Race Report
By Roger Hospedales, Team Running Free
Race: Angus Glen ½ Marathon
Date: Sunday November 4, 2007.
Location: Markham, Ontario
Description: 21.1 km
Sport: Running Race
Website: www.angusglenhalfmarathon.com
This is not a fast course but with the race being one block away from my house I couldn’t give it a pass. Plus, this year I was in charge of training and leading a group of 30 teachers and students from Father McGivney Catholic Academy. This was a great initiative supported by my principal and it looks like was have some people hooked on maintaining a more active lifestyle. We just have to spread the message to the rest of the staff and students.
Race morning at the race site was spent chatting with the FMM crew, and making sure they we all set to do their races. All but 2 of us were doing the 10 km, so they would be starting 30 minutes after me. The other ½ marathon person was doing the walk and I saw him off at 9:15 am. With the way I have been running for the previous 3 weeks, I predicted I’d run 1:45 but hoped to be a few minutes faster than that. Having trained people to run this course in previous years, I knew that this course could get incredibly windy. Adding an increased challenge to the existing scatterings gradual hills on the course.
Outfitted in my CWX tights, Mizuno Breath Thermo ¼ Zip, Running Free Vest, new Sugoi Running Free toque and Mizuno Elixir shoes, I headed to the start line. I wanted to maintain a heart rate within my aerobic zone for the first half of the race, and then let it loose for the second but as I headed north on Kennedy Road (long gradual uphill) I had to ditch those plans since my heart rate elevated past 164 bpm and I knew I had to maintain the pace in order to go 1:45 or better.
I sucked back a gel at the 12 km mark and started pushing the pace. I started passing a lot of those that started off a bit too ambitiously but not as much as I thought I should. I somehow didn’t have that extra gear today, and pain started to creep into the Achilles areas of both of my legs, and up into the calf area. It felt like cramps would be on the horizon but it never happened. I just made the best of it and pushed as well as I could right to the finish line.
According to my GPS, I completed the half marathon in 1:42. However, I still had 600-700 meters left to go. I’ve run some other races with the GPS being off by 100-200 meters but that was due to me zigzagging through the crowd early in the race. This was not the case today since the field was not that big and I was able to maintain a straight line. So I am fairly confident in saying that the course was a little on the long side. Mentally and physically I shut it down at that point and just coasted to the line and finished in 1:45.
I caught up with a bunch of the FMM finishers and we loaded up on all of the excellent food that the Angus Glen staff laid out. This is easily the best post-race spread you will ever get at a race. There was a wide variety of food and tons of it.
I must congratulate all of the Father McGivney students and staff on participating at the race. A few of them placing in the top 3 of their age group and even winning it outright. We will be back next year and hopefully with a bigger contingent. But I’m thinking, “Why wait until next year?” Father McGivney teachers and students beware: Mississauga Half Marathon, 10 km and 5 km here we come!
