{Canmore half marathon. Done. Post-run beers and eats at The Drake}

Posted by jen at chocolateandginger.com on September 12, 2010 · 5 Comments

Race #7 and my 3rd half marathon.. DONE. We woke up bright and early this morning and headed out just before 8am to drive out to Canmore. I sipped my ginger tea in the car the way there to calm my nerves (I always get anxious on race day). The drive took a bit longer than anticipated and I got there only 10 minutes before the gun start.

The weather forecast called for rain and possibly snow this morning (eek!) Luckily it turned out to be a clear day, a bit chilly but pretty ideal running weather. At 9:15am sharp we were off and running through the start chute..It’s always so exciting running amongst a huge crowd. Me and my running partner zipped back and forth to get through the initial crowd which took about 10 min before settling into our pace. Unfortunately I lost my partner about 4km in (he had to tie his shoe and we had agreed if one person stopped the other should keep going).

Don’t you just love the yellowing retro looking pic, this image is from the race website.

My breathing settled after about 6km and I had a pretty good pace (about 4:45min/km). The rumours I’ve heard were right, this is a VERY hilly course. Lots of zigzagging up hills the whole way through which was especially torturous around the 12-13km mark. At this point I thought to myself (why oh WHY did I do that intense cardio class yesterday?!).

We passed by this sulphur pond along the course as well, you know that smell of rotten eggs (nothing better than a huge whif of thick fart smell when you’re panting for air..awesome..)

At about 16km, my right shoe lace unravelled from a double knot! I stopped to tie it, but my fingers were so frozen I could barely function, so I tried to tuck it into my shoe.. Sure enough, it unravelled AGAIN. Gah..note to self.. triple knots next time. My legs were getting heavy and there were some hills that felt like an eternity. I was wishing for someone ahead of me to stop and walk so I could stop to, but they were all givin’ it their all, so I chugged along.

At about 18km I got these horrendous cramps in my abdomen, like there was a stone just sitting in my stomach, rocking about with each step. I tried to adjust my breathing and just kept saying (3 more km.. 3 more km..come on..)

The dull pain remained, but I tried to distract myself by focusing on the person ahead of me and keeping up with them.

Finally I saw the 20km marker. We turned the corner and there was a huge crowd cheering us on, and there it was in the distance, that huge white FINISH gate. I kept my eye on the gate and ran. About 200m from the gate, I thought this is it and sprinted as fast as I possibly could with every ounce of energy I had left. I passed 3 people along the way and even heard people in the crowd cheering me on “Whoa, do it, go, go, you’ve got it!“

As I ran through the gate I threw my arms up in the air and I could see the boy cheering loudly from the sidelines!

I had a goal of under 1hr and 50mins and I ended up with an official chiptime of 1hr and 47mins and 2 seconds (6th place out of 100 females 18-29 yrs old) SUCCESS!!

I did not aim for a personal best because it was a harder course, but it become a new PR!!! (My fastest before this was 1:47:24). I FINALLY made it into the top 10 in my age div, I could not be happier

Gah.. if only I didn’t have to tie my shoe twice… oh well.. next time.

My partner came in about 6 min after me (I want to mention he just came back from 6 weeks of vacation and did this with NO training! Amazing!)

I was sooo proud of the boy too, it was his first race and he didn’t take ANY walk breaks. He came in with a time of 55min and 23sec in his 10km. Awesome!!

I looked at my GPS and it said I burned about 1245cal, so now onto the best part, FOOD! I grabbed two peaches and an oatmeal raisin cookie at the race and then we were off to the local pub, The Drake…

..to redeem our free beer coupons we got from the race (I couldn’t stomach a beer right now, so the boy happily enjoyed both of these).

I had a chamomile tea instead..

The pub was busy so our food took about 30-40 min, but when it arrived, we dived in.. The boy had the chicken pot pie with a side salad w/ bleu cheese dressing.

This bad boy was GIANT!! THE crust was flaky and buttery and the stew was packed full of veggies, lots of earthy flavours.

I had the turkey club ciabatta sandwich with a side of broccoli chedder soup.

The sandwich was giant too! Cranberry sauce, lettuce, tomatoe and cheese. Nice fresh crusty bun, the turkey was a bit dry, but I remedied that by dipping it into the soup.. oh yea.. I’m classy like that. The soup was quite watery, but probably better for my stomach that it wasn’t super creamy and thick.

This is a pic of a statue just outside the pub..kinda random don’t you think…

Filed under Food/Places to eat, Uncategorized, Workouts and Hikes · Tagged with canmore, half marathon, running, the drake

Comments

5 Responses to “{Canmore half marathon. Done. Post-run beers and eats at The Drake}”

Vincci says:

September 13, 2010 at 9:42 pm

Congratulations on a great race!

Reply
Merry120 says:

September 13, 2010 at 9:53 pm

Congrats! You are fast!

Reply
- eatrundesign says:
  
  September 13, 2010 at 10:09 pm
  
  thank you!! it was a great time
  
  Reply

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