Well it has definitely been a minute since I’ve posted on here. To say that I have been a little busy would be putting it mildly, but more on that later because I ran the Whistler half-marathon on Saturday and I thought that deserved a little update.
I went in to the race not expecting much. Keeping up with my training had NOT been easy. I missed a lot of runs and I felt like I could never eat enough to keep up with the training…not that I was hungry, completely opposite actually but more that the energy during runs wasn’t always there anymore. I managed to finish in 2:15:47, which is 7 minutes faster then last year…I guess I must have been doing something right with my training.
The Whistler half did things a little differently than my last run and the half-marathon and 30k people started last and let me tell you that wait is the WORST. At first I thought it was kind of cool that I could sleep in, but no, sitting there knowing you have to run 21km shortly makes you want to run back to your room and forget it is happening. Instead of hiding in my room I spent my time trying to decide what was worse, never having run a half marathon and not knowing if you can even finish or having run a half marathon and knowing what it feels like and the pain that is about to take over your body (don’t I make running 21km sound like SO much fun…it is…I promise).
The start of the race was pretty crazy, it was shoulder to shoulder people and it stayed like that for probably 10km. The one bonus of being surrounded by that many people though is that they keep you running. Around 6km I started to feel pretty nauseous, mostly due to not eating enough breakfast I am pretty sure…in other words I was HUNGRY…but like so not hungry because for me running equals no appetite. I had intended in eating some homemade food pouches during the race but I made a very silly mistake and forgot my food pouches in the fridge at home so I was eating baby food instead. I wasn’t sure how the baby food would go over with my overly sensitive stomach but I managed to get some water and some of the pouch down and it calmed the nausea…THANK GOODNESS. Not going to lie, I was starting to get worried I would be running the entire race feeling like I was going to puke. After that I kind of settled in to the race and the crowd finally started to clear around 10km and by 14km I was pretty near running by myself. The last kilometer felt like the longest 1km there ever was. By that point my legs were jelly and my feet hurt and I was ready for a nap but crossing that finish line is the biggest high. It is almost like a switch you go from wanting to curl up and not move ever again to feeling like nothing happed (minus the tired legs, that definitely doesn’t instantly go away).
Mom and I spent the rest of the day checking out Whistler, I think we walked about 8 or 9 kilometers on top of the 21 that I already ran…needless to say my legs were toast by the end of the day (and for the next three days after that). There is a lot of awesome shopping in the village and some pretty delicious places to eat.
For anyone thinking about doing the Whistler Half it is well worth the trip. It is a nice course with some hills but nothing super crazy. The course is a mix of gravel and pavement, roads and trails. All in all a fun two and a half hours.
I have a little over 2 months till my next half-marathon and after that I am going to be spending most of my time sitting on my butt doing nothing but eating food. I love running but I also love the breaks from training!
