Goals – A goal Sub-1:47 based on my tempo runs.  B goal Sub-1:48, C goal Sub-1:50 and D goal – Do not throw garmin in the river

The course was an out and back along the river in downtown Calgary on the bike paths.  Slight uphill the first half and slight downhill the second half.  I was worried it was going to be crowded but it was a much smaller race than I imagined.  Very similar elevations to the full I have in May in the same area.  Only two aid stations you pass 4 times.

Friday – Practiced my carbo loading with Fitzgerald’s advice and ate my last solid food around 5pm.  Gatorade and a chocolate milk as a snack and I was in bed by 9 pm.  Unbelievably slept straight through until my 6 am alarm

6 am – Woke up and had two cups of coffee and two pieces of whole wheat toast with jam and did some very light stretching, had a shower and did some more very light stretching.  Was very stiff when I woke up.

8 am – No more liquids two hours before a race is my new rule and it seems to work.  I practice this with my LR as well.  Leave the house and drive 45 minutes to the city and get parked and get inside.  The race started at an indoor/outdoor mall downtown so we were lucky that we had warmth while waiting.  Picked up my bib and headed outside

8:50 am – 2.9 warm-up miles which turned out to be faster than I ever planned but It was bone chilling cold.  I was very thankful to get back to the inside area and really considered getting in my car and driving home.  It’s been a very long winter.  That run was 10F and I really needed a bacalava.  Once back I worked on some spots on my quad and got myself to relax again.

9:50 am – Took a cliff shot chocolate gu with a bit of water and headed out to the start line.  There were a lot less people than I had thought, curious to see the official count as I bet only about 120 people showed.

10:00 am ish – Start and we are ready to go, thermometer said 12F but really no wind and sun was out

Mile 1 – 8:22 – Really hard to keep pace because everyone was bunched together.  We had a foot bridge that goes across the river and it was very icy so we all took it easy.  Really weird feeling running on a bridge that is bouncing from the running.

Miles 2-4 – 8:19, 8:15, 8:19 – Nothing really to report, just trying to take it easy knowing it was downhill on the way back and I could make up some time.  Even if I held these paces I was still going to break 1:48

Mile 5 – 8:24 – Should have brought ice skates for the sheets of ice on the course.  They warned us and had flag people at the dangerous spots.

Mile 6-7 – 8:17, 8:20 – Hit gravel road at the turn around but ITB and ankles held up strong running around the pot holes and different cambers.  Really looking forward to some trail running this summer

Mile 8 – 8:12 – Tried to take a gu but was frozen and couldn't swallow it so threw it in the river.  Lady beside me laughed at me

Mile 9-12 – 8:04, 7:58, 8:02, 8:08 – Game time.  Took gloves off and unzipped jacket and I went into tempo mode and really tried to hold 8:00.  I started picking off runners one by one.  We were scattered about 50-100 yards apart by now and I would catch one and hang back, then aim for the next one.  Another lady doing the same thing and it took me 4 miles to catch her.  The bike paths aren’t quite level and have lots of mounds that I call punchy and you can lose momentum on a few of them.  By mile 12 I really thought I was going to crash, big suck it up moment.

Mile 13-finish – 7:42, 7:16 – Guy beside me was yelling to his buddy he was pacing that 1:47 was in reach.  I had no idea where I was at as I only ran with my avg lap pace on my garmin so I gave it 100%.  That was around mile 12.5.

Crossed the finish line and I was toast, nothing left in the tank.  Garmin read 1:47:06 and clock read 1:47:16 which is pretty darn close since I started pretty close to the front.  So PR by about 17 minutes.  I feel like I left 90-120 seconds on the course because of the cold, ice and not the greatest water support and I couldn't take my two gu’s.  I can’t believe I held my HR’s as high as I did for the entire time.  I really think my nutrition helped me not crash.  First race I’ve ever run without ankle and knee support which I’m thrilled with.

First thing I did when I crossed the finish line was plug my time into mcmillian’s calculator, lol.  Banana and water after.  Need your priorities 

Awesome job!

What awesome splits! You ran a great race. On more sure footing, you'd have had an even faster time!

Josh - those are really impressive splits !  did you notice you got faster in the back half - interesting strategy on turning on the burners at mile 9. It's almost like a mini marathon simulation where you evaluate at mile 22 or so if you pour on the coals. My last HM was equal splits but you've given me something to think about for my races later this year

PS - what did you wear that allowed you to run that fast in the cold. I though 20 degrees was cold !! yikes !

nice job !!

Josh, you definitely played the game....HARD!

Frost bite is a small price to pay for a 17 minute PR. 

Congrats on the huge PR Josh!