mytrilife

Chinook 1/2 Marathon

I raced the Chinook half-marathon yesterday. It follows the exact same course along the Bow River as the Last Chance half in the fall. Given this, I expected to hit another PB. Well... didn't quite work out that way!

After the MRC tri last week, I took Mon-Wed completely off, as I was feeling cooked. I went for a good hard massage on Tuesday to try and clear some of my muscular issues as well. I jumped back into training with some rides and two short runs leading up to the race. Not sure if it was the cycling, the 3 days off, or the massage was a little too deep, but my legs did not feel 100% on race morning.

The temps were cool and sunny on Sunday morning, but a strong west wind was building. The first 3k of the race was directly into the wind, a tough go. My km splits showed I was off the pace by at least 10s per km, but I attributed that to the headwind. As we turned east after crossing at Crowchild, things felt easier, but my split times continued to be the same.. I just couldn't get my legs to go any faster! I watched helplessly as Jay (Lapierre) pulled away quickly, leaving me to race for 2nd place.

I held pace for about the next 10km. I could feel my breakfast sitting in my stomach though, and at 13km I got a stitch. I slowed my pace to try and clear the pain in my abdomen, hoping I had enough distance on the 3rd and 4th place guys; then my knee started to hurt! It was going from bad to worse. I started to feel a bit better after the out and back (about 15km), and was able to resume a somewhat normal pace. My legs felt like blocks of concrete though... and I just suffered through the last 5km to finish in 2nd, but in my worst time in 2 years at the distance... 1:24:29.

Definitely some execution errors in this race... eating too late, wearing brand new shoes, not recovering completely from my massage, plus it was my 3rd race in 16 days. Still, it's early season, so I can't be too dissappointed. I always have one mediocre (or bad) race each season.. good to get it out of the way early! Now, a week to recover the legs, and start building my bike mileage. Next race, Banff-Calgary relay in a month. I've also added the Kelowna Apple tri to my schedule, probably spend 12 days in the Okanagon in August.

Full Chinook 1/2 Results

posted by Greg @ 4/17/2006