Last weekend I headed back to my hometown of Ottawa for Ottawa Race Weekend. My dad was eager to run a half marathon after having accomplished his first 5 and 10k races last year. Eager to add another racing event to my repertoire, I was more than happy to join him.

Last year I had run the 5k during Ottawa Race Weekend and had nailed a personal worst timing which I’d like attribute to the intense heat and the horrifically laid out start zone that actually meant we had to walk about three minutes before we could start running. Needless to say, I was a little apprehensive for this race since I wasn’t sure how well the half marathon would be set up.

It was during last year’s race weekend that two of my friends had run the half and I had become inspired to run longer and longer races. So I kind of felt like a champ that I had managed to upgrade myself from a 5k to a full on half marathon within the year! This was my third half, so I’m starting to feel pretty comfortable with them. Well, comfortable with feeling uncomfortable, I guess.

Despite my worries, both the starting zone AND the weather were excellent. The morning of the race was fairly sunny, but the temperature was still a blissful 15 degrees. The humidity wasn’t insane and even though there were premonitions for hot temperatures, they wouldn’t be showing up till the afternoon. Assuming we didn’t totally bomb out of the race, we would easily be done before noon.

So how was it? Well, it was interesting. I had an awesome first 10k. I was pushing a pace of 5:55/6:00 per kilometer and feeling seriously good. I was starting to think I could keep up that pace for the entire race. I wasn’t dehydrated, my legs and body felt good and it wasn’t boiling hot. Huzzah!

However… the second half of the race had a ridiculous amount of hills. Once we hit the parkway, there was a NASTY hill that just seemed to loom in the distance and then last forever once you hit it. The downhill afterwards really didn’t give me a chance to recover much before we hit the Quebec side of the race. And the Quebec side just fucking flat out SUCKED. It was uphill, suddenly hot (???!) and there was NO WATER until we were exiting Quebec. And of course… the water station was right before another uphill to get on the bridge to cross back into Ontario.

And then? Oh yes. MORE HLLS. I swear to god I’ve never noticed how many hills there are on the parkway, in Hull and once back in Ottawa on Sussex. Holy GOD. I prided myself on running the uphills even though I saw people bailing out left, right and center to walk it. Amazingly, this was one of the first races I’ve done where I didn’t wonder why the hell I was doing this. I really wanted to finish and be done with it, but I never thought about bailing out and walking (which is usually a very consistent thought I have during EVERY race!).

I finished the whole 21.1 kilometers in at two hours, thirteen minutes and forth-three seconds. I was about five minutes off where I figured I would be, and slightly disappointed, but not enough for me to totally irritated like I was with the 2015 Sporting Life 10K. I’ll be doing the Scotiabank Waterfront Half again this year in October, so I’ve got plenty of time to re-focus myself and work towards a better time.

Amazingly though? My 66 year old father ran the whole half marathon and came in only TEN MINUTES after me. That’s INCREDIBLE! I mean, I really thought he’d be closer to the 2:45 mark, but he really nailed it with a 2:24!

Race Summary

• Finish Time: 2:13:42.6
• Pace: 6:20 per kilometer
• Overall placement: 7242/14356
• Age group placement (Female, 30-34): 463/991
• Gender placement (F): 3188/7941