Around the Bay 30K

This was my second year running this race. I really enjoyed it last year (despite the fact that it was cold and that it poured rain for the first 10K) so I decided to sign up again. It was also a good coincidence that I was supposed to be running 29km for my long run this weekend and it's a whole lot easier to get yourself motivated to get out when you're running with thousands of other people.

So... it was around 4 or 5 degrees at the start and cloudy. They were calling for rain later in the day but at least it was dry to start.

I started out at 9:30 and by the second kilometre, I knew I was going to have a good race. I almost missed my first walk break (I do 10min running/1 walking) and when I realized it was coming up, I almost didn't take it as I didn't feel that I needed it. I then reminded myself that I was supposed to be running slowly as this was not supposed to be a race, but just a training run.

So I stuck to the 10/1 schedule and it worked well. No extra walk breaks (which are quite often needed).

The course is almost perfectly flat for about the first 20K and then you get into rolling hills. Nothing too scary, but it's pretty much constant rolling from about 20K-26K so I got quite the workout.

At about the 26K mark is the hill from hell. It's steep and long (lasts a little more than half a km, I think). Last year, I ran about 20 feet and then walked the rest of the way up. This year, I ran the whole thing (slowly, but I ran it). And I was still feeling good at the top so I decided to run the rest of the race with no walk breaks.

I finished in 3:47, 11 minutes faster than my time last year so I was pretty happy. I really hadn't intended on even trying to beat my time but I was just feeling so good that I sort of got caught up in the feeling and pushed myself a little more than I probably should have.

The good news is, I had no major knee issues. At about 29.5K, I felt a little twinge and had to readjust my strap and running down the ramp into the arena didn't feel so great but otherwise, no problems. My legs were super-sore last night but are doing ok today (I'm even wearing heels).

While I know that running 30K is a far different thing than running 42K, I am now more confident in my ability to do the full in May. I remember last year when I did the 30K (without proper training, I might add), I was pretty sore afterward and I really had nothing left at the end. This year, I certainly wasn't going to go run another 12K for fun, but I felt like if I had another 12 to go, I would have been able to get through it.

I'm going to stick with the training as much as possible and hopefully have as good a race on May 17!