Pacing Phil Through His First Half Marathon

Running has brought so much to my life. To be able to give that gift to someone else is huge.

Last fall my friend Phil told me he wanted to start running. I got him started on the Run for Life learn to run program and offered my knowledge as he needed it. 8 Weeks later he was plugging along and was looking for more.

Phil and family made their way out to Cambridge for a visit and Phil brought his running gear. On our run I told him if he wanted to run a half marathon I would pace him through the run. He quickly agreed and we decided on Mississauga in the spring.

After a long winter with some time to train the spring was a welcome change. Phil's progress was amazing. Even after some time off in December he was down 50lbs and running long and pacing was solid.

We got some time to run together over the last few weeks before the race to discuss race plans and timing. I explained that his job was to simply show up and run, nothing more. Give me your goals and then stick with me for 21.1km. As with anytime doing a new distance the first goal was to finish. Second goal was to break 2 hours and with his long runs under 6min/km I knew this was totally within reach. The third goal was 1:55. An aggressive yet attainable goal.

The plan was to travel in and stay at Phil's in Brampton and head down in the morning. We took the time to drive the course on our way to the expo on Saturday. I highly recommend this to anyone who is running a course for the first time. Knowing what you have in store is such a great advantage.

I told Phil on Saturday that I had a surprise for him for Sunday morning. What he didn't know was that I had brought my flip video camera and was going to capture his race as we progressed.

As the pre race buzz grew we kept loose. Ran a few hundred meters to loosen up the legs and keep warm as the sun was just peaking above the condo buildings.

I will let the video tell the story of the race.