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Mississauga Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon


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Mississauga, Ontario
Canada
9C / 48F
Precipitation
Total Time = 1h 33m 18s
Overall Rank = 128/3430
Age Group = 35-39
Age Group Rank = 17/198
Pre-race routine:

Up at 5:30am and arrived at the race site by 6:30. Managed to get a great parking spot right at the start line. Tried eating a bit, but race nerves meant I didn't have much of an appetite. Visited the porta potties a couple of times, but it turns out it still wasn't enough.
Event warmup:

Nothing, just paced back and forth a bit and tried to stay loose, but it was tricky since it was rather cold and wet.
Run
  • 1h 33m 18s
  • 21.08 kms
  • 04m 26s  min/km
Comments:

Goal time going into the race was realistically 1:37, with a 1:35 as a stretch target. Unrealistic goal was a 1:33. With the rain and expected winds, I'd kind of thrown out the stretch target and told myself just to shoot for the 1:37 - keep an even pace, but allow myself to speed up on the down hills.

2 minutes before the gun goes off and I need the bathroom - again. Seriously, I don't know what the issue is with my bladder and race day nerves but I can't help it. Off we go and I notice that my HR spikes straight off, so I know I'm in for a high HR day, but I figure this should't be much of a factor, I'll just look at it occasionally, but focus on pace.

My first km is a bit slow, and I realize this is no longer a training run and I'm going to have to put in a harder effort. Luckily there's some downhill to the run, so I catch my pace up to where it should be within a couple of km - I also shed the arm warmers. But by km 5 I'm really feeling the need to stop - lucky for me someone exits a porta potty right around km 6, and I jump in there, and feel a whole lot better after. Now I had to catch up to those that were running around me so I didn't lose too much time. Km 7 & 8 are pretty quick as I look to make up the lost time, and at the same time I pick up a pacer. Older guy running in the mid 4:20's, and I run with him for the next 6-7km. We caught and passed the group I was pacing with previously, my legs felt good, so I stuck with this guy.

Those km's went by pretty fast, and I only lost a little bit of time on the only major hill. I also noticed during this time that no-one had passed me since I'd hooked up with my new running pal, we just kept picking people off one by one. Then, inexplicably at a water station around km 13 I grabbed a drink and kept running, and he pulled off, I didn't see him again.

At this point, I knew I was running a solid time and just kept going. There were less and less people in front of me but I continued to pass a few other runners. With 5km to go I dropped the pace into the low 4:20's and held on against the wind during the last 3km.

That last km seemed like it was going to take forever, and I hadn't looked at my overall time on my watch simply because I didn't know how much time I lost with my bathroom break. Seeing the clock read in the mid 1:33's as I crossed the finish was an awesome feeling. I had not really thought I was going to be capable of that kind of run.

Beat my only other 1/2 marathon time by 8 minutes. It all came together really well on race day.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing - could I have gone out faster, probably, but I don't know that I could have finished as strongly. I'm not second guessing anything about this run.
Post race
Warm down:

Walked around a little, met up with a couple of different groups of friends and saw some others finish.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Nothing. I followed an 18 week plan to get ready for this race, and it served me really well. I also think the fact I did almost all my long runs the day after a longer bike helped the legs. Training on fatigued legs and then racing on fresh legs - I could feel the difference.

Event comments:

I may be back next year looking for another PB.




Last updated: 2010-10-26 12:00 AM
Running
01:33:18 | 21.08 kms | 04m 26s  min/km
Age Group: 17/198
Overall: 128/3430
Performance: Good
Lap Time Distance Pace/Speed AHR MHR 1 04m 41s 1.00 kms 04m 41s /km 157 169 2 04m 35s 1.00 kms 04m 35s /km 165 169 3 04m 33s 1.00 kms 04m 33s /km 168 170 4 04m 21s 1.00 kms 04m 21s /km 167 171 5 04m 29s 1.00 kms 04m 29s /km 166 170 6 04m 31s 1.00 kms 04m 31s /km 167 175 7 04m 12s 1.00 kms 04m 12s /km 169 175 8 04m 19s 1.00 kms 04m 19s /km 173 177 9 04m 10s 1.00 kms 04m 10s /km 171 176 10 04m 24s 1.00 kms 04m 24s /km 172 175 11 04m 33s 1.00 kms 04m 33s /km 175 181 12 04m 23s 1.00 kms 04m 23s /km 172 175 13 04m 26s 1.00 kms 04m 26s /km 170 172 14 04m 29s 1.00 kms 04m 29s /km 170 173 15 04m 26s 1.00 kms 04m 26s /km 169 172 16 04m 16s 1.00 kms 04m 16s /km 171 174 17 04m 21s 1.00 kms 04m 21s /km 173 177 18 04m 20s 1.00 kms 04m 20s /km 176 179 19 04m 30s 1.00 kms 04m 30s /km 176 177 20 04m 21s 1.00 kms 04m 21s /km 177 178 21 04m 08s 1.00 kms 04m 08s /km 179 181 22 00m 16s 0.07 kms 03m 46s /km 180 181
Course: Net downhill from the city centre to the lakefront - pretty route.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5] 4

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2011-05-15 7:00 PM

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Elite
3779
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Ontario
Subject: Mississauga Half Marathon


2011-05-15 8:05 PM
in reply to: #3500417

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Master
3058
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South Alabama
Subject: RE: Mississauga Half Marathon

Great race Neil!  Fast time.  Way to pull it together on race day.

Randy 

2011-05-16 8:21 AM
in reply to: #3500417

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Expert
1121
1000100
Menomonee Falls, WI
Subject: RE: Mississauga Half Marathon
Great job Neil on shattering your PR!
2011-05-16 8:38 AM
in reply to: #3500417

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Pro
4672
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Nutmeg State
Subject: RE: Mississauga Half Marathon
Nice run (and PB)!
2011-05-16 2:24 PM
in reply to: #3500417

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Champion
5312
5000100100100
Calgary
Subject: RE: Mississauga Half Marathon
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