Race Recap: A Slow & Icy #HypoHalf

The Race: Hypothermic Half Marathon
Location: Edmonton, AB
Registration Fee: $65-85 (depending on early bird/late)
Race Package Contents: Running Room backpack (price tag says $49.99) and “limited edition” grey/black striped Running Room toque.

My Day
Weather: +3C / 32F, light wind, party sunny
Clothing:

• Under Armor ColdGear Infrared leggings
• lululemon Studio pants, unlined
• swirlgear longsleeve tech top
• Nike Aeroloft Flash vest (down-filled)
• Under Armor ColdGear Infrared Hybrid jacket
• lululemon hat w/ ear flaps
• Polar m400 watch
• Jaybird Bluetooth headphones
• shoes: Mizuno Wave Rider

Race Eve Meal: Penne alfredo w chicken + garlic wedges, plus dessert of a mini size oreo Blizzard!

Pre-Race Meal: Oatmeal w/ brown sugar, fresh fruit, apple juice (courtesy of breakfast buffet at our hotel)

In-Race Fuel: grape nunn + strawberry Clif Shot Blocks

My Race
Distance: 21.1k / 13.1m (although my watch says 13.3m…)
Goal Time: 2:30
Official Time: 2:44

Thoughts and Feelings:  Going into this run, I was feeling pretty jazzed.  It wasn’t a “real” race-cation, no, but still, we I packed a suitcase, we loaded the car, and headed to Edmonton to do an overnight stay for my 8am start time.  As I mentioned in my race prep post, I had set up staged goals because I wasn’t totally sure how I would feel or what I was capable of.  In hindsight, I’m pretty glad I did that, because Sunday didn’t really turn out how I had hoped.

Package pickup was easy, and I took full advantage of eating my pre-race carb-y meal the night before.  I started to worry about clothing choice though, because the wind was howling, and I hadn’t really packed for that…  Race morning I decided to throw on my lulus as an extra layer of pants, which I hadn’t planned for, because it was still looking pretty breezy.  As soon as I saw the start line, I knew that I was probably in for a tough day, but I was optimistic that things might get better further along the route; I wish I had taken a picture, but it looked something like this:

Ice, the whole way. And despite the event only being 300 people or so, everyone was jockeying for the same portion of the road which had slightly less ice in the ruts worn down by vehicles.  I sighed as I saw my goals fade away, as visions of slip sliding played in my head.

So, I ran a hyper-conservative race.  The event was 2 loops of the same course. On the first loop I maintained about an 11:40 pace, and at the halfway point it was looking like I could finish in 2:35ish, but by the second half my body was feeling awful from the adjusted stride length, super upright posture, and unforgiving ground conditions, and I lost even more time.  By about 19k I decided I wasn’t having fun anymore, and I didn’t really care what the clock said…it could have been 4:00 for all I cared.  I crossed at 2:44:01, far from a PR, but I was just happy to take my medal and go home at that point.  It was a hard fought 21.1, and I was ready for a nap.

Outside of my personal experience that day, the event itself was quite good.  Water was available at 4 times (same station, but you passed it 4x – clever work, race directors!), start/finish was at a golf course with REAL, indoor bathrooms! 🙂  volunteers were super duper nice, and although I ate very little afterwards, the post-race brunch was lovely and the breakfast potatoes were especially delicious.

Would I travel for this one again? Probably not. I didn’t love the course, the weather was alright but it wouldn’t be unusual if it had been downright awful, and there is a Hypo Half held in my own city.  That said, it was a good event for the price (especially the medals!), and if you live near YEG and like the HM distance, I’d give it a try, if I were you!

~ Princess Lindsey

Race Recap: Alberta Women’s Half-10K-5K Challenge

Greetings from Edmonton, Alberta!

This morning I, Princess Lisa, ran my first race in Alberta! I was very excited and nervous about this race as the description said it was hilly….and from a Manitoban’s perspective, this course was much more than hilly! Lol.

The race kit, pictures above was simple but lovely. The shirt fits perfectly and is very good quality. The spi belt that is holding my bib is from the recent Winnipeg Police Service Half Marathon (love the free gift at the end of the race).

Hills aside, the course itself was lovely. It went down a trail on the river through trees and wildflowers. It smelled amazing and was a nice change from normal road races.

The finisher’s medal is quite lovely, but I am disappointed that everyone got the same half marathon finisher medal. It feels kinda wrong to wear it as I really only did a 10K.

Actually, speaking of 10K, I am not entirely sure that I actually ran a 10K. Just before the race began, the race director told all the 10K runners that their original map wasn’t quite accurate and so they added some distance (a MASSSIVE, windy, seemingly never ending hill), to try and make up for it. They still weren’t sure what distance we actually ran, which was rather annoying as the whole point of me running this race was to work on my 10K speed/time.

I finished in 57 minutes and change according to my Garmin (i used my footpod) but we had race chips, so we will see what my official time is in a few days. Given that is my time and the fact that I took two walk breaks up the steep inclines, something was clearly off in the distances.

One other negative of the race was not having ANY water at the finish. Who DOES this?!? They had coffee, watermelon, bagel halves and orange wedges, but no water. I would’ve sacrificed all that food for a glass of water.

So overall, hmm…what would I give this race…perhaps a 5.5/10? It definitely has potential but unknown distances and inaccurate medals and no water and the finish took some big points off for me.

If you ran the race, let me know your thoughts in the comments? Would you do it again next year?

Happy Running!

Princess Lisa