Pic Spocket

The Detroit Free Press Marathon was yesterday morning. I ran in the Half Marathon, a 21 km (13.1 mile) event.

I really came close to miss the race start. The gun time was 7h15 am. Since I live very close the race, I left at 5h30 am from home: big mistake! It took forever to get there and at 7h05 I was still in my car, getting close to the parking garage I had selected the day before the race. Turns out that 12 000 people trying to get to the same place is resulting in very bad traffic backups (duh!!). I need to leave earlier than that next time.

So I had to run from the parking lot to the start line and got there 1 minute before the gun time (race start). It was really dark and cold outside (0 deg C – 32 deg F) at race start.

The race went really good for me. It was awesome to run on the Ambassador Bridge towards Canada as the sun was rising. That hill was something though. I was happy when we got to the crest of the bridge. I ran at a faster pace and heart rate than I had initially planned, but it paid off in the end as I could hold my pace of 4:25-4:30 min/km (~7:15 min/mile) till the end.

Corinne & Newton were waiting for me with our friends Tracy, Craig and Trails to cheer me up on the side of the river in Windsor while I was on my way to the tunnel to cross back in the US. Thanks guys!

The end was tough as I never stressed my legs so much for so long doing just running. I still increased the pace on the last kilometer and passed a few more people. Another guy tried to pass me right at the finish line but I bounced back and held my spot.

Final time: 1:35:05. That puts me in 154th position out of more than 7000 participants in the Half Marathon. That’s in the top 2.2%. That’s better than I was wishing for.

[video removed 1/1/2010]

Today, I am very sore from the race and can barely walk. Going down stairs is very painful. My body is telling me something and I will listen to it. I’ll take it easy on the next few days.On a darker side, 3 runners died that day, all doing the half marathon. This is very unusual and very sad. Link to the story.

Craig was going in his family in Sarnia for the thanksgiving weekend. He decided to go there by bike, like he did once before. This time, I joined him for the ride last Saturday. That’s about a 160 km (100 miles) ride on county roads. In cycling, this distance is called a Century ride. Weather was fair, just a bit on the cold side (6 degrees C when we started). There was a little bit of wind, but it was usually on our side or with a small component in our back.

The ride went really good. We stopped only once for 25 minutes at Tim Horton in Wallaceburg for a sandwich and restroom break. We paced ourselves well and I finished the ride in good shape. Our average speed was about 28 km/h (a little bit less according to Garmin, a little bit more according to my Bike computer). We covered the distance in 5h42min moving time. I had actually enough energy left in the tank to go running if it would have been needed (triathlon).

It was nice to do it with a friend. I get kind of lonely sometimes at the end of long solo rides. Here is the route we followed: 

>> Click here to have access to the interactive map, charts, and player.

Corinne and Tracy joined us at our destination with the dogs. We had fries under the Blue Water bridge toguether before splitting for the weekend. We stayed overnight in the area before heading back home on Sunday after walking Newton by the River. Here are a few snapshots taken while rolling:

Ride Windsor-Sarnia

Sometimes, you need to commit to do something out of your comfort zone in order to grow. That’s what I did earlier this week by registering to 2 races for the coming months.

 Ironman 70.3 Florida
May 16 2010
This is a half Ironman distance: 70.3 miles compared to the 140.6 miles of a full ironman distance. This is going to be a tough challenge since it will be much longer than anything I have done so far by a factor 3 or 4. Since the event is in May, that will give me the motivation needed to train during the whole winter season. The plan is that we will stay in Florida for one week after the race, on vacation. This way, we both get something out of it Also, it will be nice to relax for a week on the beach after that crazy effort.

The distances are as follows: 2 km swim | 90 km bike | 21 km run. You basically end the race with a half Marathon. I really mostly want to finish this race. Now we are really talking about an endurance race compared to the sprints I have done so far. That will be my challenge: learn to pace myself so that I have enough energy to finish the race. I still want to do a good time. hopefully in the 5 hours range. The course is flat, but I will have to be careful with the change in temperature between Canada and Florida at that time of the year.

What I need to work most on is…. everything but the swim is what scares me the most again. In Florida, the water temperature will cause the wetsuit to not be allowed. I will feel less safe without a wetsuit since it provides buyancy.

The plan is to do Sprint and Olympic distances races in the summer 2010 and then a second Half-Ironman in the fall in Muskoka Ontario. The race in Muskoka is known to be a very tough one with a lot of hills.

Detroit Half-Marathon
October 18 2009
The second event I registered for is the Detroit Free Press Half Marathon that happens in 2 weeks. That race will be part of my Half Ironman preparation. This should be an interesting race since we cross the US/Canada border twice: we start in Detroit, cross over the bridge in Windsor, then run by the river to the Tunnel entrance in order to head back in USA.

Timing is not so great though because I am not ready for that race. The longest I have ran so far is 14 km so I have only 2 weeks to build up to the required distance of 21 km for the half-marathon. I will have to be careful. I would still like to finish in the top 10-15% of the participants.. We will see how that goes!

I need to go out for my long run. Stay tuned for the upcoming results!