Looking good @ 16k

Wow, finally a chance to put into words the feeling that I had running the race and my recovery.  First I have to say thanks to my wife Wendy for the support throughout my training as well as being my road crew for the event day.  I also want to thank the training group at Brainsport and Coach Colin for getting me to the finish line.  I am definitely a convert when it comes to the run-walk combination.  Throughout the training and event I didn’t experience any injuries and although stiff and sore the odd day I think the format is what made it possible.

Race day was awesome!  The weather was almost perfect; cool, little wind and the rain held off until I was finished at least.  My nerves the day before were getting the best of me.  I found trying to keep my mind off race day was impossible.  I’m sure I ran the race a million times in my mind before race day.  This being my first, I listened to “The Coach” as much as possible.  I even went to bed at 8:00pm, but there was no sleeping until 10 or so.  I had set my alarm for 4:30 am to be able to get up and have a good breakfast.  This was no problem, being awake most the night with restless legs.  There was also a concern that the experiences I had in my last couple of 1/2 marathons with a nervous stomach and washroom stops would reek its ugly head on my run.  I focused on the fact I had run the 33k training without needing to stop.  Once getting to the race the nerves although still there lessened some by seeing my fellow group members.  The pre-race preparation was a good thing.  I had set a time of 4:30 and took the time to place a pace tag on my wrist.  This proved to be a good thing as others in my group had set goals of 4:20 and 4:25 which put me with additional times I could shoot for if I was feeling really really good.

I think I see a Rabbit?

A past 1/2 marathon coach and my current massage therapist was the 4:30 pace bunny so I had made arrangements to run with her, although somewhat a loose plan, as she wasn’t sure if she would be doing the run/walk thing. I made a point to seek her out before the race and discuss how things would be going for her.  It became apparent that there were others wanting to do the race on a straight run instead of run/walk.  It wasn’t much a concern so we parted ways at the start line with her but knew we would be running closely during the race.

Although the race committee must be commended for all the work they do, they dropped the ball on getting the race started on time.  Many of the participants, as is the case with almost any event in Saskatoon, waited until the last minute to show up.  This meant delaying the start by 15min.  Not a long time in some aspects but given we had prepared to start at 7:00 sharp the time wait was no appreciated.  The feeling at the start of the race was one of nervous energy.  It was relaxing to have our group together at the start.  It was funny watching others lined up at the port-a-potties while the heard was lined up at the start line.

The run began without incident as our group tried to stay out of the way of the speed demons.  From the onset we began running between 1 and 2 minutes faster than the 4:30 pace.  Once on the road the nerves totally went away.  It was amazing the training we had done and trial runs on the race coarse gave me a relaxing frame of mind.  I enjoyed the first half so much I’m not sure I remember much of it.  The group stayed together for the most part until that point and then things started to thin out on the back half.    I had decided that the 4:25 pace wasn’t going to be where I wanted to be and let the main part of my group slip away.  But only for a while.  One bonus was having someone to run with for the 25-32k part of the race.

Good Grouping at 29K

Thanks to Jerry for his chatter and confidence in me and his experience in other marathons.  This part of the race although not difficult went by easier because of him.   By 29k Jerry and I had caught up to our group and to my surprise Coach Colin told them to stick with me.  I wasn’t sure why but he indicated afterwords that he was suffering to keep the pace.  Again a boost to the ego for sure.  We stayed together until about 31 k  then I felt we were loosing the 4:30 mark.  I stayed to the plan and paid more attention to my pace tag.  I found that by 33k I was running by myself the rest of the group falling behind a bit.  I remained focused on just moving the limbs.  At approx. the 39k mark I suffered what was a realization my 4:30 pace wasn’t going to be.  That pesky pace bunny blew by me at the final water station.  We had a brief conversation, me cursing her, well not really, more in jest about being ahead of the 4:30 mark and her giving me encouragement on finishing strong.  Crossing the traffic bridge for the last time I lost that bunny as she turned down Sask Cres.  That brief contact was all I needed to finish strong.  I told myself that if it wasn’t going to be 4:30 it would be close and that was good enough for my first marathon.  I had decided that I would only take one last walk break and given my location it would come on the last hill which would be just fine.  As it turned out I ran half way up that last stretch and took my break.  I had passed a number of people in the last couple of K’s which again gave me solace in getting to the end strong.  That final 1.5k was exciting and yet a bit of a blur.  I don’t remember seeing any of the road markers from the 40k point on.  By the time I got to the top of the hill I heard Jen’s name called over the loud speaker.  That spurred me on to keep my legs moving and sprint to the end.  NOTTT! A sprint was the last thing I wanted to do.  I told myself just get to the end, finish and be satisfied with the result.

My Finish Line Experience

Crossing the finish line was almost a bit anti climatic.  I think that was because of the training, support and knowledge I obtained over the last year.  I’m sure the lack of energy was part of it as well.  Now the hard part, keep moving.  Wendy and my daughter Jill were both at the finish line.  I’m sure I didn’t thank them for their support or even acknowledge them but I certainly couldn’t have done it without them.  Walking around trying to recover was  difficult.   I had finished just prior to the rain coming down not just spitting but a major downpour.  I sat, I stood, I drank water, I think I talked with people but I got my wind back and was cheering on my fellow group members as they crossed the line.

OUCH!!!! OOOO!!!! AHHHH!!!!! YEAH!!!!

Speaking of this Province I just completed my daughter’s income tax and was it ever nice to see she gets an additional $1000 back for her tuition.  Too bad it was her parents that paid it, but oh no,  she gets the rebate , go figure.

I joined a new facebook group this week.  Started by some insiders the group is UofS Huskies .  It has great picks and stories and is going strong.  Although I never attended this university I feel it is “my” team.. well Canadian team … go UI!!!  Why UI well turns out my daughter is going from being a “Hoser” to being a “Hoosier”.  She is heading down this fall.   We visited the camus earlier this spring and Bloomington is very much like Saskatchewan.  Campus is large but spread out and with 110,000 residence including 40,000 students the size is right for a kid from the Prairies.

My marathon training has been going excellant.  This weekend we are doing 24kms.  The 9 and 1′s seem to keep the body from getting those nagging injuries.  And with the weather changing, hopefully the trails will be clear.

Eagles

In the cold of what we hope is the last days of winter in Saskatoon, the Eagles played 3 consecutive concerts at CUC.  We were lucky enough to go on the final night.  After hearing from people and the reviews of the first couple of concerts, I waited eagerly for the concert to begin.

If you aren’t familiar with the location of CUC it was placed on the outskirts of Saskatoon 20 some years ago by stupid stupid people.  Making it almost impossible to access efficiently.  The first couple of nights although successful at the box office, were disastrous when it came to the bus system put in place for fans wishing to take driving out of the equation.  That wasn’t a surprise to me, we had tried the bus thing once and learned quickly that it doesn’t work and never will.  We did, what I believe was the smart thing, we showed up just before the doors opened parked inside the gates and when the show was completely over (we didn’t leave before the encore) we were out in under 10 minutes and at home having a night cap before some of those unsuspecting lemmings got on a bus to leave the stadium.

Eagles2

But enough for now on the traffic.  The concert was terrific.  The Eagles were total perfection.  We had excellent seats too one side of the stage.  The sound was magnificent, although some of my video wouldn’t make you think so, however that is my fault.  Although delayed, because some in Saskatoon can’t figure out how to get to a concert on time.  OOOPs that isn’t their fault again those stupid politicians back in the 80′s.  They started about 8:15 and played their first set until 9:30 then took about a 20min break.  The first set consisted of old and new, giving everyone a chance to enjoy.  The crowd wasn’t overly excited, not really standing, although one lady in our area kept getting in trouble with security for doing so.  Can’t really understand what they have with it.   They were also all over people for taking pictures for the first half but by in the second set they seemed to let it go.

Our seats gave us unobstructed views of the group and like I said the sound was perfect.  The Second set was just as good as the first.  The group showed a little more of a casual flare with their coats removed and talking with the crowd more.  Joe Walsh did an awesome job of moving around with a Sask Roughriders cap cam and changing words in his songs to match the frigid temps outside.  All the songs you ever wanted to hear were there and even the new ones maybe not as historic but may someday be just as popular.  The evening ended with Desperado and the group saluting the crowd.  Being able to leave a concert with ear drums still in tacked is wonderful now that I’m getting up there.  One of the benefits of seeing a group like these guys.  One would hope that the next time they make the trip to Saskatoon, they do it during the summer, so they can experience another part of our great Province.  Given the state of the economy in other places it wasn’t evident at CUC, the cash was flowing just as much as the beer.  One fine night One fine concert.  WHO’S NEXT???

The Eagles on Stage

The formal interview and tour took place Friday morning so we had the remainder of the day to ourselves.  My daughter chose to sleep while I went for a short 15k run.  It was only suppose to be about 13k but if you don’t know your way around town and decide to make a loop instead of an out and back things can happen.  Lucky for me I had a GPS in my phone so finding out exactly where I was at the end wasn’t a challenge.  As I had expected I was in the right general area of our hotel but was stuck in one of those situation where you just can’t get there from here.  I have always been told running in a new city is a good way to get the feel for a place.  I found that to be true.

Saturday we needed to get back to Indy for a late evening flight, so we took the opportunity to sleep in.  Not too late as we didn’t want to miss the excellent complimentary breakfast served by the hotel.  We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express.  The breakfast was one of the best comp’d I’ve had.  The cinnamon buns are to die for.  Heading back to Indy we chose to head straight East to Columbus to shop at the Outlet stores in Edinburg.  About the same as most but we did have to put up with some nasty snow showers.  Buy the time we got to Indy the snow had passed and it looked like we would leave on time.  As chance had it we spent some time in the airport having supper before our flight and this brought us to a great opportunity.  Heading for our gate we were told Tony Dungy of the Colts was sitting in our area.  I had the luxury of speaking with him and getting a couple of autographs.  Those things just don’t happen every day.  At least not for me.

Our flight home was uneventful.  So now comes the waiting.  Will we be empty nesters by the fall…….