Fitness Swellness: 2016 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half-marathon race recap

Well, it’s one week later and I’m not looking back on the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half-marathon any more positively than I did right after the race. It just plain wasn’t very enjoyable for me.

Thankfully, I ran it in support of Toronto Cat Rescue and my generous friends sponsored me in the run so I do feel good about that. And the team raised more than $18,000! (And if you’d still like to support the cause, which helps hundreds of cats get healthy and find forever homes, my sponsorship page will be up until the end of October! Sponsor me in the Charity Challenge, whydontcha?!)

But as for the actual race? Here’s the thing: I didn’t plan to race this race. My plan all along was to run it very, very easily and to walk whenever I felt like it.

My running friend Shawna registered for the race, and I was thrilled to have someone to run it with. That is until she told she thought we should aim to run it under two hours.

I haven’t been training for a half. Yes, I’ve been running, but not regularly and I certainly haven’t been building distance and mixing in speed work and hill training. I think in the past two months, I ran a total of maybe 10 times. I typically run at least three times a week when I’m training for a race. So I knew how out of shape I am for the race. Thus the plan to run easy.

But I added this race to my schedule in late September because I took part in the Scotiabank Charity Challenge and also because I do like taking part in it (there’s so much support now for it along the route, it’s very different from when I first ran the half-marathon in 2008 and ran it as my very first marathon in 2012. But I don’t see the need to be uncomfortable when I will not be PBing.

Then a week prior to the race I ran a decent 15k with Shawna . So I thought maybe 1:59:59 could be within reach or not entirely impossible in any case. The weather that day of our 15k was ideal, though: cool, almost even a smidge cold, and that’s what I prefer to run in.

Lucky me, five days before the STWM, I caught a cold. And three days before the race, I had a long shoot that started early (so I was sleep deprived) and that called for me doing exercises that left me sore; I coughed and sniffled through the day (but hopefully that doesn’t show on camera!) and crashed as soon as I got home.

I rested as much as I could pre-race but spent a lot of time wheezing through the nights and feeling worn out. I was still sick Sunday morning of the race. There’s the added issue that for several months I’ve also been suffering from allergies that, when I run, occasionally causes me to have coughing fits. When it’s a particularly bad instance, the coughing can escalate into dry heaving because I can’t get control of my breath. Sorry, TMI. I do have a nasal spray for these allergies but I often forget to use it daily…so it hasn’t had a chance to kick in and do its magic on relieving my allergies.

Anyhow, I agreed to try to start the race with Shawna with sub 2 hours in mind. But I knew very early on it wasn’t going to be doable. I think by kilometre 2 my legs felt tired (uh oh) and my breathing was laboured since my cold was still lingering.

Now, I truly don’t remember this but Shawna said I asked her not to leave me around the 8th kilometre. I have a feeling I was thinking ahead to the long and rather boring section along Lake Shore going west and then turning to take it back eastbound. At kilometre 12, and every kilometre after that, I kept asking her, pleading with her to leave me. She was chatty and full of pep and was obviously being held back by my pace. But she insisted on staying with me. She said (and she’s 100 percent correct) that if she left me, I’d sandbag it and walk. I have no problem with that. I was fully prepared to finish around 2:15 or even longer.

But that damn Shawna wouldn’t leave me! Hahaha! So I had to try to maintain a faster pace and being not in race shape, it felt awful. My legs felt heavy. I felt like I had to really work to get enough air due to my cold. And often when I start thinking too much about my breathing that causes a coughing fit to happen. I can normally chat at the pace we were running but I was quiet most of the race (other than when I begged Shawna to leave me!). But that Shawna is a stubborn one! And she said she knows what I’m capable of and so much to my semi-dismay, she stayed with me. I was happy to have company but I was pretty much shooting daggers with my eyes at her (good thing she didn’t take the selfie of us that she considered!). Add to this that the weather was quite warm and very humid. And although I’d worn just a sports bra to run all summer, for the race I had on a tank as well and I felt hot in the unexpectedly warm temps.

The finish line felt like it’d never come but it did, and we crossed it hand in hand with a time of 2:05:33. Which is decent for me considering I’m not in race shape and was sick. I was so very very grateful to not be running 42.2k that day. Thank you to Shawna for sticking by my side. (But note to self: Going forward, be clear about my race goals when asking a friend to run a race together!)

After grabbing food and some pics, we went to cheer marathoners at the finish line, who were so inspiring to me in all of their pained and anguished steps toward the finish line. But we got a few smiles and that always makes me happy because I know how much it can help to have cheers, especially when someone shouts your name. But there were many runners had rough races that day; I saw many who needed medical attention, I think the humidity had a lot to do with it.

(Also, how wicked were this year’s race t-shirts? Love this design by Mango Peeler of Parkdale Road Runners. Sad I didn’t get it personalized, which they were offering at the expo, but they wouldn’t let me swap the size on Saturday and I think I’d prefer a roomier fit).

Seeing these marathoners reminded me that I was (am?) capable of running a marathon, twice the distance I’d run that day, and at a faster pace. When I train properly. So, while I’ve been forced to put running on the back burner for the past year due to my travel schedule, I think I need to try to focus on a marathon for next year. I’m feeling that urge again. More on that in this blog post from earlier this week.

Come to think of it: could my shitty race have to do with the fact I didn’t get a “marathon mani” like I usually do?! Drat! (I skipped the nail art this race because of that shoot I had to do a few days before the race called for bare nails.)

What are your next run goals? Any races for the remainder of 2016?

And btw, Shawna and I are still friends. Barely. Tee he he…

Leave a Comment October 23, 2016

Fitness Swellness: The 2016 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon Charity Challenge

What’s the #STWM Charity Challenge? Why am I taking part and who am I fundraising for? And how can you get involved? It’s all in my vlog above!

Aaand, if you believe in the cause I’m running for, or just want to support me in running a half-marathon for this cause, well, you lovely folks are welcome to sponsor me by donating and you’ll get to enjoy that warm and fuzzy feeling of having helped out a great charity!

Leave a Comment October 1, 2016

Fitness Swellness: 2016 Calgary Half-marathon race report

“Oh, it was fine. I didn’t race it. I just ran it.”

People (OK, people who either don’t run, or run shorter distances than a half-marathon) seem really confused by this reply when they ask me how my Calgary Marathon half was. But I didn’t stress about this race or push myself. If you see me before a race I’m hoping for a PB in, I’m a mess. Stressed out to the max, and I will barely speak to you morning of the race. This half, I didn’t even check my official time until today so I could include it in this post.

I didn’t start training for this race thinking I wouldn’t race it all out, in fact, I had planned to race the marathon (as in the full marathon). But then life threw me a few twists and turns: I started traveling more than ever, but early in the year I was still on track to run the marathon. Then at the end of March, I was unexpectedly asked to cover a nearly two-week trip to China. I knew I would likely not run at all while there (and certainly  not my long runs) due to the busy itinerary, but I figured once I got back at the end of March, that would still leave me with two months to train for the marathon.

Two months is not ideal but as I’ve run marathons before, I figured I could manage it, just that it wouldn’t be my fastest marathon.

Then I caught a horrible cold and cough while in China. If that’s what it was…it ended up lasting well over a month (and I got home one day and lost my lunch, so who knows…). I sounded like I was coughinh up a lung. Then, compounding this, less than a week after returning home from China, as I sat on my couch and reached forward to grab my glass from my coffee table, I coughed and threw my back out. Yes, I can train for what seems like race after race after race and not get injured, but a COUGH brought me down.

I have never thrown my back out before, and I didn’t realize what world of hurt I had in store for me. Movements I didn’t even realize called for me to use muscles in my lower back, such as pulling open a door, would make me freeze up thanks to my back seizing in spasms and I’d cry and wimper in pain. After two days of being an invalid, I booked my very first chiropractor appointment ever and gingerly walked over. Thankfully, it helped, and I continued to see her 2-3 times a week for the next few weeks.

She explained to me that it wasn’t something that happened overnight but a multitude of reasons: running compresses your spine, all that coughing compresses the spine, the long flight home from China with me sitting for hours and hours, my job sitting in front of a computer, my lack of stretching post-workout, all factors that contributed to this pain. She recommended I lay off the running for awhile (“But I have a race!!”) and to cross train in the meanwhile. The problem was that I couldn’t cross train because of the damn cold and cough that was taking me out. Add to that the horrendous sleep I was having; I had several nights of just lying in bed and seeing the sun come up because I simply couldn’t fall asleep. I suppose it was part jet lag, but I think worsened by my usual erratic sleep schedule.

Finally, after about two week of chiro adjustments, I felt somewhat better to run and workout. I did a Crossfit workout and a Viking Method workout (both of which my chiro was not too pleased about, too intense, she said!). I went easy in both workouts, and the runs, I took slow and started with shorter distances. With each step running, I could feel the pressure on my lower back.

Over time, that twinge was less severe, but it’s still there. With about five or six weeks to the Calgary race, I opted to register for the half-marathon instead. I also made the focus of my training simply to complete the distance, so I did no hill training or speed work as I felt the intensity would be too much for my back. As a result, I’ve watched my pace slow considerably. Even for a short run, my pace is quite slow for me, which is disheartening but that’s how things go, alas.

And, so, this is why the Calgary Half-marathon was just a run for me. I didn’t stress about time. I just ran comfortably and took in the scenery around me for this, which was my 15th half; I snapchatted, checked my Instagram, took pictures. The weather was pretty much just about my ideal running weather (cool but sunny; warm enough for shorts and a tank, but not warm enough to sweat buckets and buckets). What I did stress about was potential stomach issues (I didn’t feel so great the day before and the morning of the race) but thankfully I never was forced to make a pitstop at a portapotty. At my very comfortable pace, I ran a 2:08:16, finishing 76/210 in my category, and 610th out of 1526 women in the Calgary Half-marathon.

Where this leaves me now with my race goals, I’m not sure. This will be the longest gap I’ve had for not running a 42.2k since racing my first marathon in 2012. I feel like the longer the gap, the less I’ll feel I’m able to complete that distance. I can’t tell you how positively gleeful I felt in Calgary that I was able to follow the signs for the half-marathon route rather than the marathon of (gasp) ultra route. I was so, so, so happy to not be slogging through 42.2k and only 21.1k.

Which is to say (gulp), I think this means I’ll plan to race a marathon this fall. Which also means training starts now. Travel has kept me busier than ever so far this year, so juggling it all is going to be rough.My back still isn’t fully recovered. Even sitting for short periods, it’s uncomfortable. And I can tell when I run that it’s not quite right. There is still that slightest of twinges. I suppose I should stretch it out more (I’ve been slacking).

In the meanwhile, the race in Calgary is a great one, and one I hope to run again. For more about the Calgary Half-marathon race itself, check my post over on the iRun blog.

Leave a Comment June 9, 2016