilometeres 11 and 12 continue to head west into the wind. Km 11 seems a bit fast though this include the downhill at the Canadian Legion building on Lakeshare so I suppose it's probably about right.  During km 12 my HR monitor straps starts to slip down again and it comes undone.  I ended up catching it again and end up carrying it the rest of the way.  I know the woman who had helped me before was still running beside me, but I decided that I didn't want to bother her again with my problem. I ended up just bunching it into my hand and holding it with the sign so it wouldn't be too difficult to drink at the aid stations if need be.

13km: 4:58
14km: 4:54
15km: 5:03

Km 13 includes the turnaround portion and now we are running with a tailwind.  Things are clicking along as they should.  Km 15 includes the uphill at the Canadian Legion building and I tried to slow down a bit on this climb, but it seems to have been a bit fast.  I think I checked my watch around this time and had about 20-25 seconds still banked.

16km: 5:01
17km: 4:59
18km: 5:01
19km: 5:01
20km: 5:00
21.1km: 5:29


I think it was after a hill that I caught a glimpse of a race photographer.  As a pacer, it's hard to get a good pic cause usually you're surrounded by people and it's hard to be on the lookout for them. I don't really have a good picture of me running as a pacer in the past. I think however this was might be pretty good.  It looks like I'm smiling and just cruising right along, though it's hard to tell because the proof image is so small on the website. The other things is that the woman photobombing me on the right who has her hands in the air like she's about to get arrested is a little distracting.

The rest of the way was pretty much exactly on pace. I was trying to bleed off a bit of the 20-25 seconds, but I didn't want to bleed off too much. It's hard to rely on the garmin after km 17 since you're running close to the tall condos and running under elevated road ways so the garmin isn't providing accurate pace feedback. At this point, I few people doing the full marathon pull up to me and ask about the 3:30 bunny.  I inform them that he started in the corral behind us and is technically a few minutes behind me. I probably should have made an announcement about the 3:30 bunny while I was in the corral at the start telling them to move back if they were looking for a 3:30 marathon finish.

Passing by km 19, I still had quite the group with me, though a lot of people had speeded up to finish faster. I commented into km 19 to the people who were still with me, that I expected everyone there to finish ahead of me. Coming up to km 20, almost everyone took off to finish faster.  In years past with the 10/1 thing, almost everyone takes off during the last walk break and I end up running with no one for the last little bit. Sure you end up passing people and people are passing you, but they aren't technically running with you.  It seems the same thing still applies when you're running continuously. Everyone wants to start with you, but no one wants to finish with you. Passing by the 20 km marker which is just outside of the Air Canada Centre, I knew I still had about 20 seconds banked and I knew I wanted to try and bleed off about 10-15 seconds of that going up Bay St. which is on a slight incline.  While running under the train tracks just south of Front St, I was passing by a runner who seemed to be breathing pretty hard so I was trying to motivate him to stay with me by counting down the minutes and seconds to the finish line. He ended up passing me with about 100m to go and I didn't end up getting to slow down at all going up Bay St and ended up finishing at 1:44:42.

So that's basically it.  I considered this a good pacing performance, much better than last year when I did a few miles at too fast a pace, even though my finish time last year was closer to the goal time.

Weather for this was pretty good.  Not too cold, not too windy.  In year's past, I would stick around to watch the marathoners finish, but this year, I ended up leaving right after the race cause there was one week to my own marathon and I didn't want to be standing around and risk catching a cold.  

Day 2