Pre-race Not being from Edmonton, most of the pre-race involved driving here. We left home at around 5:30 am a.m. and we reached Edmonton at around 4:00. The drive doesn’t really take that long, but we stopped in Calgary for a while. When we were in Calgary, we started walking around to look for somewhere to eat lunch. Somehow, we made our way into china town, and figured we would eat there. Most of the places looked pretty sketchy, so we just passed over them. Then, we saw a place that was actually in English, which is always a plus. When we went in, we soon found out that, although there were around 50-60 people in there, we were the only non-Chinese people in the entire place. I’m pretty sure that we were also the only people who spoke English too. We ordered, but I have no idea if they understood. I’m pretty sure they didn’t because I got something that was supposed to have noodles and chicken, and I ended up getting rice and beef. Oh well… Once we got to Edmonton we went strait to a convention center to pick up the race packet, then to a bed and breakfast that we had found on the internet. It was a nice enough place… run by a British couple who had retired in Canada. The room was small, but clean and comfortable. Once we took a shower and changed, we headed out to look for something to eat. We probably walked a couple of miles that night alone just looking for something that would be good to eat before a race. There were plenty of restaurants, but most of them were the kind that serve only hamburgers and beer, which probably isn’t the greatest idea. We finally found an Italian place that looked fairly safe. Turns out that it wasn’t. it gave my dad food poisoning. Anyway, the race started fairly late… 8:00. I got up around 6, and ate a small bit for breakfast, then drove over to the start of the race. I ended up having to jog around a mile to the starting line because all of the roads in the area were closed for the race. The crowd wasn’t too big… probably a couple of thousand people. It was bigger than any races in MT, but seemed small compared to a race like Bloomsday. 15 minutes before the race they herded us all into the starting chute, and told us to position ourselves according to how we hoped to do. They had pace bunnies for 1:45 and slower, but nothing for the 1:20-1:30 range. I ended up pretty close to the front. Only a few people between me and the Kenyans. A few minutes before the race they played the national anthem…. Which surprised me, because it was “Oh Canada” instead of what I was expecting. …almost forgot that I was in Canada… Then they said go, and we were off. No, there was no gun. I was disappointed. The actual race: I can only really remember the first 10k of the race. Mostly because I had not yet passed into a coma from the hills. The course lead down into a valley area next to the river, then had us run out of the valley up a long hill (maybe about a mile long?), then as soon as we got the to top, we turned around and went right back down. When we got to the bottom, they moved us onto a path along the river, and we went back up the long hill. By the time the second hill was done, I was dying, and I realized that the race wasn’t even half over. Luckily, there were no more hills to speak of after that. There were no mile markers, just kilometer markers (once again, a reminder that I’m in Canada). Because of that, I didn’t really know my pace. I do know my 5k splits though. For the first 5k, I had a 19:22, for the 10k I had 39:24, for the 15k I had 1:00:24, and for the 20k I had 1:22:06. I am kind of surprised that I got my 20k split since I can’t even remember passing that marker. That part of the race is just a bit of a blur… I wasn’t feeling all that great. The early hills had killed me, and I was just struggling to keep going. A few people passed me on the last 2k, but for the most part, I was running by myself. I was ahead of the main group, but behind the fast group. The .5k was pretty fun though…. That part of the race was right through downton Edmonton, and It seemed that the streets had been cleared just for me. There were policemen stopping all the cars, and the last part was lined with cheering people. Because I wasn’t familiar with the course, I didn’t realty know when the finish line was, so I ended up going pretty fast for the last 1-2k. After the race: When I finished, they gave me a cheesy finisher’s medal, and made me give my timing chip back. I had laced it into my shoe, and it took me quite a while to unlace my shoes enough to get it out. I didn’t really feel all that great after the race since I had pushed it so hard for the last miile or so, and all I wanted to do was lay down somewhere. I went back to the convention center, and went down to where they were having the post race meal. There were very few people around, but I recognized one of the people walking around was the guy that had won the race (a Kenyan.. what a surprise. I think he had a time of 1:05 or something). I talked to him for a while, then went in to get something to eat. The meal was ok… some basic breakfast foods. I didn’t eat much since I stil didn’t have much of an appetite yet. We didn’t feel like sitting around very long, so we left before the awards. I don’t know, but I think I was the first person of my age to finish. I’m pretty sure they didn’t give age group awards though, so I didn’t miss out on anything. Before we left town we decided that we needed to at least see the Edmonton mall. I’m still disgusted. That’s it. The Edmonton half marathon. -Jacob (now my fingers hurt almost as much as my legs do...)