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FrogMan · 08-26-2014, 08:50 PM

Race Report
SSQ Course des Étoiles
August 22, 2014

Heh, my half marathon weekend started on Friday with a fun run called "La Course des Étoiles" or loosely translated, "The Star race". It really was a untimed fun run with a start time of 8pm. Instead of giving you a shirt, they were giving runners a hat with LED lights in front and the usual reflective band at the back so when we ran, you could see all those lights and when looking ahead, all the reflective that would flash back at you. It was neat although I probably would not pay for that kind of event. It was included in the price of my season ticket so that was cool. They had set a 2K kind of loop that you could do as many time as you'd like for the 75 minutes that they kept the course open and they gave you a little snack after.

pre run selfie where you can see the LED light in the front of the hat

they still gave every participant a medal which I thought looked nice

Now on to the thick of it...

Race Report
SSQ Lévis-Québec Half Marathon
August 24, 2014

This race was very much one about introspection, about fighting my own demons. Following my May's DNF, I had asked for a change of event from the full to the half marathon but kept training hard all summer until a gastro derailed things a bit with only 10 days to go before race day. I passed out from dehydration during that one night of diarrhea and it took me about 5 days to feel better physically after dropping 5 lbs. It got me nervous. It got my wife even more nervous...

Then after a pretty hot day on Saturday, every weather outlet was forecasting even hotter on Sunday, I got freaked even more. Sitting on the couch after having set my playlist on my iPhone, my wife probably said to me the most sensible thing she could have said: that race was not to push back your limits but to at least cross the finish line.

I think I did a good job of keeping myself hydrated the day before the race and had a good plate of spaghetti for lunch on Saturday and a light dinner. Didn't sleep really well and woke up at about 5:30 for an 8:30 start time. I wanted to eat breakfast at 6 and I did but had a hard time getting much down as I felt a bit nervous and restless.

Both the Lévis-Québec marathon and half marathon start on the south shore of the St Lawrence river and end in the Old Quebec. The half marathon is really the second half of the marathon with both races sharing the last 13.1 miles and the same finish line.

This definitely was the biggest of the races I have taken part of so far. Some 4800 runners at the start. They had us set in five corrals for the start simply based on your self proclaimed expected time of finish. I had told them 1:35 when I signed up for the race and that put me in the red corral, the first one. I liked the corrals thing and didn't feel the need to push to the front of the start line as I knew I was among runners of about my speed. I could see the 1:30 pacing rabbit up front but also knew I wouldn't keep up with him. Following that talk with my wife, I'd really set my main goal on crossing the finish line. I felt that about any time I would do while still standing up would be a HM PR. As for inital pace, I decided to shoot for 4:30/km (7:14/mile) and I set my watch to give me average pace from start of activity instead of my usual "current" pace setting.

I got kind of caught off guard by the corrals thing though. We got to the starting area about 50 minutes before the start but once I'd gone through the wait line of the port-a-potty, we were almost down to 25 minutes before the start. I heard the public announcer tell runners to start reporting to their corrals and so I did, not knowing that once in there, there would be about no room to warmup while running. I ended up running in place for maybe 10 minutes, doing some high knees.

The race starts in a nice residential area with a mainly flat first 2 km with lots of trees and shades. At 8:30, the temperatures were barely starting to show what we'd have to deal with later on. Many runners even had a hoodie on before the start. I felt very good during those first couple km, averaging 7:05/mile to start it before a first climb that Strava has at 3% for 700m that I knew was coming in order to get us from down low near the rive to up high on the Quebec Bridge, the older of the two bridges crossing the river. I slowed down just slightly and the heart rate wanted to spike up a bit but I still felt in control.

Up next was what seemed like a long uphill climb to really get us to the bridge table although Strava only has it lasting 400m, but it's rated at 13%. Steady pace there. We got out of the shades right before that climb and I hit the 5K mark at 22:06 for an average pace of 4:25/km, right on target or even a bit faster.

The first water station was at the top. I did about the same thing for every water station on the course and that is pick a glass (of water, never drank gatorade during the race) at the first available volunteer and drink it while walking and then pick up another glass at one of the last volunteer, drink one tiny gulp and drop the rest on my head and in my hat. I had decided to wear my usual bright yellow Nike Run shirt but instead of my usual Reebok hat, I also went with my yellow Nike hat which is a bit spongier. Turned out to be another good decision to go with that hat as every time I dumped water in it, it retained it and kept my head cool. I also had my hydration belt with its two 300ml water bottles that I had frozen the night before. They thawed during the run and were still kinda cool until very late in the race. I wanted to have my hydration belt just for when I'd take a gel in between two water station.

Next up was the bridge. You'll see the bridge in the background in pics later on. It's the older of the two bridges and when on it, you are covered from the sun. It actually felt pretty good there and the view was amazing. They'd closed off the bridge so we had the full lane to ourselves. I enjoyed the bridge section quite a bit, still keeping a decent 4:25/km pace.

Next up was the downhill from the bridge to the big road, Champlain boulevard that would bring us along the river to the finish line. I'd been told beforehand about the big downhill from the bridge table to the boulevard. Actually been warned about not being tempted to sprint it down for fear of killing the legs for the remaining 10 km. I did accelerate a bit, doing a km split in 4:10 but I never really pushed hard and it shows in my HR readings as it dropped back down to 150 from the 154-155 it had been since the beginning of the race.

We hit the 10K mark right as crossed under the bridge. 44:04 for 10K, pace of 4:24/km. I actually ran the second 5K in 21:57 so slightly faster than the first one.

I was fine for maybe another km but that's where the heat and the total lack of wind started to hit me. I remember seeing the average pace on my watch going gradually up from 4:25 to 4:26, then up again. I knew I was going slower than earlier but I wasn't concentrating on that. I started running it more with my HR in mind. I felt good yet didn't want to completely run out of juice before the finish line.

I'd taken with me some energy gels, in fact more like concentrated Gatorade but they market them as Gel. They're made by a local company called ProCircuit and I ordered them online (www.procircuit.ca). It's the X4. They have basically the same carb level of a gel but being liquid, they are much easier to wash down with just a couple gulps of water. You can buy them in 900ml bottles and they give you a small 30ml bottle that you can refill and reuse. It comes much cheaper than buying GU gels every week. I'd taken a dose of their caffeinated version maybe 40 minutes before the start of the race as a replacement to my usual morning coffee and took one bottle at the 7.5 km mark.

The Champlain boulevard long stretch was rough and I passed many runners who'd started walking. I did walk, on every water station as I said before, but never in between stations. To add to the heat, that boulevard isn't exactly completely flat. There are some rolling hills. Sure the elevation gain is mostly neutral with the downhill after the uphill but these uphills are rough on your mental... Still it was a great sight there. Between the boulevard and the river is a nice bke path and many people were there to cheer us on with bands ever couple kilometers. I had not run with headphones since my last half marathon and might never run with music again but I don't know why, I felt like I need my music on that day. I put it at a pretty low volume and could still hear the cheers. It was awesome. I highfived kids during the race.

I didn't really realized I had slowed down this much but looking at my watch data, I see a few kilometers in teh 4:45-4:52 pace range. Could I have pushed harder there? Maybe, but I kept the heart rate in the 156-158 BPM range so it,s not as if I was walking or anything. And I was passing other runners, but also getting passed. In fact, I got passed by a lady pushing a stroller! yeah, a stroller! :o No shame though, not one bit

I hit the 15K mark in 1:07:12, much slower than I did back in May (1:03:56) but I was still enjoying life and having fun despite the much warmer temperature. The 3rd 5K was done in 23:08 or one minute slower thand the other two.

I ended up taking my second little bottle of "gel" around the 14th km, splitting the race in three thirds. Funny enough, I came to a water station maybe 2 km later where they were giving GU gels and I took one but stashed it in the elastic string of my hydration belt. Proof that a lot relies on the mental side of thing, when I picked the gel, I didn't feel like I would need it but then I convinced myself that I had to have it with mayb 2.5 km to go. Reached down to my belt, it was gone. It had dropped. Oh no!!! What would I do now that I wanted it, now that I NEEDED IT?!? I calmed down and convinced myself back that I could do this, that all was good. I've grown over the course of the summer, as a runner...

As we got closer to the finish area, I knew the race photographers were used to taking good race pictures with the Chateau Frontenac in the background. To tell you how much of a better time I had in this half than in last May's half, I started looking around trying to spot where the Chateau was and then tried to figure out where the photographers might be. I finally saw him almost crouching by the ground and tried to give him a thumbs up but it didn't turn out too good (picture below). Oh well

We had about 2 miles to do at that point and we started entering the old city. The crowd along the course got thicker and with about one mile to go I took off my headphones so I could hear the cheering from the crowd. I think I could hear the finish line announcer and that crowd from at least 1 K out.

But before the real finish line I had to mentally cross my own finish line: 20.45 km. That's the distance that my watch read the last time I raced a half marathon. Even though I've done the distance in training, last Sunday was the first time I tried it again as part of a race. I made sure to run while watching the last tenths of km tick down and I felt quite a rush when it marked 20.45. I'd done it and I still felt good. I fact I felt great. The last 100 meters or so had a bright green carpet. A bit like the red one for movie premieres, but green. I swear I felt as if my feet we not touching the ground at all. I wasn't really sprinting but still did my last km in 4:22 after doing my previous two in 4:47 and 4:49. For comparison sake, I closed out the fourth 5K in 23:39 so still a bit slower but again, I was on my feet and ready to cross the finish line.

My HR averaged 164 and maxed out at 166 BPM in that last km and I don't think it's something I would have felt good with over a long period of time...

As we got closer and I could see the finish line, I tried to find my wife, sons and mother-in-law that were supposed to be in the crowd but there were just too many people. This is my 5th timed race with this circuit and after not finishing the first one, I've had good finished in all other 3 prior to this one and all times, my name was announced on the speakers by the race public announcer. I clearly remember the first time it happened, at the trail race back in mid May, it took me by surprised. Now, I didn't know if he'd get to call my name since, well it's a much bigger race than the other one and there were a couple runners just in front of me but there it was, loud and clear: "Steve Gougeon de Pintendre!". Like a little boy, I started screaming and I saw faces in the crowd that I was passing by turn to me and applaud louder. It was great, I still get goosebumps thinking about it. There I was, finishing 191st overall but in my mind, I had just cut the ribbon, 1st overall. It was that good...

That's when, just after I crossed the finish line, that I saw my wife, sons and mother-in-law. They'd actually only heard my name but other than my youngest son, none of them had actually seen me cross the line. They'd been stuck in traffic and had to run to make it to the fence by the side of the finishing area. heh... I wanted to get bummed but I didn't care, I was standing up and had fought my demons.

I think I ran as intelligent a race as I could have, given the circumstances. I NEVER run in the heat of the day, always very early in the morning. Could I have run faster or harder? Maybe, but I can live with how it went...

Garmin Connect

Official Time: 1:36:08 for a pace of 4:33/km or 7:20/mile.
Placements:
Overall: 191st out of 4326 finishers or top 4.4%
Men: 169th out of 2279 or top 7.4%
Category, M40-49: 38th out of 579 or top 6.6%

Pretty amazed at those placements to be honest. To end up in the top 5% overall, and even in the top 7% for my category is pretty special to me. Guess I managed the heat at least as well as anybody else.

I've had some pain in my calf but I now think it's more achilles related. The calf/achilles stiffened up after the race but the first 5 km of the race were the best first five 5K of any run I've had in maybe the last 3 weeks so it was coming along nicely. I rested yesterday and will probably rest today and start back up easy tomorrow if it feels better. As I said, it stiffened up right after the race and was rough during the day Sunday and yesterday but it's already much better today.

The official race photographers tagged 24 pictures of me. Most of them are pretty good and given how happy this race made me, I just had to buy the whole package...

Now time to flood the thread with pictures.

Coming off the bridge, about 7 km into it

I love this sequence of three pics, on the Champlain boulevard, otherwise known as "The Oven"

At about the 15K mark, was in the process of passing that guy

Tiny bit later, same guy, I'll eventually finish about 15 seconds ahead of him

That's my attempt at a "thumbs up" in front of the Chateau Frontenac, lol

Various finishing strip pictures, don't I look happy?

We saw quite a few people who ended on wheelchair like that

Photo finish!

Post finish line pics

Mandatory "hey I hydrated myself during the race" pic for my wife

That's when I finally spotted my family by the side of the finishing area

Finisher medal, it lights up!

Take a look at the video

Medal - YouTube

If you're still reading, well thanks. To everyone, thanks for the kind words and for the inspiration you bring. Thanks for the help and training tips too...

One other neat thing that happened and that enhanced the experience for that race is that I kinda mentored a coworker of mine. Guy is my closest friend at work, a nice guy with whom I like to chat and stuff. He is 54 and started running two Summers ago. He actually kinda inspired me to give running a shot back in May last year. We support each other but I think my times in races kind of told him he had to become fast before he could sign up for a race. Anyway, earlier in the year, he asked me if I could help him set up some kind of training plan like I had, something that could possibly bring him to be able to run a half marathon. We left for three weeks of vacation on July 22nd and he was telling me that he loved the training plan. He was getting up to 17 km on his long runs, a distance he said he never thought he could do. He kept running during our weeks of vacation and first thing he told me when we got back was that he had signed up for the half marathon. His first race ever, a half marathon. Not only that, he wanted to do it in less than 2 hours. For father's day he had received a Forerunner 10 and was now able to pace himself and I kept preaching to him to slow down his long runs and he listened to me. While last year he complained he was hurting from everywhere, this year, he's mostly injury free.

He did the half marathon in the same conditions I did and not only did he finish, he did it in 1:56 or so, beating his goal time of 2 hours. During the whole race, I had him in the back of my mind as I was going through "The Oven" of Champlain Boulevard. We've been talking about the race on and off since Sunday. He loved his experience so much and I'm so glad he did...

FM

08-26-2014, 08:50 PM	#1783
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	Race Report SSQ Course des Étoiles August 22, 2014 Heh, my half marathon weekend started on Friday with a fun run called "La Course des Étoiles" or loosely translated, "The Star race". It really was a untimed fun run with a start time of 8pm. Instead of giving you a shirt, they were giving runners a hat with LED lights in front and the usual reflective band at the back so when we ran, you could see all those lights and when looking ahead, all the reflective that would flash back at you. It was neat although I probably would not pay for that kind of event. It was included in the price of my season ticket so that was cool. They had set a 2K kind of loop that you could do as many time as you'd like for the 75 minutes that they kept the course open and they gave you a little snack after. pre run selfie where you can see the LED light in the front of the hat they still gave every participant a medal which I thought looked nice Now on to the thick of it... Race Report SSQ Lévis-Québec Half Marathon August 24, 2014 This race was very much one about introspection, about fighting my own demons. Following my May's DNF, I had asked for a change of event from the full to the half marathon but kept training hard all summer until a gastro derailed things a bit with only 10 days to go before race day. I passed out from dehydration during that one night of diarrhea and it took me about 5 days to feel better physically after dropping 5 lbs. It got me nervous. It got my wife even more nervous... Then after a pretty hot day on Saturday, every weather outlet was forecasting even hotter on Sunday, I got freaked even more. Sitting on the couch after having set my playlist on my iPhone, my wife probably said to me the most sensible thing she could have said: that race was not to push back your limits but to at least cross the finish line. I think I did a good job of keeping myself hydrated the day before the race and had a good plate of spaghetti for lunch on Saturday and a light dinner. Didn't sleep really well and woke up at about 5:30 for an 8:30 start time. I wanted to eat breakfast at 6 and I did but had a hard time getting much down as I felt a bit nervous and restless. Both the Lévis-Québec marathon and half marathon start on the south shore of the St Lawrence river and end in the Old Quebec. The half marathon is really the second half of the marathon with both races sharing the last 13.1 miles and the same finish line. This definitely was the biggest of the races I have taken part of so far. Some 4800 runners at the start. They had us set in five corrals for the start simply based on your self proclaimed expected time of finish. I had told them 1:35 when I signed up for the race and that put me in the red corral, the first one. I liked the corrals thing and didn't feel the need to push to the front of the start line as I knew I was among runners of about my speed. I could see the 1:30 pacing rabbit up front but also knew I wouldn't keep up with him. Following that talk with my wife, I'd really set my main goal on crossing the finish line. I felt that about any time I would do while still standing up would be a HM PR. As for inital pace, I decided to shoot for 4:30/km (7:14/mile) and I set my watch to give me average pace from start of activity instead of my usual "current" pace setting. I got kind of caught off guard by the corrals thing though. We got to the starting area about 50 minutes before the start but once I'd gone through the wait line of the port-a-potty, we were almost down to 25 minutes before the start. I heard the public announcer tell runners to start reporting to their corrals and so I did, not knowing that once in there, there would be about no room to warmup while running. I ended up running in place for maybe 10 minutes, doing some high knees. The race starts in a nice residential area with a mainly flat first 2 km with lots of trees and shades. At 8:30, the temperatures were barely starting to show what we'd have to deal with later on. Many runners even had a hoodie on before the start. I felt very good during those first couple km, averaging 7:05/mile to start it before a first climb that Strava has at 3% for 700m that I knew was coming in order to get us from down low near the rive to up high on the Quebec Bridge, the older of the two bridges crossing the river. I slowed down just slightly and the heart rate wanted to spike up a bit but I still felt in control. Up next was what seemed like a long uphill climb to really get us to the bridge table although Strava only has it lasting 400m, but it's rated at 13%. Steady pace there. We got out of the shades right before that climb and I hit the 5K mark at 22:06 for an average pace of 4:25/km, right on target or even a bit faster. The first water station was at the top. I did about the same thing for every water station on the course and that is pick a glass (of water, never drank gatorade during the race) at the first available volunteer and drink it while walking and then pick up another glass at one of the last volunteer, drink one tiny gulp and drop the rest on my head and in my hat. I had decided to wear my usual bright yellow Nike Run shirt but instead of my usual Reebok hat, I also went with my yellow Nike hat which is a bit spongier. Turned out to be another good decision to go with that hat as every time I dumped water in it, it retained it and kept my head cool. I also had my hydration belt with its two 300ml water bottles that I had frozen the night before. They thawed during the run and were still kinda cool until very late in the race. I wanted to have my hydration belt just for when I'd take a gel in between two water station. Next up was the bridge. You'll see the bridge in the background in pics later on. It's the older of the two bridges and when on it, you are covered from the sun. It actually felt pretty good there and the view was amazing. They'd closed off the bridge so we had the full lane to ourselves. I enjoyed the bridge section quite a bit, still keeping a decent 4:25/km pace. Next up was the downhill from the bridge to the big road, Champlain boulevard that would bring us along the river to the finish line. I'd been told beforehand about the big downhill from the bridge table to the boulevard. Actually been warned about not being tempted to sprint it down for fear of killing the legs for the remaining 10 km. I did accelerate a bit, doing a km split in 4:10 but I never really pushed hard and it shows in my HR readings as it dropped back down to 150 from the 154-155 it had been since the beginning of the race. We hit the 10K mark right as crossed under the bridge. 44:04 for 10K, pace of 4:24/km. I actually ran the second 5K in 21:57 so slightly faster than the first one. I was fine for maybe another km but that's where the heat and the total lack of wind started to hit me. I remember seeing the average pace on my watch going gradually up from 4:25 to 4:26, then up again. I knew I was going slower than earlier but I wasn't concentrating on that. I started running it more with my HR in mind. I felt good yet didn't want to completely run out of juice before the finish line. I'd taken with me some energy gels, in fact more like concentrated Gatorade but they market them as Gel. They're made by a local company called ProCircuit and I ordered them online (www.procircuit.ca). It's the X4. They have basically the same carb level of a gel but being liquid, they are much easier to wash down with just a couple gulps of water. You can buy them in 900ml bottles and they give you a small 30ml bottle that you can refill and reuse. It comes much cheaper than buying GU gels every week. I'd taken a dose of their caffeinated version maybe 40 minutes before the start of the race as a replacement to my usual morning coffee and took one bottle at the 7.5 km mark. The Champlain boulevard long stretch was rough and I passed many runners who'd started walking. I did walk, on every water station as I said before, but never in between stations. To add to the heat, that boulevard isn't exactly completely flat. There are some rolling hills. Sure the elevation gain is mostly neutral with the downhill after the uphill but these uphills are rough on your mental... Still it was a great sight there. Between the boulevard and the river is a nice bke path and many people were there to cheer us on with bands ever couple kilometers. I had not run with headphones since my last half marathon and might never run with music again but I don't know why, I felt like I need my music on that day. I put it at a pretty low volume and could still hear the cheers. It was awesome. I highfived kids during the race. I didn't really realized I had slowed down this much but looking at my watch data, I see a few kilometers in teh 4:45-4:52 pace range. Could I have pushed harder there? Maybe, but I kept the heart rate in the 156-158 BPM range so it,s not as if I was walking or anything. And I was passing other runners, but also getting passed. In fact, I got passed by a lady pushing a stroller! yeah, a stroller! :o No shame though, not one bit I hit the 15K mark in 1:07:12, much slower than I did back in May (1:03:56) but I was still enjoying life and having fun despite the much warmer temperature. The 3rd 5K was done in 23:08 or one minute slower thand the other two. I ended up taking my second little bottle of "gel" around the 14th km, splitting the race in three thirds. Funny enough, I came to a water station maybe 2 km later where they were giving GU gels and I took one but stashed it in the elastic string of my hydration belt. Proof that a lot relies on the mental side of thing, when I picked the gel, I didn't feel like I would need it but then I convinced myself that I had to have it with mayb 2.5 km to go. Reached down to my belt, it was gone. It had dropped. Oh no!!! What would I do now that I wanted it, now that I NEEDED IT?!? I calmed down and convinced myself back that I could do this, that all was good. I've grown over the course of the summer, as a runner... As we got closer to the finish area, I knew the race photographers were used to taking good race pictures with the Chateau Frontenac in the background. To tell you how much of a better time I had in this half than in last May's half, I started looking around trying to spot where the Chateau was and then tried to figure out where the photographers might be. I finally saw him almost crouching by the ground and tried to give him a thumbs up but it didn't turn out too good (picture below). Oh well We had about 2 miles to do at that point and we started entering the old city. The crowd along the course got thicker and with about one mile to go I took off my headphones so I could hear the cheering from the crowd. I think I could hear the finish line announcer and that crowd from at least 1 K out. But before the real finish line I had to mentally cross my own finish line: 20.45 km. That's the distance that my watch read the last time I raced a half marathon. Even though I've done the distance in training, last Sunday was the first time I tried it again as part of a race. I made sure to run while watching the last tenths of km tick down and I felt quite a rush when it marked 20.45. I'd done it and I still felt good. I fact I felt great. The last 100 meters or so had a bright green carpet. A bit like the red one for movie premieres, but green. I swear I felt as if my feet we not touching the ground at all. I wasn't really sprinting but still did my last km in 4:22 after doing my previous two in 4:47 and 4:49. For comparison sake, I closed out the fourth 5K in 23:39 so still a bit slower but again, I was on my feet and ready to cross the finish line. My HR averaged 164 and maxed out at 166 BPM in that last km and I don't think it's something I would have felt good with over a long period of time... As we got closer and I could see the finish line, I tried to find my wife, sons and mother-in-law that were supposed to be in the crowd but there were just too many people. This is my 5th timed race with this circuit and after not finishing the first one, I've had good finished in all other 3 prior to this one and all times, my name was announced on the speakers by the race public announcer. I clearly remember the first time it happened, at the trail race back in mid May, it took me by surprised. Now, I didn't know if he'd get to call my name since, well it's a much bigger race than the other one and there were a couple runners just in front of me but there it was, loud and clear: "Steve Gougeon de Pintendre!". Like a little boy, I started screaming and I saw faces in the crowd that I was passing by turn to me and applaud louder. It was great, I still get goosebumps thinking about it. There I was, finishing 191st overall but in my mind, I had just cut the ribbon, 1st overall. It was that good... That's when, just after I crossed the finish line, that I saw my wife, sons and mother-in-law. They'd actually only heard my name but other than my youngest son, none of them had actually seen me cross the line. They'd been stuck in traffic and had to run to make it to the fence by the side of the finishing area. heh... I wanted to get bummed but I didn't care, I was standing up and had fought my demons. I think I ran as intelligent a race as I could have, given the circumstances. I NEVER run in the heat of the day, always very early in the morning. Could I have run faster or harder? Maybe, but I can live with how it went... Garmin Connect Official Time: 1:36:08 for a pace of 4:33/km or 7:20/mile. Placements: Overall: 191st out of 4326 finishers or top 4.4% Men: 169th out of 2279 or top 7.4% Category, M40-49: 38th out of 579 or top 6.6% Pretty amazed at those placements to be honest. To end up in the top 5% overall, and even in the top 7% for my category is pretty special to me. Guess I managed the heat at least as well as anybody else. I've had some pain in my calf but I now think it's more achilles related. The calf/achilles stiffened up after the race but the first 5 km of the race were the best first five 5K of any run I've had in maybe the last 3 weeks so it was coming along nicely. I rested yesterday and will probably rest today and start back up easy tomorrow if it feels better. As I said, it stiffened up right after the race and was rough during the day Sunday and yesterday but it's already much better today. The official race photographers tagged 24 pictures of me. Most of them are pretty good and given how happy this race made me, I just had to buy the whole package... Now time to flood the thread with pictures. Coming off the bridge, about 7 km into it I love this sequence of three pics, on the Champlain boulevard, otherwise known as "The Oven" At about the 15K mark, was in the process of passing that guy Tiny bit later, same guy, I'll eventually finish about 15 seconds ahead of him That's my attempt at a "thumbs up" in front of the Chateau Frontenac, lol Various finishing strip pictures, don't I look happy? We saw quite a few people who ended on wheelchair like that Photo finish! Post finish line pics Mandatory "hey I hydrated myself during the race" pic for my wife That's when I finally spotted my family by the side of the finishing area Finisher medal, it lights up! Take a look at the video Medal - YouTube If you're still reading, well thanks. To everyone, thanks for the kind words and for the inspiration you bring. Thanks for the help and training tips too... One other neat thing that happened and that enhanced the experience for that race is that I kinda mentored a coworker of mine. Guy is my closest friend at work, a nice guy with whom I like to chat and stuff. He is 54 and started running two Summers ago. He actually kinda inspired me to give running a shot back in May last year. We support each other but I think my times in races kind of told him he had to become fast before he could sign up for a race. Anyway, earlier in the year, he asked me if I could help him set up some kind of training plan like I had, something that could possibly bring him to be able to run a half marathon. We left for three weeks of vacation on July 22nd and he was telling me that he loved the training plan. He was getting up to 17 km on his long runs, a distance he said he never thought he could do. He kept running during our weeks of vacation and first thing he told me when we got back was that he had signed up for the half marathon. His first race ever, a half marathon. Not only that, he wanted to do it in less than 2 hours. For father's day he had received a Forerunner 10 and was now able to pace himself and I kept preaching to him to slow down his long runs and he listened to me. While last year he complained he was hurting from everywhere, this year, he's mostly injury free. He did the half marathon in the same conditions I did and not only did he finish, he did it in 1:56 or so, beating his goal time of 2 hours. During the whole race, I had him in the back of my mind as I was going through "The Oven" of Champlain Boulevard. We've been talking about the race on and off since Sunday. He loved his experience so much and I'm so glad he did... FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...