Around The Bay (and the hills of Aldershot)

So this past week end I ran my first Around The Bay Road Race. It really started on Saturday going to the expo. All in all it was a mediocre expo, but it payed off in the long run ;). I saw a tweet from Alan Brookes, Race Director for the Canadian Running Series, on my way down. We tweeted back and forth a bit and although I never actually got to meet him I did stop by the booth and was the winning recipient of a free entry to STWM. YAY!

So let's get to the run. I planned to run the 1st half with a friend that was running the 2 person relay and then switch up and run with the 2nd friend for the last half. After the gun it took us a full 5 minutes to get to the start and we were off. We zig zagged our way through the downtown streets of Hamilton and it didn't take long to feel over heated. The temperature at race start was -10C but it was hot in the narrow streets. The jacket came off by the 3km point and it seemed to help. I was keeping my pace in and around my marathon pace and felt that I should be OK with it. As we turned up towards the lake at the 8km point the cold air shot through the wet shirts fiercely! The jacket went back on and stayed on! I was drinking my own water and filling it up at water stations. This proved to work well at Scotia previously. Where my hydration fell down (in hind site) is I didn't drink any electrolytes through the run...I think this killed me late in the run. I was feeling pretty strong approaching the 15km transition zone and Bekky ran ahead to make her change. When I got to the rely point I couldn't see either her or Martine so I just kept running. Met up with a nice lady named Linda that was running a similar pace so we ran a while together. Over the lift bridge and around the corner to North Shore Blvd and I was starting to feel a little tired but not bad. As we made our way through the first group of hills and by the golf course I was still feeling OK. Then after the 21km point I was really starting to feel beat up. A few more hills and I was having troubles with my left IT/glut. By the time we made the bottom of the little hill to go up to Plain's Rd I was toast. The walking started. In looking back at the Garmin I peaked my heart rate in the last few KMs of hills and this combined with an IT issue had me done. I walked and ran off and on from here. I ran down into the valley trying to allow gravity to help and then walked up the killer hill knowing it wasn't even an option. As I reached the top of the hill the 3hr pace bunny passed me. I gave pursuit and kept ahead of him for a few hundred meters but just couldn't keep pace. I watched his little pink ears get smaller and smaller until I lost them in the crowd. From here it was just a struggle of walk/run for 3km in.

Funny how no matter how you feel once you are close to the finish you can effortlessly glide into the finish. I finished in a chip time of 3:04:56, slightly behind my goal but happy to have finished. Next year I will be ready for the hills, better in tune with the electrolytes and HR and improve dramatically on my time....by at least 4 min and 57 seconds!!

M