Sunday, October 13, 2019 was the Valley Harvest Race Events in Wolfville, NS. This race weekend is one my local favourites for its scenic course and temperate weather. I originally planned to do the 10km. Then Hurricane Dorian forced the cancellation of Fiddler’s Half Marathon in September and the Valley race became the last half marathon on Run Nova Scotia’s Performance Series. This is a series of 9 races. Every runner participating must race one 5km, one 10km and one half marathon for cash prizing 5 deep. I was in the 5th and final cash spot and needed to do Valley Half Marathon to close out my Performance Series. It would be a stop along the way to my A-goal race of Philadelphia Half Marathon at the end of November.
Sometimes my blog posts focused on a race are story-telling recaps. Sometimes they are lists. This one is a list of the things/tactics that helped me race to my best mid-season potential today.
I follow lots of run coaching content. I read books. I listen to podcasts. I follow some greats on Instagram. All with the intention of soaking up their knowledge, absorbing it and making it my own so that I can be the best running coach possible. This helps me be an athlete too. Someone who I follow/read (honestly, I’m not sure who anymore) talks about taking note and dissecting the things that go right on a great day. As athletes and coaches, we are really good at dissecting the hard performances. Makes sense to analyze the good ones too.
I coach my high school runners like this and they oblige this coaching style (sure, they have to!). I run three high school cross country practices a week and with at least one of them, I make them stand in a circle and tell me what they did best in the last race or what strategy helped them get through a tough workout because I want them own that and grow more of it
So here is what was good today. It’s a 13.1 item list, a half marathon in miles.
1.Be the pre-race Diva. Do the routine. My travel buddies for the race, about 60 minutes from home, included Sarah and Meghan, friends and Love Training More athletes who I coach. And Halifax Road Hammer training partner Alan. Alan and I had already planned to race alongside each other. Sarah and Meghan suggested we park about one kilometer away from the start line in order to leave the race site of Acadia more easily after the half marathon. Oh, no, sorry! I can’t mentally do that because I am a pre-race diva and must follow my warm up routine precisely. They supported my diva and we parked in the university parking lot and I dragged Alan along for my precise 17 minute warm up run.
2. Be so patient. You must so run so patient off the start line. Like many, I have learned this lesson about 59 times. Gun time matters for the Performance Series, so I stood right on the start line alongside Paula, Denise and Colleen. I didn’t get wrapped up in wild start line sprinting. I was so patient, first 3km averaging: 4:10/km as planned. I let fellow Road Hammer Hilary next to me go at 1km, confidently.
3. Better together. Planning to race together and alongside someone helps me so much. I know this. It keeps me relaxed to have a feeling of responsibility caring for someone else’s race too. It must be the coach and the mother in me. Today I had Alan. We ran mostly stride for stride until 14.5km or so. We talked a very tiny bit…. Mostly we were just helping each other be relaxed and strong. For some kilometers, I was stronger. For some kilometers, he was. We split through 10km in 41:28 = 4:08.8/km. We were racing well coming into the more challenging second part of the course. The biggest hills are between 10 and 16km.
4. It’s hard because it’s hard. I feel like I maximized my fitness today to get the best performance possible but that absolutely doesn’t mean that I sailed through it. At times Alan dragged me up the hills. The effort was so hard. But it’s ok that it feels hard. These Valley Harvest hills are really truly hard. Alan and I didn’t say much to each other but running down to the turnaround cone (down, down, down), I did say, “OMG we are going so far down!!” Then Denise breezed by us, having a full conversation, ahha!
5. Live the moments. This is something long time run pal, veteran of Cliff’s Antiques, Ethan Michaels says: “aren’t we lucky to have the health to live these moments.” I appreciated the course’s beauty alongside a winery’s orchard. I looked at and lived what I consider to be the most breathtaking moment, cresting the hill on Collins Road. The patchwork beauty of the Valley is laid out before you for miles, glowing with autumnal colours. I saw it. I lived it.
6. Prepare and nail your fuel. Alan and I nailed the fuel, gels at 7 and 14km, though it wasn’t pretty for me, gel and orange Gatorade everywhere! At the last water stop 4km to finish, I didn’t know if I had enough energy to grab the cup. But I thought about Eliud Kipchoge taking fluids at 40km yesterday and about how the science states that even swishing it around in your mouth will boost your energy reserve and who I am to argue with Eliud and science so I took the smallest mouthful of Gatorade.
7. Use Your Why. I have two children they are my why. I don’t think about them for the entirety of the race but I think of them often. Early on, when Alan and I were relaxed and kicking ass and the 4:07/km splits were coming easy, I was singing this silly CBC show’s song that my son loves: “Two Banana Day.” In child speak, this means a really great day.
Deeper in the race, after climbing out of Wellington Dyke Road, when the hills felt so, so hard, I pulled my son sharply into focus in my mind. My 5 year old son really loves and idolizes his fast running mother. My daughter also loves and idolizes me and equally loves and idolizes herself. I admire her for this so much. I have written before about how my son sings “I never give up” to himself when he’s doing something hard. About once a week, he dresses himself for school and tops his outfit off by carefully selecting one of my race medals from the rack in his room and comes downstairs: “It felt like a Star Medal Day, Mommy.” Last week, he proclaimed to the family, “Mommy is FAMOUS for running!” In this moment, I needed my son.
A coach who I follow on Instagram (@tunderface) wrote this: “Think about what kind of runner you strive to be. Then run like that runner.” I wanted to give my son a medal that I earned by never giving up. So I made sure that I did not give up here, even as Alan slowly began to pull away from me on the long incline between Wellington Dyke Rd and the top of Collins Rd. I kept at it. I didn’t give up.
8. Don’t panic about the info your body is feeding you. I think of Denise, running idol to many in moments like this. I am proud to call Denise friend and training partner and by that I mean warm up and cooldown with her. So let’s also call this, “Be Like Denise.”
At one point, coming down Collins Road where you best capitalize on the long downhill, the very top of my left hamstring felt like it was pulling off of my femur. Instead of panicking, I noted it was interesting. And I thought about how Denise would keep racing until both of her hamstrings peeled off and right until she was bleeding so I chose to do that too and be like Denise and to run faster. This kilometer split, the 16th km was one of my two fastest at 4:00.
9. Use the love. Right around here I saw dear friend Tonya who had some quiet and encouraging words and I used them. I felt her love. I also had Doreen on the early course and I would be running back to her in the last km. Maybe you don’t have a Tonya or a Doreen on your race course all the time. I don’t have them all the time. But there’s plenty of love to find.
10. Take the Risk. Prelude to this, I train with Hilary with the Halifax Road Hammers and she’s an awesome fierce young runner who was running her second career half marathon. I love her fearless racing tactics. (And she was the first person to read this post). She passed me at 1km and remained ahead of me and I had my eye on her up the road ahead. When I turned the corner at the Irving with about 3.25km to go, I could tell Hilary was ever so slightly coming back to me. She was in 5th place. I wanted to be in 5th place. So I made the decisive decision to chase her down. I took the risk.
11. Know what works and use it to take the risk. I know what works for me. Fierce mantras work for me. As I was chasing down Hillary, I was saying to myself, “Big Bad Mama is coming for you!” Now you know my secret. But you are not me…. You gotta figure this out for your own self.
12. More Taking the Risk and Being Fearless: I passed Hilary around 18.5km without a clear strategy and immediately wondered if I should have thought about strategy. I’m currently working on this with my high school athletes. Should I have sat on her a little and relaxed? Instead, I blasted by her the moment I made contact and had a chance. So I quickly clicked to the next strategy for such a scenario: pass with confidence and put as much distance between you and the competitor as possible.
There was still more than 2km to run. “Do it and do it now, Big Bad Mama!!” I raced as hard as I could. I worked to put the distance in between us. I didn’t know if it would last an entire 2km. So what if it didn’t. But it might! On this day it worked, I was all in on running as fast as I could. Hilary is young and plenty talented and I decided that if it came down to a 300m sprint on the track, she would get me. It was now. Go time was now. My fastest kilometer of the day was the 21st at 4:00/km.
I crossed the line at 1:28:18, in 5th female place. Hilary was behind me in 1:28:43. Alan in 1:29:05. Happiness.
13. Own it. Sometimes Women Athletes need to work hard at owning it. In fact, sometimes all athletes could work on owning it. At about 2km to go, I saw training pal Rayleen cheering and she yelled, “Wow, you are a beautiful runner.” And what she means is strong stride, efficient form. She said it again to me later. I respect her so much as an athlete. This I will own.
I also got this message from Alan who ran a big 3 minute PB just 5 weeks after becoming a first-time father.
This I will own too. I shredded that last 5km.
And the final .1 on this list: Living all the Coaching Moments. Being a coach helps my performance. I love being a running coach. My athletes work hard for me. This thought pops into my head and it serves me well. It reminds me to work hard for it too, the way they work hard for me. My athletes’ PBs taste as sweet as my own.
It was a great day for my Love Training More crew.
Now this running coach challenges you to think about what went well for you in your last race so that you can own it and grow more of it next time in pursuit of racing success. I will be taking this 13.1 list with me to Philadelphia at the end of November. Happy Running.
Full Half Marathon Race Results here. Big shout out thanks to Sherri and crew for a superb event and to Atlantic Chip for always reliably being there.
