When you hear the word "hypothermic" you think cold, right? If you live in Canada the word probably doesn't startle you very much, but it still carries weight. Today's Hypothermic Half Marathon kicked off at 9am with a temperature of -4 C.
So here's an entry I made on my iPhone before the race:
Seventeen minutes to the start and there's barely anybody here. The trail along Spadina Crescent seems to have ice sheets on it--not surprising given that it got above freezing for a sizeable portion of yesterday before refreezing overnight. As I sit in the car waiting for the start I little little evidence that a race is actually occurring today. Yet, there in the distance is the familiar red arch from The Running Room.
In terms of my post-race thoughts, I have a few criticisms... but they are gentle ones because I have a lot of respect for Running Room Saskatoon. Would it have been nicer to have not had to run on ice for so much of the race? Yes, but what can you do? It's not Running Room's fault.
I knocked off a bunch of 5:30-5:45/k splits before my total lack of proper hydration slowed me down to a 6-6:30/k pace, again not Running Room's fault. It was a real struggle because we simply didn't have very good aid stations along the course--those that did exist had only paper shot glasses of water (one station had shots of Gatorade). Needless-to-say, it's probably a good thing that I've considered this race a sort of tune-up and not as my one shot at getting under 2:00 again. At the end of the day, I ran a 2:07, which was four minutes faster than my pre-race goal of 2:10 (I had no intention of trying to run a sub-2 on ice, although plenty of people did it today).
And the medal? Nice/funny medal.
The atmosphere? Hard core runners only. There were not more than 2 or 3 spectators along the course, which didn't bother me either way, but it definitely wasn't the sort of festive atmosphere you see at races like the Saskatchewan or Manitoba Marathons. In Burlington, Ontario race day is a really big deal!
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