A quick update on some progress notes. Two of my fellow Triharder racing teammates (Daniel and Pierre) and I ran the Tim Horton's Chilly Half Marathon in Burlington this weekend. For once, it seemed that we were going to be blessed with a decent day to run, with temps in the plus 2 to 5 range, great warm sun, and light wind. Daniel, Pierre and I carpooled to the start in downtown Burlington, where we quietly waited, and went through the usual routine of public urination prior to an event. At 10:05 we were off. I decided to start right at the front with a goal of a sub 1:25 half marathon, which would be an almost 4 minute improvement from my time last year. Daniel started a bit further back, shooting for the low 1:30's, and Pierre headed up the rear to make sure everyone got home safely (women first, then children)! The front of the group launched out to a quick pace, probably too quick for my liking, but caught up in the moment, one tends to run beyond his or her means. After running an almost 3:00 minute first kilometer, I slowed myself down and started to watch the top runners pull away. At 5kms, I was in and around the 19 minute mark, which is basically a personal best for me over that distance. Again, I pulled back on the reigns and slowed down a bit. By this time, the field had spread out, and I would find myself running alone from here to the end. At about the 10km mark I started to feel really good, and decided to maintain sub 4 minute km's. The goal was now sub 1:24, not sub 1:25. This would give me an overall pace under 4 minute kilometers, which is quite quick for me. Keeping this pace, I slowly started to pick off the runners in front of me that went out too fast and were starting to fade. Other than a couple of quick passes, kilometers 10 to the finish (21.1), were kind of uneventful, unless you consider almost choking to death on a cup of Gatorade at a water station some sort of major thing! My finishing time was a personal best 1:22:55, which I was quite pleased with. It put me 24th overall out of almost 1800 runners, and 5th out of 97 overall in the competitive 30-34 year old category. Daniel cruised in with a 1:31:23 time for a top 100 finish, and Pierre's time was mysteriously lost after his chip, bib, and any other evidence that he ran this race somehow disappeared. Rumour has it that he finished with a large group of women, somewhere around the 1:50ish mark??

I'll be representing Triharder and Running Free at the Around the Bay 30km road race in a couple of weeks. This will be the final stop before Boston. We'll keep you updated.

Woody