Report on Peterborough Half Marathon

What a day to run in Peterborough.

Race: Peterborough YMCA Vascular Health Half Marathon
Date: Sunday, February 26th, 2006. 12:30pm????
Weather: -11 degrees Celsius at Race time. Definite Wind Chill.

My report on the Race. (for info about the race only, skip down to Race Report)

Preparation for the race:
I have to say that I was totally prepared for this race. I had been making preparations for it all week. I had googled point by point directions to get there. I had packed my race bag on Thursday as not to forget anything, including charging my Forerunner GPS so that it would be ready for the race. I knew that I wouldn't have a lot of time on Sunday morning.

A little background: As a father of two young girls (age 2 and 4, almost), my time is very structured. The weekend of the race, my wife was away in Dallas at a conference--no problem there. My main go-to babysitter, my Mom, was also away in the sunny Bahamas. So here I was, wanted to run a race with the issue of finding a sitter. Eureka! I find out that the Peterborough YMCA is offering daycare during the race. My problems are solved.

Race Day: I get the kids and van packed and on the road by 10 am. We reach the YMCA by about 11:40 by the time I find parking. I grab the kids and make my way up to the center. Problem: the YMCA and the whole city block that it is on has had no power for the last two hours. Race bib and chip pickup has been moved across the street to another building. REAL PROBLEM: No daycare is available without power to the building. What do I do??? I take the kids back to the car. I decided that this must not be a race that I was meant to do.

I drive to the bib pickup and at the very least get my bib and shirt. So, I waited in the parking lot until I found someone I knew who could watch my kids while I ran inside to get my stuff. It turned out that my friend Denise had come to cheer on her husband in the race. She agreed to watch my girls while I ran the race. Problem diverted! So I parked the car, shuttled the girls to the warm building where they would wait, grabbed my bib and chip. I basically got to the starting line with less than 10 minutes until the start. After a short warmup and stretch, I was ready to go. As I reached the line for the gun to go, I realized that I had: NO WATCH, NO GELS, NO Water--I had left them all in my bag back in the van. I guess I would be doing this one without my usual strict adherence to Pace, Nutrition and Hydration. My race plan was gone, but I would do this one according to feel. Good luck with that.

Race Report:

Race Conditions: A cold morning for a race. While there were no shorts or singlets today, there was a great variety of how participants were dressed for the race. I heard many pairs of "Ice-Bug" type shoes and saw a number of Yak-Trax on racer's feet. Many people wore balaclava or neoprene masks to fend off the cold. While most had toques on their heads and their jackets done all the way up.

While the organizers did have some problems with a power outage prior to the race start, it seemed that everyone was in good spirits and ready to race. The organizers quickly secured an adjacent building to handle the bib pickup, bagcheck, bathrooms and keeping racers warm until the start of the race.

This year's race course was the last time running this route. Next year it will be changed to hopefully include a few less hills. The course took you quickly over the river and to the east side of town. The first hill, a fairly high grade, came right at the 1 mile mark. It was really neat to see how spread out the racers were already at this point. The leaders were just cresting the hill as I came to the start of the climb. At the mid point, I was able to turn around for a quick look at the rest of the crowd which spread out as far as I could see back from where I came.

By the 3 km mark we were already on the out and back portion of the race. After passing the 3 km board, the course soon passed another marker on the other side of the road which was the 9 km marker for on the way back. 2 km later I came to the first water station. A dozen volunteers offering water or Gatorade. The Gatorade turned out to be the red (Fruit Punch?) one and it was mixed almost full strength. The first gulp I took came right back up, It was ice cold. My Running Free Singlet later showed evidence of this as the whole front of it was now a shade of pink.

On it went, up one hill and down the other side. On the way back, between the 7 and 9 km markers, the wind was blowing right into us. After doing some drafting, mixed with a bit of conversation, I made it back into town and started to head up the east side of the river. Again, it seemed that I was running directly into the wind. At the 14 km mark, the runners around me were pretty evenly spaced out and holding their positions. It was at this point that 2 guys running together, they looked like brothers because of their similar build and running style, passed me like I was standing still. By the time I reached the turn back into town, they were already out of my sight.

The last 5 km of this Half marathon were some of the best out there. The approach was relatively flat, easy to follow with the final 2 km being a straight road to the finish line. One local's advice to me was "When you can see the Church Steeple, go hard from there because you are almost home." Sure enough, you could see the Steeple from 2 km out, and the finish line and crowd were visible for more than the last km. It was really great to see it and to stretch it out in the final 500m. As I came to the finish line, I scrambled to see where the gun clock was and sprinted in the last little bit to see if I could break the minute. I go away from this experience with lessons learned and patience gained.

After finishing the race, the power had been restored at the YMCA, so all post-race activities went off as planned in the gymnasium. Organizers were pleased with the turnout as well as the field of athletes which they had. The food afterwards was quite good, I especially enjoyed the homemade vegetarian chili. Thanks Peterborough for a great race and for your hospitality.