Scotiabank Vancouver Half-Marathon, June 23, 2013

On June 23 I ran the Scotiabank Vancouver Half-marathon, my first half marathon in over a year because of the injury.  I was relatively undertrained, having only done a few long runs within my triathlon training.  But I got it done, and I had fun.  I never posted a full report for this race.  Instead I will now post a copy of what I wrote in my Runningmania journal  (http://runningmania.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1436261#p1436261)

My plan was to start easier, about 6:00/km. But I good at the beginning and just got into a groove at closer to 5:30/km. The course starts with a gradual downhill for the first 3K which helped the pace. The course also has a very nice 2K downhill coast from about 8-10K. So it's not too surprising that my first 10K was in just over 55 minutes. I thought I might be able to hang on to that pace, but the course is more difficult in the second half and I was paying a bit for my lack of run mileage. I slowed down on a few of the hilly parts, and then had to take an emergency potty break at around 17K. I was also getting some calf cramping from about 15K on which forced me to slow down a bit, but I was able to relax into it and not let the cramping buckle me as it did in my last two halfs. So I'm happy about that. The last 5-6K really became mostly about keeping strong and steady.

I finished in 2:02:19, which is better than I expected but not as fast as I had hoped (if that makes sense  ). I'm mostly just happy that I was able to be out there racing and finish with no injury issues. Never take racing and health for granted. 

Here's a link to my Garmin Connect file for the race:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/332668289

You can clearly see how I slowed in the second half on a few of the hills and lost more than a minute in kilometer 17. And the elevation profile gives a bit of an idea of the course.