Oui, Montréal était bon!

A new half marathon PB!!! Yay!!!  This past weekend I was in Montreal, Quebec for the half marathon.  I was feeling good about this race and was actually looking forward to see what I can do! 

My friend and I drove to Montreal Friday afternoon and we checked into our hotel in downtown Montreal for the weekend.  Even with limited time, I was hoping to play tourist and I think we did a pretty good job!  We ate some famous Montreal smoked meat, had lunch in the Latin Quarter, visited Old Montreal and had dinner there on the Saturday night, walked up and down Rue St. Catharines, visited the Olympic stadium and park, and of course, brought home some delicious Montreal bagels!


Olympic stadium - site of the 1976 Montreal Olympics



Saturday I did a short run with some race pace km thrown in.  I was to do 3x1km at race pace with 2min rest and run for a total of 30min.  My km repeats were actually much faster than race pace and it felt quite easy.  I don't know if it was the shoes, I was in my race shoes the Brooks ST Racer 4 which are lighter and I guess faster! LOL!  I also ended up running for about 40min, oops!  One thing though, it was COLD and WINDY!  Saturday we also saw a mix of rain, hail, and even snow! Ugh! Really?! I wasn't planning on running in winter conditions!  I was hoping for better conditions on Sunday but it wasn't much better.

Sunday we woke up to rain, wind, and cold.  I had some oatmeal, a banana, and a Boost for breakfast.  I also had a coffee on the way to the race site.  We got to the site early since we weren't sure how long it was going to take us so we just hung out in the car to stay dry and warm.  By the time the race started the rain had actually stopped but there were puddles everywhere.  The gun popped and off we were.  I always find it hard to hold back on the first couple of km because everyone else is also going fast and the atmosphere is full of energy.  My race plan was to run about a 5:25 pace for the first 10km and then try to bring it down to 5:15s for the second half.  Well, I was running about a 5:05-5:15 pace for the first half.  I actually found someone to pace me, although he had no idea!  I first tucked behind him to help block the wind and I noticed he looked like he was running a comfortable pace.  So I started running right behind him and just stuck with him.  I was surprised how comfortable I felt running at this pace.  At about 8-9km he started slowing down to about a 5:20-5:25 pace which was still my goal pace and I debated about whether to stay with him or try to keep the current pace.  Well I decided to gamble, leave him, and try to stick to the faster pace.  So my goal was to try to stay at 5:20 or faster.  I was doing well until I hit the 12km mark where we met up with a wicked head and cross wind.  I had difficulty just trying to run in a straight line.  I was seriously being blown around and not in the right direction.  So my pace for the next few km dropped to about 5:30-5:40.  There were a couple of km around 17-18km that we were sheltered so I managed to bring my pace back to under 5:20s but we met up with the wind again for the last few km.  It was just brutal! Apparently people's times were about 2-3min slower.  I still managed to clock in my fastest half marathon run time to date at 1:53:48!!!  Woohoo!!!  I was pretty happy with that!  Avg HR 164bpm and avg pace according to my garmin was 5:20min/km but it also read 200m long.

My friend and I post race, she ran her first half marathon! Congrats Sabrina!

I felt pretty good after the run as well.  I wasn't really crampy or anything which really surprised me.  We actually went for a swim at the Olympic venue pool.  We found the pool when we were playing tourists and there was no way I was not going to swim in that pool once I found out there was lane swimming for only $6.  So after we checked out of our hotel room we headed for the Olympic sports centre and swam for about 40min.  I did an easy 2x1km swim and again, I did not cramp.  The last couple of times I went swimming after a run race I always cramped.  Not today! :)  Maybe it was those torture Thursdays! LOL! (side note - there will be no more TT until the fall since masters swim now conflicts with masters run in the spring/summer and I am going to stick with masters run as I need work on this the most and I am having quite a lot of fun!)

the Olympic pool at the Olympic sports Centre, the venue for the 1976 games.

Overall, a great weekend despite the weather which had us driving back in near white out conditions!  That's right, a blizzard in mid April!  I really hope the snow and cold is done with now!  At least I got some Fairmount Montreal bagels stocked in my freezer now! :)