Montreal Half-Marathon
Sunday, April 13, 2003Race report from Lucie...
Date: Tue Apr 15, 2003
Subject: APRIL 13, 2003 * RACE DAY
Lucie, Una and friend at the startAPRIL 13, 2003 * RACE DAY
Ok.. where do I begin…. So much to say, so much happened… and things went too darn well !!! better than I expected….. DONT U GUYS SCROLL DOWN YET…. Or I will know LOL…
I Went to bed at 10pm last night. I had A pizza for lunch and then Janick had made me a cranberry/*** cake, i dont remember. I think its pumpkin.. it’s yummie !… Had plenty of water and I was pretty much full, prepared my race bag and got to bed early….. Was thinking race stuff of course, couldn’t think about anything else for that moment. Awoke at 2am and had a hard time falling back asleep as I didn’t really feel tired then… fell back into sleep about 30 min. later. 6 am the alarm rang… Was very well rested. It gave me 2 hours to do my thing and get prepared before Janick picked me up. My breakfast consisted of aobut the usual on race day. Had my usual green tea, juice and my supplements, a small bowl of oatmeal and a bagel with meat spread (I only ate half of it though). So I get my things ready, proudly wore my Penguin singlet that I had ordered from Glenn on the toronto penguin board (dang I looked hot in it LOL). so at 8am sharp Janick came to get me. Her boyfriend (Gilbert) and her young son (Jordan) were there and they drove us directly to the race site. That little guy was a talker let me tell ya.. I had not seen him since he was about 9 months old and now he’s turning 3 next weekend or the next If im correct. So we got to the race site. We got our bags checked, got our time chip, then Janick put her stuff in some lockers as my bag would not fit in a small one. And to my enjoyment .. they did have showers.. but not alot so that’s why they didn’t, most probably, mention they had some… so it would not be too incumbered and too many people waining in line for them. Not much happened then, we just walked around, talked a bit, warmed up, did some stretches, etc… I was looking for Una and didn’t see her… I was wondering if she’d be there before gun start… didn’t see her… to find out she actually got lost again LOL…….. That’s my girl hahah….. right before the race started, I saw the head coach of the running clubI had trained with once back in November I think… we chatted up for a bit and we went our own ways… by then Janick had gone to the bathroom and had come back just a few minutes before the start. She didn’t need to go to the bathroom during the race… NOT ONCE… that was great… we didn’t hydrate much before the race and I didn’t need to go either.. well I went 2x I think before the race though… I was also looking for Caroline’s boyfriend (Caro is an attorney I work with at the office) but didn’t see him… He’d probably get there late.. as I know he gets everywhere at the last minute…but that’s ok.
So at exactly 10am, the gun started. I had not started my watch right away, started it as I cross the Start line to get my exact time. Took about 25 sec. to get through it. So there we went. Our half marathon journey was going on, the fruits of our training so hard. We’d see now if that was gonna go great. I had put on my race jacket that I usually wear and about 1k or 2, I took it off and I attached it around my waist. Weather was great… a small wind but was not too bad. Temps were about maybe 0 – 2 C, which to us was just perfect running weather and besides, we knew it’d get hotter after a few minutes… so we were happy about it. Me and Janick ran together very well, kept an excellent pace. I was fully warmed up at about 2k and my breathing was very good. I just need some time to get warmed up and get my breathing in order.. at the 3k mark, dont or didn’t see the first 2, I look at my watch and we were at 18 min !!!!!! I was like…. That cant be right.. we’re running 6 min/km ???? which is 6.2mph !! didn’t feel like we were going that fast but we both felt great !! I was just astounded !… we go along… at the 5k mark we were at about 30 :30 we just had a great pace.. and we were both very happy… was windy at times and I wished there weren’t any. We were chatting most of the way and we weren’t out of breath or anything so we knew we were doing good. We did loops on the F1 race track which was so cool.. did a loop of the Olympic basin where they do the rowing competitions and we did about 2 loops of Ile Ste-Hélène which is right under the bridge. I was still wondering where Una was.. well it wasn’t going to be long before I found out.. DURING THE RACE !!!.. Just before the 10k mark, I see two girls standing with a cardboard of some sort and they had Janick's name on it… I turned to Janick and told her " Hey.. look..they’re rooting for a Janick too !!! " or something like that… LORD! AND BEHOLD.. it WAS Una and her daughter Katie holding up a sign with Janick and mine’s name !!!! OMG.. i just litterally jumped into their arms gave them a QUICK lol… hug and we went on our way… Me and Janick were just amazed !!!! It was the sweetest thing someone did for us during that race !!! It was just awesome and it did give Janick a good dose of encouragement..she was ecstatic !!! we both were !!! we kept talking about it all the way of the race…. So we crossed the 10k mark (my watch time) at about 1:03.xx… close to 1:04.xx i was like…shit !!! thats faster than my best training 10k run I had done a few weeks back. So we go on… myself encouraging others as I passed some who were walking and we, me and Janick, encouraging them to run… At about 12k, we ran over a small bridge we walked on to get to the race site and waiting for us was gilbert and her son Jordan… poor kiddo he was crying a bit cuz janick could not stay with him but it went ok. We came across them again at about 14k or just about and Janick took ! a few sec. to hug her son…. :-)…. And we went on…I think at one point Janick had to take a walk break and that was ok.. so I continued…. At about 16k (10 miles) I looked at my watch and I had a time of 1:42.xx… thats better than the last 10 miler I did on the treadmill !!!!!!!!!!!! I was just amazed !! I could not believe it.. I was right on target for my finish time…. STILL DONT SCROLL DOWN OR I’LL STILL KNOW… DONT PEEK HAHAH…. So I had 5.1 k to go… I was like.. THANK GOD.. lol… I tried to keep a steady pace even if I know i slowed down a bit… inter thighs were making me feel them lol.. not in pain but the feeling that you know you worked them and my knees held up just wonderful… no pain at all !!! last loop, about 4 k… that was the tuffest one, the last few miles… god I could not wait to cross that line. Last 4 km were the tuffest ones. Not in pain, but i could feel my legs just wanting to quit…. But I DIDN’T !!!! so I got around the last loop with ! 2k to go.. I wanted to sprint, I kept a tad faster pace, passed a few people.. wehoooo LOL…. so I saw the finish line !!!
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I could not wait, i could not wait to get passed it… I was like.. I DID IT.. I DID MY FIRST HALF MARATHON….. and not the last thats for sure !!! oh and after about 12k I had taken the decision of doing something… I told janick "FUCK THE TRIATHLON, IM DOING THE MONTREAL MARATHON IN SEPTEMBER "……….. She will think about doing it… thats wonderful !… so at the last 300m or just about.. I hear "go lucie go".. it was Caroline, one attorney I work with whose boyfriend, Jean-Pierre did the half too. So she "raced" a few metres with me..just saying GO LUCIE GO… and I sprinted like a mad woman across the finish line. I was sorta aiming for 2:10.xx as I crossed the finish line.. i was just so ecstatic.. almost crying !!! so here it is.. my results:
OFFICIAL TIME : 2:16:55.0
AVERAGE PACE : 6:30
CHIP TIME : 2:16:16.0
BIB NUMBER : 541
OVERALL RANKING : 189/219
RANKING ACCORDING TO AGE GROUP : 34/40 (Women 30 - 34)
FIRST 10K SPLIT : 1:04:06
SECOND 10K SPLIT : 1:12:50I was so excited that I had forgotten to stop my watch for about a short 15 sec LOL… oh and do any of you remember what I promised to do when I crossed that finish line ? ? ? ? huh ? ?.. shhhhhhh Una.. let them think about it ! ! Hehe… I just hope someone snapped a picture of me doing this… lol…
It was just awesome…. Next time i wanna do a 2:10.xx half marathon!!! that’s my goal… Afterwards, we took lots of pictures, got some "hardware".. nice medal too…
Me, Una and her daughter went off to lunch. We has calzone and pasta, which I only ate half of it and brought a doggie bag… i was very hungry but could not eat everything.. we chatted up for a while then we went back home…..
And that is it.. that is my race report, my last workout post.. Training was just awesome, ran through thick (snow) and thin lol… I had a great 140 days of working out.. now its a good and well deserved rest time……
UNA.. UR THE BEST… DID I TELL U I LOVE YOU GIRL ??? UR THE BEST !!! WISHED YOU DID LIVE HERE……
Now I'm almost off to bed.. I need the rest!
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