Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon - Run

I didn't expect much from myself because I had basically stopped running for a month prior to this race. All I knew was that I wanted to make the 14 min mile pace cut off (even though it wasn't a true cut off). We were also expecting the weather to delay or even cancel the race so I was just planning on showing up and doing what I could.

The weather was PERFECT. Fog rolling in off the lake, temps in the 50s. Completely overcast the whole time. NO RAIN! I felt really good for the first 6 miles and then, as usual, got to the dreaded "OMG I'm only halfway" mindset but got my second wind around mile 8-9. The "hill" at mile 9 made things interesting. I stuck with my 2:30 run/1:30 walk intervals the whole time and felt fine. I started getting a little.. light headed? at mile 7ish so I started trying to drink a bit more gatorade and water. I felt like I had to pee at mile 3 so I was sort of holding back the whole time. I only ate 3-4 shot blocks the whole run. My last two 8 and 9 mile long runs were done with gatorade only, no chews, so I figured I'd try that again.

The end of the course was strange because we kept snaking around the park so I had no real idea where the finish line was, and the hand bike marathoners were coming in behind us so there was some awkward moving from one side of the path to the other. I powered through the end and my last mile was my fastest- yay!

Nothing. Once I realized everything was going well and my splits were consistent even when I was trying to slow down to keep them around 14 min (they were averaging 13:30), I just decided to go for it and let my HR stay in the higher zone.

Got my medal and shirt, wandered through to the food stations and grabbed some water and a banana, took some selfies under the lift bridge and then tried to figure out how to get out of there. I was in such a good mood from my PR that I didn't mind the mile walk to where my boyfriend parked to pick me up, even though it was uphill the whole way.

Stopped at a co-op grocer and got some coffee and some grain salads. Traffic wasn't too bad yet getting back to our cabins along the course. Once we got home, I showered, rolled out what I could with the lacrosse ball and did some yoga stretches. I was able to watch the marathoners pass by (our cabins were an aid station at about mile 17) from the cabin.


I suppose the only thing was lack of training. I wonder if I would have done much better had I kept up with my training the 6 weeks beforehand!!! Making sure I ate enough the day before really helped too- I learned that lesson from the half in January. I was really happy with this race!


This was a really well organized race that was big but didn't feel TOO big. The course was pleasant and everything seemed to run smoothly, even though I didn't really take advantage of the buses to the start line, the gear check, etc. The medals are a nice high quality and the finisher shirts were nicer than most race shirts I get. This was my first big out of town race so I was nervous but everything was perfect.