Waterfront Half Marathon 2012

I sat down to write a post about my goal's for Sunday's half, but maybe I should get the recaps from my last one up first.

Scotiabank Waterfront Half Marathon
October 14 2012
Goal Time: 2hr 30
Chip Time: 2:37:50

This is going to be super short considering this race happened almost 7 months ago.

I went into this race with the time goal of 2 hrs 30 minutes. My previous half time had been 2:40:27 in May so this was a bit of a stretch. My training leading up to the race had been okay, not great.

I had signed up for this race to raise money for the Arthritis Research Foundation - a cause near and dear to my heart. SWTM was going to be my 15th race and my 4th half marathon and I wanted to help others with arthritis who can't do this kinds of things. I ended up raising $1000 for the foundation which I'm very proud of.

Race morning was rainy and kind of chilly. One of my favourite things about SWTM is that it starts right in front of my workplace, so I stay inside as long as I can.

I stated off pretty good, maybe a bit quick. I ran 5's/1's. The race course had been changed since the previous year, running up University and Yonge to Bloor, making it's way over to Bathurst before heading down to the water. I really liked the course changes as there was more to look at.

I felt pretty good until around kilometre 15 or so when my hip starting acting up on me. I pretty much alternated between a slow run and a limp for the last 6k.

Limping 

I pretty much gave up on my time goal and just wanted to get it done. My main thought for the last few kilometres - "I have $1000 worth of support behind me. I can do this."

Happy to be done!

I did hit a new PR of 2:37:50 but this definitely wasn't a strong race for me. My biggest take away was that I need to vary my training more, work on strengthening my hip and increasing the run part of my run/walk intervals.