Hypothermic Half Marathon Results

So Ottawa's hypothermic 1/2 marathon has come and gone and I've yet to post about it - more on why it took me so long in another post. What can I say about this event? Lets start with the positives - I managed a personal best 1/2 marathon time of somewhere around 1:47:19 (my previous best was set during last year's marathon and was 1:55:04) and I ran nearly the entire race with Grant - he beat me by about 2 seconds I think. In the end, I was pretty pleased with my time. I think we (Grant and I finished one after another) finished somewhere around the middle of the pack. Why all this guessing on my part? Well that leads me to the negatives from this race.

Where to begin? This was definitely the most poorly organized race I've ever participated in. That's really not saying much, considering I've only ever run 3 other races but still... My first beef was with the actual course. There were a few things wrong with it in my opinion. First off, the start / finish / turnaround area WAS NOT CLOSED TO VEHICLE TRAFFIC!!! Second, they had us crossing a road for no apparent reason. They had the road closed and monitored by police, but I don't see why they didn't just have the whole race in the experimental farm?? Third, the roads were snow covered (okay - not their fault) and they didn't think to sand the turnaround spots until midway through the race. And when they finally did think to sand the turnaround, they didn't lookout for runners who were coming! My final problem with the course - the finish WAS NOT CLEARLY MARKED - if at all!!! There were even people arguing about where the actual finish was. How in the hell do they plan to get even close to accurate results if they can't even decide where the finish line is?!

My other major complaint about the race was the lack of electrolytes available on the course - as in there were NONE. Grant had taken the time to email the coordinator before the race to check what would be available at the water stations and was told there would be water and Ultima. As a result, we planned to bring only carbs with us. During the race, we only seemed to be getting water and so after the race, I asked for some Ultima because I had a splitting headache - they didn't have any and hadn't had any for the whole race. Huh?! Luckily Amy had brought me a gatorade for after the race, but it sure would have been nice to have replenished my electrolytes throughout the race.

My last complaint, and I've already alluded to it, is the fact that there doesn't seem to be any results for the race. We didn't get championchips for this race (perhaps the race wasn't big enough) and I certainly didn't see any sort of clock anywhere. I have to guess on my time based on what my watch said and where I think the finish line may have been. There are results from last year here, so I guess I'll just hold my breath and hope they show up eventually.

For those of you who know me well, you're probably asking how I could let Grant beat me by such a small margin. Of course I didn't let him beat me, sadly I felt there was nothing I could do. It's funny, when we were just coming up to the final 1.1 km loop, I turned to Grant and attempted to reason with him saying, "You know Grant, I feel no desire to beat you right now, so there is no need to push me." He came back with something along the lines of, "I still need to push myself," or something like that anyways. I knew at that point I may be in trouble. I figured I'd just hold on as long as I could, I mean we only had 1.1 kms to go right? Well he made his move at the turnaround point of the 1.1 km loop. He surged ahead by a few paces and while I WANTED to catch back up with him, I only seemed able to match his pace. I watched, seemingly helpless, as he ran just a few paces ahead of me towards the (unmarked) finish line. Just before (maybe a couple of metres) the finish (at least what I think was the finish) a girl attempted to pass me and I had a 'Meyer moment'. For some reason I got really pissed off that she had tried to pass me and so I sprang ahead with a burst of speed and caught up with Grant. Sadly - the race was already over. If only that girl had passed me a bit earlier... Oh well, I'll get you next time Lawson! :)

P.S. For more on the "Meyer moment" see this post on ActiveSteve.com.

P.P.S. I almost forgot - here are our split times, courtesy of Grant (final 1.1 km time adjusted to reflect my added 2 seconds):

Lap 1 (0:24:49)
4:35 (km 1)
4:51 (km 2)
5:25 (km 3)
4:54 (km 4)
5:04 (km 5)
0:24:49
Lap 2 (0:25:56)
5:02 (km 6)
4:59 (km 7)
5:43 (km 8)
4:59 (km 9)
5:14 (km 10)
0:50:45
Lap 3 (0:25:41)
5:04 (km 11)
4:54 (km 12)
5:37 (km 13)
4:57 (km 14)
5:09 (km 15)
1:16:26
Lap 4 (0:25:40)
5:10 (km 16)
5:00 (km 17)
5:42 (km 18)
4:55 (km 19)
4:53 (km 20)
1:42:06
Final 1.1 km (5:13)
1:47:19