And so I ran a challenging half-marathon this morning in Lacombe. Carleigh came down last night so she could pretend to watch my race in the morning.
I’m kidding. She was there for the start and the finish. There’s not really much to see when you’re a spectator to a trail race. Glad she brought a book to read.
The race began near Canadian University College. The start was a mass start. So everyone running the 2k, 5k, 10k and 21k hit go at the same time. Ugh.
You’d think this would cause a little traffic jam. And it did of course. The first bit was not fun. We ran on a single track for at least a few kilometres. It was slow moving especially around the little kiddies. Thankfully I started closer to the back but I was still caught up in the slow moving line. I wanted to pass but it was just too dangerous.
Now that I think about it, this was probably a good thing. I didn’t burn out or slam head first into the river or a tree.
But I must say this run was tough. I tripped twice but I managed to stay on my feet. There were plenty of confusing loops and out and backs.
I chatted with a woman, Jean, before the race and then during the race. She’s in one of the pictures in the previous post. She’s running her first 100 km race in a couple weeks. Gosh my 42 km seems so pitiful now. Anyway we’re going to run together sometime.
But I digress….. it was tough to stay on pace. I wanted to finish around 2:12. I powered up and down the hills. I felt pretty strong. A few times I was all alone on the trail and I kept thinking, I am going to be the last person out here. Not that there’s anything wrong with being that person, I just didn’t want to be that person today.
I finished in 2:10ish. I felt pretty good with my effort. I finished third in my age category which was a little surprising since I felt I was the slowest person there. The first place woman in my category ran 2:00 and the second place finisher was 2:02. Nice to finish in the top half of the race. Oh and I was the seventh female across the finish line.
No medal but a nice technical shirt and bib to add to the collection.