Hypothermic Half Marathon - Regina - RunHalf Marathon

Not the greatest run. Started a little fast, but soon found my pace. Unfortunately it was in no-man's land between the slow and the fast runners.
Interesting that I had a runny nose...not unusual, but when I blew it I noticed my right nostril was kinda bloody. This worried me a bit, but I just kept going and it cleared up...The things that fill your mind when you are trying not to think about what you are doing!

I was feeling good for first half ready to do a negative split, but then both calves started cramping up. I pushed through that, but it slowed down my gait a lot. I also had a lot of trouble with the cold....duh! I wore my heavy duty balaclava with the face part that stays on with Velcro. It froze and the velcro wouldn't stick, so it flapped like a board and kept hitting me in the face. I was a little worried about it for a while, but I managed to fix it. I was reluctant to take it off and thus had one less gel than I wanted to and not enough liquid (semi-liquid frozen substance).
Three power gels total.

I took my glove(s) off at one point and couldn't get it on again...this all distracted me and slowed me down somewhat, and messed with my mind.
I just couldn't get back up to speed again, until the last 2k.
Some water station volunteer poured water on my foot...luckily it wasn't too bad and it must have evaporated in the frigid cold!

Everything froze up and my lungs started to hurt a bit. I was worried a bit about my asthma and bronchitis as my lungs were a little sore and my mouth piece was frozen so wasn't warming my air too much. But it all worked out. All other systems were go, albeit frozen.

Great music thanks to John. Kept me very motivated when I was starting to slow down and lose focus. Never got to the "I gotta walk" stage...I just slowed down a bit and walked a bit, but nothing out of desperation. I just ran my race.

Walked about 20 seconds every 3 k and at water stations. And in the last 7 k I was running behind one runner and she stopped a few times and I stopped (walked) with her, but then I smartened up and started running again. Finished very strong and even ran a bit for a cool down.

Never run in -34C temperature.
Use a different hat, balaclava system.
Run faster...I wish I had...but I couldn't. Not in this weather, cold and ice conditions.
I don't think I could have done much of anything better.

I'm happy with this race, even though it was a good five minutes slower than I hoped but over 26 minutes faster than last years.
I weighed my clothes. 10 pounds heavier than when I put them on...That's all moisture!

Hugged my lovely first wife who volunteered. Got groped and felt up by Wanda who took my race number tag, then ran about 200 metres to the Arts Centre entrance as a cool down.

Went in and had some good food with good friends.


Cold. Freezin' Cold. Cold and Ice. Frozen air. Chilled atmosphere. Cold.
Clothing weighed me down and created problems after it got wet, then frozen.
Crampy calfs. Couldn't get to my gels easily enough...two were in my gloves to keep them warm, the others froze.
Water bottle had to be unscrewed. Too much hassle so I only had a half big bottle. Should have had more. Would have gone faster if I didn't have to carry all this stuff.
Did I mention the cold limited me?
My training was right on. I was ready for this, It just didn't happen.


It was too cold.

Beat last year's time by 26 minutes...and the conditions were better then!

The best part of the race was the music in my ears thanks to John. That and the last K where I finally put everything together, pushed away the cold and the pain and just ran.
First 1/3 of the race was good too, I enjoyed myself and felt like I knew what I was doing.
As I heard before, this race was hard, but it won't be -34 at Ironman...It might be +34! Crap!