I’m a big Strava user for cycling, and now it’s doing running.
The False Creek loop in Vancouver is a hugely popular running route, about 9km, uninterrupted path running. And here she is. Let’s see some Strava times on here!
As if completing 2/4 endurance goals for 2009 wasn’t enough, I had to put in one last attempt at a third. And of course I had to choose a marathon. What a dumb idea! I had been doing 40-50km weeks, then went traveling abroad for a month to England and Scotland. Impressively I managed to keep up some volume there. You see, I was planning on potentially doing the Victoria Half Marathon, but alas it was sold out WAY in advance. Seems like everyone wants to do half marathons these days!
Ok, let’s go for the full. I registered in the final week after determining that my body could handle a big 120km week (not sure how my body handled that torturous bump), then a 95km week, and a taper week. I was running great, but could I handle a full marathon at race pace (4 minute kilometers)?
Standing at the start line, I thought, just enjoy each kilometer. Get into a comfortable pace, eat and drink properly, and take it as it comes.
I was nailing my paces according to my GPS watch. At the halfway, I started working the km’s down to 3:52s, but always preparing for the pain starting at 32km. I actually didn’t even feel it until the last 5km. The km’s went down to 4:10s. And I slipped across the line in 2:49 plus change — much closer than I thought!
There. Now it’s in words. I’m making goals for 2009:
I’ll mix these up with bike road races, time trials, duathlons, 5k running races, trail running, and adventure races, so might be spread thin.
I’ll be very happy to break at least 2 of the 3.
There. It’s in writing. Bring it.
Update: Today, April 19, I did accomplish #3, running a 34:48 in the Vancouver Sun Run 10k. I thought it was fairly hilly for a 10k, but that means downhills too which is good for me. The first km was downhill, and people flew off the line. I started easy and must have passed nearly 50 runners from 1km mark to the end, passed only by 1. It’s an incredibly deep event, with 80 runners faster than me (and, well, about 59,920 slower). This bodes well for a distance I really enjoy and is new to me. I’ve only been running 40-60km a week these days, balanced with all my cycling and swimming and skiing. I think with 100km+ weeks and later in the season, I could make a run at 33:xx.
Update: I did my first triathlon, a sprint distance (so about half an Olympic), today, the Delta Triathlon. So I can finally call myself a triathlete?! It was early season so the swim was in a 25m pool (not open water thankfully), but it was still plenty hectic with people piling up at points, getting punched and kicked, and missing breaths. That was a fair first swim for me! Bike was strong, but it was windy and the faster guys seemed to all have plenty more aero gear than me! Run started tough, but picked it up and finished the 5k in 17:42. Total time was 1:02, which got me 7th overall, 3rd in my age group, and which should make a sub 2:10 Olympic very realistic for me this year… well that is if I can find an exact, standardized Olympic tri! They seem to love half Ironmans only here in BC.
Update May 3: I didn’t mention I also wanted to break 1:20 in a half marathon. For some reason that seemed a longshot, but thanks to a lovely morning today at the Vancouver Half Marathon and despite the ominous Prospect Point hill in Stanley Park, in the second half of the course, I was able to negative split the course and run a 1:17:37! I’m thinking that there’s more speed there — I went out conservatively for the first half as I haven’t done many runs this year over 21km, but had lots of legs in the second half. I also hooked up with a fast fellow from Seattle who had lots of speed coming down the hill.