Hard fought Army Run Pace Bunny Report

That was hard.

My training has been more Crossfit than running, and most of my running was geared towards the series of 5km races in the spring and early summer, I mean, I haven't run for much more than 1h without stopping since last year's Army Run. In the weeks leading up to the race, I really wasn't sure I'd be able to pull it off.

As a parent, leaving Delilah and Dexter with our friends Jo-Jo and Andrea was hard enough, but I was so worried about the race that it didn't occupy my mind for very long.

Then somehow, standing in the corral with 20 minutes to go, I knew I would do it. I knew that I would make it happen, even if it hurt, I had it within me to push myself, to make sure I didn't let these people down. Suddenly the nerves were gone. I was calm.

A friend of mine in the military, Ken, and I found each other in the corral and waited for the Howitzer to go off. Fellow RunningMania members Marg and Carla spotted us and came by for hugs. Carla joked that she and Ken, both from Alberta, had to cross the country to meet up for a hug! Then they went to find their corral, and soon, it was time to go.

So it was that, armed with the Coolest Race Shirt Ever (thanks Cynthia), my rabbit ears and good old pace bunny sign from every other Army run (with my splits taped to the back), I took off to the exploding sound of a Howitzer.

Starting with an up hill to the War memorial is never fun, but then you get to enjoy the long steady downhill from Parliament to the Portage bridge which really helps you sort out your pace for the first kilometre.

As we passed the War Museum I kept watching my Garmin, to make sure I was on pace. The paranoia of the pace bunny can get pretty severe. It seemed every time I looked up from my Garmin, Ken was right there in front or beside me. It was around this point, before the 4km turn around that I started making a mental note of the people around me. Besides Ken, there was "Ponytail girl", TEAM guy and the girl I presume he was pacing, yellow shirt sweaty guy and a few others, who would end up staying with me most of the way to the end. It was also around this point that the fasties started coming back the other way, which was very cool and inspiring. I yelled out a couple of time, but mostly my cheers were for the other bunnies, or people I knew.

On the way back I got a shout out from Cynthia, Denise and Al, but somehow missed Kiza.

Bunny paranoia also requires that you verify you splits, because, you know, Garmin isn't 100% accurate and technology has been known to fail. My splits were consistently 15 to 20 seconds ahead, which I figured was good, since the hilly Gatineau side would cost me some time.

Just before crossing the bridge into Quebec, I see this guy standing on concrete divider, cheering us on, and I said "Hey, I know that guy", it was none other than  Dave Grant another one of the RunningMania crew. Gave me a real boost as we headed for the worst of the hills.

It's funny, I didn't really notice the unattractive area of Gatineau the race took us through, it was just the hills. A corner followed by a hill, followed by a corner, followed by a hill, followed by another corner and another hill. "The next one is a heart breaker" I yelled as we turned on to Hotel de Ville and faced a short but steep climb. I was glad when that was behind us.

Even after the hilliest parts, my splits were still 10 seconds ahead. I figured, take it while I can, it'll get harder before the end. As we crossed the bridge back into Ottawa, I was feeling really good, but I didn't want to get too confident, a bit more than half way to go, there was still plenty of time for things to go wrong.

It was around this point that I lost sight of Ken, this worried me briefly, but I had to focus on my job.

So far I had made pretty good use of the water stations, and hadn't even touched my bottle of Gatorade, but at the Foreign Affairs building, after the overpass, I started to notice the heat, and the balance of my water went on my head instead of the ground.

The kilometre markers were coming in rapid succession now, it seemed I hardly had time to look up the expected time for the next split and we were upon it. Thankfully still several seconds ahead.

Coming back from the Governor General's estate, who should show up beside me, David Dazé, preparing for Chicago. His marathon race pace was close enough to my pace that he decide to join me for a while. It was my favourite part of the race. (His too I would guess, because he got a ton of cheers due to bunny proximity!!) We had a pretty good chat along Sussex, which would seem to indicate that I wasn't pushing too hard to hold pace.

We got a shout out from the Jesses and finally, Kiza, who had to cross the median and practically run into on coming runners on my side to get my attention as we crossed paths at the Foreign Affairs building water station.

The hardest part of the race for me came just after the 17km marker. Perhaps it wasn't in the right spot, but for the first time my time was behind the schedule for 17km, by less than 3 seconds, but I had been over 10 seconds ahead. This might not have been so bad, but 17km is just before the long slow steady incline that is MacKenzie between St-Patrick and Rideau. I knew I had to pickup the pace to stay on track, let alone get back to where I was, but this far in to a half marathon on that incline, I had to work so hard, and I felt so slow. For the first time I felt doubt. I complained audibly enough for Dave to come to my rescue. "It gets better up ahead, we'll make it up, no problem". Of course he was right. And that was exactly what I needed to hear. Just hold on over this bump in the road and everything will work it self out. Thanks Dave, I owe you one.

The worst was over, but I was still working hard, there was still plenty of time to fall apart. At Pretoria bridge I didn't even think to look for Jo-Jo so focused was I.

David had put on his final kick with just over 2km to go. I had to remind myself of my job so I didn't try and follow him in!

The last kilometre was rough. David Grant appeared out of nowhere to cheer us in to the finish. Then the crowds carried us. The last few hundred meters were autopilot. The clock said 1:50:45 when I last saw it and Garmin said 1:49:34, so I knew I had done my job. I downed my nearly full Gatoraid bottle and went in search of my kids.

I was happy with my performance. I was under 1:50 chip, which I hadn't been the last two years (1:50:07 and 1:50:28) and knowing that I can pull off a 1:50 half with a few long runs and residual fitness makes me feel proud and confident.

I like this gig. Being "the" 1:50 continous pace bunny of the Army Run is a very cool job indeed. Now I'll have to add 2012 to the back of my shirt before next year. (And hopefully run longer than an hour straight, between now and then)!!!