Race report: I've come undone

The streets were wet and a mist could be seen from the halo surrounding the street light out the front door of my sister's place in Victoria. This was the first rain in a while and it was to fall on race day, of course. It was a humourless day. The race was to start at 07:30, so it was an early wake-up for the household, as my sister Jill and cousin Tara were running the 1/2 marathon as well. I Had all my gear ready to go, was organized, well rested, and ready to race. We were out the door right on schedule.

I made it to the start line with about 5 min to go before the race and had a very light walk/run to warmup in getting to the line. I felt calm, relaxed and ready to go. I thought of the mantra, "no reserves, no regrets, no retreats" (I heisted this one from the elite runner Dan Browne). In no time the gun went off and we were into it. I missed the first K marker, but knew I was going at a good clip. I did see the 3K marker, but can't recall my time exactly, I think it was ~11:15ish. The first accurate split I saw was at the 10k point, which was crossed in 38:34. I was feeling good here, and this split shattered my (admittedly) soft 10K PB. This wasn't a 10K race though, so that PB will have to fall another day.

Things started unraveling for me, literally, when at about the 12K point my right shoe lace came untied. I couldn't believe it, as I had triple knotted those suckers! I stopped tied it up, and re-grouped, as I hadn't lose too much time. Things didn't get better. My shoelace proceeded to become untied TWO more times. The last time was just past the 15k point which I passed in 59:14. On the third untie at about 15.1K, I panicked a bit, as there was a knot that needed undoing and my hands were cold, I was putting my foot on the seawall, swearing under my breath. After this final tie, I was running in no-man's-land, with no runner close ahead of me and I felt my running rhythm was really affected for a time. I will admit that for about 2 sec. I thought of giving it up there, but I quickly decided to press on. "No regrets" I said to myself. It wasn't until ~4K to go point, I caught a strong female runner, and we pushed each other for the next 3K. With 1K to go, I picked up the pace and could hear my breathing start to speed up. I finished in a chip time of 1:24:55, a PB; but I couldn't help but be a bit disappointed.... It all seemed like such a rookie mistake.....

I believe my shoelace problems cost me ~1:30 sec. of time, and was thinking a low 1:23 was in the cards early on. It wasn't to be today.

I learned several things in the race today, beyond the obvious.... I'd like to discuss them with my coach as he's been instrumental in my improvement. I take from this race though, a number of positives. The main one being that I'm in shape right now to hammer some decent times at different distances.

Another mistake I did make, was hanging around the finish line after the run for a long time, waiting for my family members to come in. I nearly froze to death. This was despite the fact I had changed into some dry clothes. I told them later, I watched them come in on their first 1/2 marathon, but I won't be doing it again.

There were lots of competitors from my home town, and I want to congratulate them all, particularly my cousin Shannon, who completed her first Marathon. The spectators were down from previous years due to the weather, but it didn't affect their enthusiasm. It was nice to see Patrick N. who came out to watch at the finish.

I have a new pair of shoelaces already, and they will be replacing the existing one's that don't like the rain too much.....