Yesterday was the Running Room's annual Hypothermic Half Marathon. I ran the 13.1 miles with my Uncle Bob. Well, he's actually my uncle-in-law, but I've called him Unk for many years. I was fortunate to be able to get to know him well when I lived with him during my last two years of university. He is a running veteran having completed the full Saskatchewan Marathon in 2001. After a few years off, he has recently re-discovered his love of running and volunteered to join me for this event.
It is not only the running aspect of my project that is appealing to Uncle Bob. He had a chance to get to know my friend Heather while I lived at his place and he is saddened by her passing. Hitting even closer to home for him was the loss of his mom (my husband's Grandma) due to leukemia in 2006. Grandma was a kind woman with a beautiful and caring spirit. Cancer took her from us too soon.
So, together we met up with the other runners yesterday morning near the Vimy Memorial. Despite being the middle of February in Saskatchewan, the temperature was a crisp but manageable -17 degrees Celcius when we started heading North along the river at 9 a.m. By the time we were returning back South along the route, the sun was shinning warmly. The temperature was around -8 degrees Celcius when we finished. I was thankful that I had purchased a new pair of windproof pants last week. It was a brisk run, but it could have been much worse.
The Event
Overall this was a great running event! The route was well marked and there were enough friendly road marshals to keep us going in the right direction. The warm gatorade at the aid stations was a nice treat, the finisher's medal is really nice and the post-race brunch at the Delta Bessborough was delicious. My only complaint is the jacket that came with the registration. It's not just that it is BRIGHT yellow, but it's a unisex size XL....so I'm not likely to get much use out of it, lol!
The Excuses
When we were coming up with our plan of attack a couple weeks back, Uncle Bob and I agreed on two things: we wouldn't aim for a specific time (being happy, rather, just to finish) and that music was totally necessary. This came as no surprise since Unk sings in a jazz group named Solstice and he LOVES music.
So, here's where I made a BIG ROOKIE MISTAKE! I got up extra early to allow enough time for a good breakfast; and, while I enjoyed a couple cups of coffee I checked my emails etc. I saw that the girls at Another Mother Runner had recorded a new podcast. So I decided I should download it and give listening to it during my run a try. While I'm sure that this is a good idea and I'm still going to give it a try, I couldn't get the podcasts to upload onto my ipod. In fact, when I got to the start line and put in my earbuds, I realized that I had managed to remove most of my music from the device! I'm lucky that there were a few songs remaining in a playlist that I had used a couple years ago. It was enough to get me through about 6km so I ended up playing them each at least three times!
The lesson: don't mess with things the morning of a run! I've heard horror stories of people using new gear or different energy gels or beans than what they trained with, and I guess I should have realized the same goes for the running tunes!
The Best Part
I really enjoyed running with Uncle Bob! We finished in 2 hrs 27 mins. We ran at a steady pace and only stopped to grab our drinks and continue on. Between the 11-13 km marks on the route Unk's hip started to bother him (it's as a result of an old childhood injury). At one point, when my ipod wasn't cooperating, I could hear him saying something. At first I thought he was chanting a mantra (yes, it's a lame thing that runners sometimes do to get themselves through the rough patches). Then, I realized he was singing! He didn't even realize he was doing it, but every time we hit an incline or the going got tough, he sang along to his music. I think this was his form of a mantra and it gave him the strength to push through. Thankfully, his singing was much better than my limited playlist!!
My strength comes from my boys. Having them waiting for us at the finish line, ready with high fives and beautiful smiles means so much to me.
I'm excited that this half has put my 2012 total distance to date over the 100 mile point! It feels great to have my second run of the year under my belt and I'm thankful to have had such great company! Now I've got three weeks to prep for the Brainsport Brainfreeze on March 4th.
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