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Race information

• What? Sherbrooke Half Marathon
• When? July 2, 2017
• How far? 21.1 km
• Where? Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	< 2:03	Yes
B	< 2 hours	No
C	no walking	No

Splits

Kilometer	Time
1	5:23
2	5:17
3	5:26
4	5:21
5	5:27
6	5:23
7	5:30
8	5:34
9	5:32
10	5:34
11	5:13
12	5:44
13	5:30
14	5:38
15	5:38
16	5:53
17	5:57
18	6:07
19	6:17
20	6:47
21	6:25

Training

This is only my second half marathon and the first I have trained for without a training buddy. I basically followed [this intermediate training guide]{https://www.medibank.com.au/livebetteapp/uploads/trainingguide-halfmarathon-intermediate.pdf). I had a couple of setbacks early on - my toenails were turning black and I realized that I should have sized up when switching from Asics to Saucony (I have a longer middle toe and a bunion so shoe sizing is complicated for me). I switched to a half size up but in a different model with a bit more cushioning. Unfortunately, I have a very pronounced forefoot strike and I think that the added drop resulted in me landing on my toes a fair bit, particularly in downhills. I started to develop sharp pain on the bottom of my long middle toe on longer runs near the end of the training cycle. I was beginning to get worried that this was going to be a major issue so my taper week ended up being only one 30 min tempo run three days before the race.

Pre-race

The race began at 8:15 but I was staying about 45 mins away and the race organizers had recommended arriving by 7 am, so I was up and munching on a cliff bar by 5:20. I ate a banana and had a coffee and a water and was on my way. I was worried about heat so I had been sure to hydrate for the two days prior. Unfortunately, I may have overdone it out of nervousness (more on this later). Due to lack of parking I was dropped off with a friend who was also running and we hung out and stretched and basically kept each other from getting too nervous. I went to the bathroom to pee twice in the hour before the race. They called us up to the start line which was in the middle of a bridge at 8:00 and I immediately realized that I had to pee again. Too late at this point to do anything about it.

Race

My initial race strategy was to follow the 2:00 pacer for the majority of the race, and then break away in the final 6 k if I felt I had more gas at the end.

KMs [0] to [5]

The start was on a bridge leading to a bike trail so there was a significant bottleneck until about km 3. I had to do quite a lot of dodging and lateral moving to keep away from runners with strollers etc. Right from the start I looked at my Garmin and realized that the pacer was going WAY too fast. He started out the first km at 5:15 and then was inconsistently maintaining between 5:15 and 5:30 for the first 5 kms. I started to panic a little as my plan had been to follow him and while I realized that wasn't realistic, some part of me was wondering if there was something wrong with my watch instead. I still felt good, and thought the best choice at this point was to try to get out in front of him so that it wouldn't psyche me out. This was a poor decision.

KMs [6] to [10]

I got out in front of the 2:00 pacer and started relying more on my watch, trying on the fly to come up with a new race strategy. I knew I had started out way too fast but I still felt okay and started to focus more on the fact that I now definitely had to pee and it wasn't just nerves as I had originally thought. Things kind of evened out for a little bit, until km 9 when two things happened: the 2:00 pacer passed me and I full-on peed myself. Grossed out, embarrassed, and freaking out that my pacing was all over the place, I had a little bit of a mental struggle to keep going at this point.

KMs [11] to [15]

As urine filled my shoes and I saw the 2:00 pacer getting farther an farther away I convinced myself that my watch MUST be wrong and that I had to catch him at all costs. I got a little boost from my now empty (I thought) bladder and gained a little ground, but not as much as I thought I should for what my watch and body agreed was a 5:15 pace. I made a necessary decision around km 12 to ignore the pacer entirely and just go on feel alone. I was pretty shaken up at this point and trying to recover some sense of consistency. I was starting to level out and feel pretty okay until the 15 km marker when I felt the now-familiar feeling of urine running down my leg again.

KMs [16] to [21.1]

I hit the wall hard at km 16. All of the mental and physical anguish caught up to me and my legs started to feel like lead. This also coincided with a daunting paved uphill portion and a temperature spike. It went from being a breezy 20 degrees Celsius to 27 degrees in less than a minute. At the next water station was my first walk. I knew at this point there was no way I was going to beat my 2:00 goal and now I was trying to beat the mental game and still reach my goal of sub 2:03 (my previous half-marathon finish time). I had another walk break at the 18th km, and decided that I wasn't going to walk again. I made it to 20 before I had another brief walk, then powered through to the end. The finish line was at the end of an uphill hairpin bend. At the bend, with maybe 50 meters to go a young man who had been pretty consistently near me the whole race went down. I didn't know this until I crossed the finish line and looked back to see the medics rushing to him.

Post-race

I picked up my medal, oranges, and bottle of water and exited past the medic station. My shoes were sloshing and I could smell myself. It took a good 10 minutes for me to recover enough to stretch without feeling like I was going to pass out. I saw the runner who went down near the finish being loaded into the ambulance. I was relieved to see he was talking and able to move. I noticed that my watch had my final time at 2:01:32. I felt too drained at this point to think that I could have possibly made up that minute and a half. Perhaps if conditions had been ideal and my pacing had been more consistent from the beginning it would have been possible. I am very curious to know what time the 2:00 pacer came in, as I didn't see him at all for the last half of the race. The friend I had met with beforehand came in around 2:15 and by then I had realized I couldn't put any weight on my right foot. One day later it is very swollen and tender so I think x-rays might be in my future. All in all, an eventful experience.
This post was generated using the new race reportr, a tool built by BBQLays for making organized, easy-to-read, and beautiful race reports.

https://www.medibank.com.au/livebetteapp/uploads/9090-stretch-1140x642.jpg
When I try to do this my back slips to the side. Every video I watch about this stretch says to be upright and shoulders tight. I have to use my arms to get up straight and even then it's not that straight
If I keep doing this stretch will I be able to get upright?