I started the 2011 season off with two solid runs. Although road races aren't my favorite thing to do, I certainly recognize the importance of getting outside my comfort zone to improve my run.
Fools Half Marathon
This was my second year racing the Fools Half Marathon on the Sunshine Coast. Similar to last year, the weekend started off with a long ride on Saturday morning in Vancouver before hopping on the ferry to spend the night in Gibson's before the race. I travelled over with a big crew from the NSTC and had a wonderful prerace dinner and relaxing evening as we cheered on the Whitecaps and Canucks. Race morning was very relaxing, especially with a 9am start. I did a short warm up jog and lined myself up in the middle of the pack just before the gun went off. I started off much more conservatively than last year and spent the first few miles chatting with Scott and Dave as we settled into a steady pace. Scott and I were running really well together until the 15km mark when Scott picked up the pace. Unfortunately I couldn't stay with him but was able to hold my pace for the last 6km into the finish. I had a solid finishing time of 1:32:57 which was 5 minutes faster than last year and just off my PB. All the NSTC group had a great race and we were rewarded by a wonderful post race lunch at the Lyne's before heading back to North Van.
Sun Run
Yesterday I ran the Sun Run for the 2nd time since moving to Vancouver. The Sun Run is a really great race with 50,000 runners of all ages and abilities. The start line is unbelievable when you can look back and see just how many people have shown up to participate!
Nick and I made our way to the start nice and early and lined up in the yellow (2nd) corral. As I haven't raced a 10k in years, I didn't have a qualifying time to start in the seeded area. I wasn't sure what to expect as I rode a hard 115km ride on Saturday and I didn't know what my legs would feel like when I tried to push the pace. It was pretty crowded when the gun went off and I spent lots of time weaving in and out between people. I settled into a 6:35/mile pace and tried to maintain that while dodging people throughout the course. In fact, I must have done quite a bit of weaving as my Garmin showed I ran 6.4miles, instead of 6.2! I was able to maintain the pace I started with and finished in 41:36 which was good enough to be in the top 100 female finishers out of 21,632!
Now if only I could learn to run that fast off the bike.....
No comments:
Post a Comment