Part 1: 10K Bunny Report
Race weekend started for me on Saturday morning at the Friendship Run and Bunny Hop, meeting my fellow Bunnies, as well as the Man "John Stanton" for the annual pep talk ... I brought along my camera to take a few photos, as I was not planning to run, as I had the 10K gig later that evening ... Met up with Lisa and her DH, and Pooch, for a bit, and took a few photos of my little fur-buddy, Bailey ..
After the Bunny Hop, went back to the Race Expo to pick up my free Ottawa Marathon Book that was given to all the Pace Bunnies this year, thanks Mark, for arranging this surprise souvenir, then went home to rest up a bit before returning back later in the afternoon ....
Anyways, arrived back downtown around 3:30pm or so, just enough time for one final look at the Expo, before it closed, and surprisingly, had enough self-control to not buying anything this year, other than a couple of K-Tapes earlier in the race weekend ...
At 4pm or so, starting heading down to the race site, and found myself sitting at approximately at the 1K mark of the 5K event ... It was kinda neat just being able to sit and watch for once …After the last runners / walkers had passed, about 45 minutes after the official start of the race, I headed to the race site and just started preparing for my Bunny duties … Got to my corral about 30 minutes before the start and waited around .. Met and chatted with a number of runners, asking the same question, if I running continuous or not, even though my bunny sign had 10:1 written on … And, once I responded that I will be the Run:Walk, with about a 4:49 or so running pace, walk adjusted, then they would respond … Do you know if and when the other 50 minute Continuous Bunny will be showing up? As they did not wan to do the run:walk thing … Anyhoo, the other bunny eventually showed up and a bunch of runners herded towards him, leaving me with my own little Brigade …
As the race starts, had to funnel the way through the crowds and started to clear a path for my crew and finally settled down to my pace .. At the first 1K mark, my Garmin already registered about a 15-20m differential from the signs on the road … WTF … just figured that was a blip, and continued on, and waiting for the 2K marker to confirm either way … At the 2K mark, it was hold at about a 20m differential, then I started to do a bit of adjustment during the first walk break, still hovering in the 4:47-4:49 mpk … At about 45 seconds into the first walk break, the continuous 50 min bunny passed me, so it confirmed that we were bang on, and I would likely catch up to him within the next K or bit at my running pace, as he was suppose to be holding a 5:00mpk average pace … Well, much to my surprise, I never caught up with him again, as he was getting further and further ahead of my, in particularly during each walk break … Ooops ….
By the 5K mark, my garmin noticed about a 50-60m differential and I had to start adjusting in my head to increasing the pace, accordingly, so we started running about 4:45mpk or so … In hindsight, I should have probably reduced the 1 minute walk break to 45 seconds or so, to offset the timing, but, did not want to mess up my group, as I was pretty sure that we would accommodate the difference over the last half of the race … As it was, I did notice that my pack was getting smaller, and smaller, likely because of the bump in pace, and/or the fact that they did not like the walk breaks and just continued to run …
At about the 7.8K mark so, approx 39 minute or so, a couple of the die-hards who kept with me, was asking when the next walk break was … arggghhh, in my head, as I had hoped to skp it, as it was so close to the end … and responded that it will be in a couple of minutes, or roughly at the Pretoria Bridge overpass … As promised, I took the 4th and final walk break at 8.5K, 42-43 minute mark or so and did the math in my head that we probably were not going to make it … So, once we started running again, I suggested to my pack, if they wanted to break 50 minutes, then they should take off now at about 800m left and/or wait until that final bend along Queen Elizabeth Dr, at around the 500m to the finish line … So, pretty well, I was left high and dry, with just having to bring it in to the end …
Picked up the pace a wee bit, about 50m or so to go once I saw the clock and eventually finished at 50:05 … 5 seconds or so over my Bunny Time … so close, averaging .05sec per km slower than planned …
Once I picked up my finisher's medal, went through the finishing area and headed to the car and drove straight home to shower and change and eat a bit before settling down for the next day …..
Part 2: 1/2 Marathon Pace Report
The Plan was conceived to run with Jes for a sub 1:50:xx half marathon ….
Moving forward, had a bit of a restless night, as I was up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 2am or so … and, just layed around their dozing off a bit, and finally getting up at around 5am or so, to get ready and head down to the race site, to get my parking spot at City Hall and watch the start of the Marathon ..
Met up with Jes at around 8am or so, chatting it up a bit with some other K2J Fitness Peeps, before starting the revolving Port-a-Potty visits over the next 30 minutes .. Ha !!!
Entered the Corrals at about 8:45am, slowly squeezing our way through the mass of human beings before hitting a brick wall and could not move any further … positioning ourselves right by the 1:55 Bunny and just behind the 2 1:50:xx Bunnies …. Oh, this keep this thought in mind, as it will be a bit of irony at the end … Ha !!!
The gun (err Horn) finally goes and the race starts … Took us about 2 minutes to cross the start line, and as it was similar to the start of the 10K, the evening before, I sorta kinda knew what to expect … the plan was to pick it upon the first 1K down Elgin St to get a bit of space and distance from the crowd … We succeeded and hit the first 1K at 5:06, pretty bang on and then settled down at about 5:11-5:12 mpk ….
Nothing much happening, as Jes is not very talkative during races, for whatever reason … and, most of our communications are usually done with hand signals, left, right, slow, potholes, etc ….
Everything was going smoothly until about the 9K or so, when Jes had to stop for a few seconds to catch her breath, I guess ?? Thereafter, we continued on, down Wellington St. and through Tunney's Pasture … from about 10K to 15K or so, we were hovering in the 5:15-5:17 mpk range, as it was a lot of false flats and overpasses along the Western Parkway and in the Gatineau portions … we did pretty good, maintaing our pace, or limiting the lost of a second or two, considering ….
Things were going good, so I though, then at about the 17K mark or so, on the Alexandria Bridge, thought I heard my name, then a few seconds later, turned my head and Jes had vanished … Ooops, a Bunny should never lose sight of their Peeps … anyways, stopped running and turned around, and eventually saw her walking towards me, and not looking very good, as she was experiencing breathing issues, or there lack of …
… anyways, stopped a bit, then walked about a minute or two .. Was even concerned for a bit, if she would be able to continue … then eventually, we re-grouped and pretty well suggested that the race was over, re: Time Goal wise, and the focus for the next 4K was just to cross the finish line with a bit of race management and strategic walk breaks …In the end, we finished at 1:54:57 or so, literally just in front of the 1:55:xx Bunny Brigade … Ha !!!!
Though, the race did not go quite as planned, I am still proud of how Jes gutted it out (literally and figuratively) perservered the final 4K this weekend .. She is one determined and touch chica, I tell ya …
Anyways, this marks the conclusion of my Winter/Spring Training/Race cycle … and, expect the next couple of months to be fine-tuning my shorter distances with shorter races planned, before the start of the next Fall Marathon Cycle in July/August or so …
