Calgary Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

The gun goes off and off we go. As I suspected, the first few hundred meters were spent making my way through the people that seeded themselves at the front that should not have.

The first km goes quick at 3:38. Cripes! Too fast but at the same time my goal was to not worry about pacing and just go by feel. I felt good and the first few clicks came easy. I was with a 4-person group with 2 women and another guy. 5k comes and I'm at 18:56. The next few kms weave their way through East Village and the group I'm with becomes just 2. Me and the first place female. She gets lots of attention from spectators for being in first and I'm just happy to be there mooching off her attention. Running along the Red Mile I still feel quite good. I'm going what I call 'controlled fast'. At the time, kms 7-10, it was about 3:53/km pace. As I ding the 10k mark I'm at 38:25 - the fastest I've ever done 10k in. A little way past and there was a guy reading out half-mary splits. At that time I was 39:55. I'm on pace to go sub 1:20!

At around the 11k mark I grab some water and have a mouthful. My only water or nutrition for the race.

I'm approaching the turnaround and I see all the people in front of me. I guess there were about 22 of them at the time. Some guys looked good, others looked like they were on the pain train already. I was thinking that I was still looking good.

I make the turnaround with the first place female and she seems to pick up the pace. Errr, scratch that...it's me starting to fade. I'm in the heart of the race now - kms 12-17 and I'm starting to slow and my exertion is starting to increase. The 12th km I slow to 4:06. My first click over 4 minutes. I pick it back up and just focus on the few people I see in front of me. I get my pace back to sub 4's for kms 13-19, but just barely. At km 16 I do some math and I figure I've got a sub 1:25 unless something goes totally sideways. My legs are spent and I'm hoping on the pain train by km 17. With 2kms to go I'm really hurting but feel good knowing that I'll hit my goal time. I pass the 1 mile to go marker and just like that 3 guys pass me :( Crappy! I do last two kms in 4:04 each whereas it seemed that some of these guys picked up their paces.

We move near the finish and I'm mixed in there now with 10k runners. There is mass people and I stick to the outside doing my thing. With 400m to go I glance back and notice the 2nd place female right on me. No way! I refuse to get chicked at this point, especially in a sprint down the finish chute. I turn up the jets and she doesn't/can't respond as I cruise in. Success! 1:23:11 for my chip time.

I sucked back some Gatorade and chatted with some other guys. I didn't hang around that long because I was just solo. I was home by 9:45.


I didn't get enough long training runs. I believe my endurance was my biggest limiter for running faster.


Great morning for a run! The weather could not have been better. It was a great vibe at the race and well organized. It started right at 7:00 am...not 1 second late.