Innovative Fitness Half-Marathon

The Innovative Fitness Half Marathon, Ekiden Relay, 5K took place yesterday in “sunny” White Rock. This is a great community event with lots of local runners taking part. I enjoy going out to a race with so many familiar faces. Along with the Half Marathon that we took part in, is a relay event with 4 legs and also a 5 K, so there is really something for everyone. With the relay exchanges throughout the course there’s loads of encouragement along the way and varying speeds of runners. Just when you thought that you were into your run and found your pace, you’d be overtaken by a speedy relay runner with fresh legs.

It really is a well organized event with plenty of food, coffee, juices before the run and more than enough water and Gatorade stops along the run course. You started at the new South Surrey track with a loop of the track in the beginning of the run and at the end of the run, which helps the spectators to become more involved and cheer on their runners. The course was very scenic taking you through South Surrey and White Rock, twisting and winding and keeping the runners quite challenged. After the run, again there was loads of food and drinks and I really liked that the awards got underway promptly. No waiting around. All the volunteers were gratefully recognized with prizes. The grand prize was a mountain bike donated by Penninsula Cycles which you had to be there to claim. It just so happened that the woman that won the bike was walking the half marathon course at the time of the draw. I was delighted to see that the race organizers overruled and decided to make an exception and awarded the bike to her even though she wasn’t present at the drawing. Kudos to the organizers!!

Half Marathon winning times were:
Men - Drew Nicholson - 1:17:34
Female - Mary Walsh - 1:29:12

My Race(???)

I was very excited when I woke up yesterday morning to cloudy but clear skies – what a relief after the pouring rain that we had all day Saturday. The temperature was about 14 C. I felt well rested, not having run for 3 full days. I was ready to run.

The half marathon fell perfectly 3 weeks before the Victoria Marathon, so was a no brainer to include in our marathon training schedule. My last long run was 1 week ago, where we ran 23 miles and I felt great – mentally and physically. I was looking forward to running the half. I haven’t run a half marathon for six years now and have never clocked over 2 hours. I didn’t want today to be that day but feared that it could be. I think my times have gotten a bit slower over the years. However, my run went great. I felt strong for most of it and I was determined to beat that 2 hour mark. I was ecstatic when I crossed the finish line at 1:58:43. Roll on Victoria Marathon – I’m ready!

Running Goals - Learning to Love What You Hate

Did you make any New Year’s Goals this year and did they have anything to do with running?  If you are a running fanatic, chances are that you did.  Right up there in the top ten resolutions are the usual - get in shape, or achieve new fitness goals and, of course, lose weight.  Running can help you achieve all these goals.

My New Year’s Running Goals include learning to love what I hate - or at least like it!  An important part of any training routine is speed work and I must admit, I loath speed work.  But to be perfectly honest, whenever I have wanted to achieve a specific goal in a marathon or other running race, I have followed a running program “with discipline” that included speed workouts or fartleks.  AND… it is only those times that I have completed my program “with discipline” that I have achieved my goals.

The truth is that I don’t like struggling with things that I’m not naturally good at. Many experienced runners do the same and avoid workouts that challenge them.  For some it may be hillwork or others it may be speedwork. It is important to incorporate a variety of running workouts into your routine as it is these workouts that will make you stronger and possibly avoid injuries.  My plan is to avoid the track.  Whenever I think of going to the track, it implies painful speed workouts, so I have decided to incorporate fartleks instead into my regular runs.  After completing a warmup at a slower running pace, I will do speed bursts (with recovery), increasing the times of these speed bursts as I improve.

Along with my goal to incorporate speed work in one of my weekly runs, I am also going to include easier runs.  Perhaps I will go running with a friend that runs at a more leisurely pace than I do.  This will give my muscles a chance to repair themselves and also provide me with a “fun” run while catching up with a friend.

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