Around the Bay Road Race 2009

Time 2:20:38.7
Overall place 384 / 4926
Gender place 334 / 2623
Category place 57 / 521 (Men 45-49)

Splits
10k 47:21
15k 1:11:13
20k 1:34:27

Time to retie shoe laces at 4k ==> 1:35 min

Pre-race Comments:
- Arrived on Friday, picked up race kit that afternoon.
- Easy run Saturday AM. Felt pretty good.
- Did additional stretching Saturday evening as left hamstring had been tight during the week.
- Nutrition was good coming into race day.
- Sleepy was okay Friday but short. Saturday night was good.

Race morning:
- Raining and just above freezing
- Was able to get good start position. Almost 7000 lined up.
- Oatmeal for breakfast 2 and ½ hours before race.
- One bottle of sports drink (with carbs) (SPR-3) 1 hour before race.

Race:
- Shoelace, although double knotted, unfortunately came undone in km 4. First time ever. In the process of pulling the laces loose I accidentally pulled the knots tighter. Raining and cold, hence took approx. 1:35 – 1:40 to get re-tied.
- Tried not to take off too quickly after starting again. It happened, there was no need to panic.
- Basically 4:30 for most of the race on the flats.
- I wanted to ensure that I was getting enough liquids in during the race hence stopped regularly to drink. Stops were pretty quick and only resulted in a few seconds lost per stop.
- 2 gel breaks (1 gel each time). These took longer but the race was long enough that I wanted to ensure I had enough carbs to push through to the end.
- Hills started around km 18. Mostly rolling hills for the first while with one long slow hill. Then a stretch of about a k that was basically flat, followed by the one long S-curve kind of a hill.
- Last 3 k was a gradual downhill to the finish.
- Wind was more of a factor through the middle section along the lake. More exposed through those sections.
- Rained most of the race but not heavy rains fortunately. The net effect was that it kept things pretty cool as the temp was only in the 30s.
- Felt strong through the hills and through the final sections. Passed a lot of people on the hills which tells me my hill strength is probably not that bad right now.

Post-run Analysis:
- Although more of a risk I think I could have taken a few seconds faster per kilometre. I felt strong right through the end. 2:15 was possible on the day but I would have needed to be more aggressive to achieve the result (excluding the time lost for the shoelace incident).
- Hydration overall was excellent. The cooler day helped.
- The two gel breaks mostly likely was about right. Need to think about training and taking the gels while I run as I lost time walking getting them open and then consumed.
- Left knee was tight at times. Need to focus on muscles around the knee this week.

Recovery:
- Felt quite good after the race. More fatigued the next day but I was able to an easy recovery run Monday morning. Overall, I’ll need a few days of good rest.
- No sharp pains in any one area. Will continued to work the left side due the tightness I felt around the knee. Trying to get an extra massage in this week.

Prognosis for upcoming training and ½ marathon in Montreal on April 19th:
- I definitely feel that I’m training around the right paces. Recovery has been good.
- For the ½ in Montreal I’ll plan to be more aggressive and see what is possible.