North Shore 1/2 Marathon

This year on thanksgiving monday I decided to do the North Shore 1/2 Marathon instead of the Victoria 1/2, where I have not had good luck in either attempt last year and the year before.

It was a pretty miserable morning. As I got in the car to head over there was a very steady sprinkling of rain and not a blue spot of sky to be seen. A few times on the drive over the sky unloaded a sudden deluge of heavier rain but thankfully went back to the sprinkling pretty quick. After arriving and getting my chip and bib I went out for a warmup up Indian River Drive. My calf and foot on the right side were not feeling good so I tried to stretch my stride out little by little and make sure I did no more than 15 minutes. I did a couple short strides upon arriving back at the parking lot at Parkgate and then popped a gel and got some water.

The race started over a comically narrow mat, not sure what was up with that but I stayed pretty close to the front so it was not a big deal for me. A couple of strides in I was already in front, I made sure not to push at all on the way uphill towards Indian River Drive. There was a turnaround pretty quickly and the course is a pretty good downhill until Dollarton Highway. My Puma H Streets were quite slippery on the wet asphalt so I wasn't running the downhills nearly as aggressively as I normally would but I was still pulling away quickly with the police escort and lead bikes as my only company.

Heading along Dollarton there was a series of rolling hills and I made sure to take it easy on the uphills and let it go a bit on the downhills. The minute after minute ticked by and I had not seen a single distance marker. When I started nearing the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge I asked the lead bike if there were any. He said he was not sure but would find out. I had decided not to bring either my GPS or my foot pod, so I was hoping for something. He never did find out and I never did see any so I really had no idea how fast I was running but I felt more comfortable than I have in a long time during a half.

When we passed the North Shore Auto Mall the course went over a bridge and made a little lollipop before going back over the bridge and continuing west towards Park Royal. I got a look at second place in the lollipop and he was far enough back I knew as long as I could hold my pace there was little chance of him catching up. The course flattened out as the Lion's Gate Bridge began to appear in the distance through the mist. I knew it couldn't be far from there to the finish at Park Royal so I tried to kick it up a notch but I still had no idea what pace I was running. I kept trying to imagine getting caught to keep me going strong, but at the same time I wanted to make sure I had enough gas in the tank if it came down to a sprint finish somehow.

When I passed under the bridge I took one last look back on a long straightaway and didn't see anyone so I started pushing to make sure I would hit my goal time. When I entered the parking lot at Park Royal I looked down at my watch and it appeared that 1:20 was a possibility (my goal was somewhere in the 1:20-1:22 range) but the course went all the way to the far end and then looped back towards Delany's and the North Shore Credit Union. I gave as much of a kick as I had left when the finish line came into sight and finished in 1:21:15 good for the victory and a few seconds short of my second 5 minute PB in the 1/2 marathon this year. There was no time to celebrate though, as soon as the drop bags showed up it was straight onto a bus and off to work.