Review and Recap of the Saskatoon Hypothermic Half Marathon

Had fun running the Hypothermic Half Marathon today. #running #halfmarathon #yxe

A photo posted by John (@misterspalding) on Feb 7, 2016 at 9:25am PST

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!

Countdown to the Hypothermic Half Marathon and Super Bowl

We are two weeks away from Super Bowl Sunday.  Now one of the things I love about this particular Sunday is that I can pretty much eat whatever I want and justify it by pointing to the fact that this particular day comes once a year, just like Christmas, my birthday, New Years, New Years Eve, my spouse's birthday, each kid's birthday, Canada Day, Saskatchewan Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, Boxing Day, Victoria Day and all the other days when my diet seems to go out the window.  But seriously, for the dozen or so says per year when absolutely nothing is happening that could possibly threaten a diet, I tend to eat pretty well.  Jokes aside, I eat pretty well... mostly.  Ahem.

For Super Bowl Sunday, I'm thinking:

• nachos - with lime salt.
• guacamole dip (made from organic avocados) with chopped raw garlic
• dark chocolate
• black licorices
• coconut ice cream bars

This is all vegan, so there's that.

Of course, justifying this calorie expenditure won't be too hard because earlier in the day I will be running the Hypothermic Half Marathon here in Saskatoon.  I don't have any predictions for how fast I will be running this particular race.  I will say that I'm not expecting to come in under 2 hours--this is primarily owing to the fact that this is mainly a tune-up race to see where I am overall.   For example, right now I'm building up leg strength so that when I do take a shot at < 1:59:59 again my hamstrings won't tear.

Speaking of hamstrings, I've been going pretty hard at bodyweight exercises lately (squats, push-ups, planking and the occasional lunge and side lunge).  I'm fairly confident that I've put on at least two to three pounds of muscle this month, if not more, given that my weight (currently 181.6) hasn't budged in several weeks and my waistline continues to shrink, albeit ever so slightly.

So that's the news!