Hypothermic Half Marathon 2012

Today (Sunday, Feb 5, 2012) I ran the Hypothermic Half Marathon in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 3rd year in a row. My game plan was to use it as a training run and measure it against last year’s race to see if I’m stronger. I succeeded in both! I stuck to my plan to run it just under 2 hours at a nice, comfortable, steady pace of 5:40min/km. I also shaved a few minutes off last year’s time, which tells me I am stronger, especially where I didn’t run this hard today (there was no pain zone, just a frozen zone).

Today’s event was also the first time I ran a running race without music and so took the time to mingle with other runners on the course and felt nice and relaxed. The only thing I struggled with was the cold. I sweated so much, all my clothes were soaked, even my jacket (wore too much I think). When we came to the last quarter of the race we hit some wind which cut through my clothes, and being wet, my body temperature started dropping fast. The name of the race seemed fitting today. I think I was a bit hypothermic, actually I’m pretty sure I was.

I drank lots of water, had a hot shower, and ate some food as soon as I could. Two cups of coffee later I felt warm and new again. When I got home, I had some more food and then got on the bike for a nice easy spin, feeling really good about how things went today. I’m impressed with myself for sticking to my plan and not getting caught up in the excitement of racing and losing focus. The last thing I want to do is burn out before July 1. I have a way to go yet and need to protect this body, train smart. Today was fun!