penticton or bust!: Victoria Goddess Half Marathon

All anyone needs to know about this race is that I beat my sister.

[THE END]

Just kidding!

There is more to the story than that, but when she looked at me about an hour post-race and said “savour it, it's not going to happen again” I secretly vowed to tell anyone and everyone who would listen that this one time, on June 1, 2014 at the 3^rd annual Victoria Goddess Run – I beat my sister.

This is me shouting it from the rooftop.

So yup, I am savouring it – because it never happens – and I don't know when or if it will happen again.

But let's back up shall we?

Probably about a month or so ago, after chatting with Kelly about not feeling super competitive and planning out some races to get me re-energized on that front, I saw a discount code for the Goddess Run advertised on Twitter. This run had not been on my radar at all, but I'm a bit of a cheap bastard and so the idea of a discount got me intrigued. On top of that, the thought of running a semi-strong effort in a race atmosphere a month out from IM CdA instead of yet another long run around the lakes or on the TC trail actually got me pretty excited.

I didn't hesitate. I shot Kelly a text and said “Goddess Run. Half Marathon. Thoughts?”

He shot back with a “Yup, sounds good. You’ll be doing a 180km bike on the Saturday before.”

No problem-o. 21.1km following a 180km bike would feel short compared to the typical 25 or 30km.

So, I signed up, convinced Kirsten to join me in the half and even roped my Mom into doing the 5km.

Fast forward to race weekend…

There was nothing normal about “prep” for this race. I did my 180km bike on Friday (solo ~ yay me!) so that I could spend all day Saturday on the mainland for my friend's baby shower. I ate treats, drank mimosas, and baked myself in a sunny garden, all while visiting with some of my best girls. It was great, but also made for a very long day and a very late night on Saturday.

Sunday morning I popped out of bed, had my usual pre-race breakfast and coffee and made my way down to my parents place to meet my folks and Kirsten. We met another friend/training partner (Lesley) near the race venue a half hour before go time and all wandered down to the start area together.

There were a lot of costumes and a lot of pink, and the atmosphere was definitely one of fun and camaraderie.

The game plan was to run at a solid, steady effort and just see how the day went. Not try to kill it, but to have fun and see what I had in the tank. Kirsten, Lesley and I had talked about sticking together for the run, but none of us really knew if our paces would align.

The gun went off. We weaved and bobbed through the pack and about 500m in, the 3 of us were slightly spread out.

By 1km, Kirsten had dropped me.

I settled down a bit and found myself back with Lesley. We ran at a nice comfortable pace together, chatting and moving well until around the 4 or 5km mark when I gained a bit of ground on her going up one of the bigger hills on the route. [I guess all that running up and down mountains last summer helped with my hill climbing ability, haha.] I thought about easing off and joining back up with her, but felt like I was in a nice rhythm so just continued to cruise along on my own.

The course then turned onto some gravel and climbed up a little more. Then, around the next corner I found myself staring at what seemed like a gravel wall! It was one big (although relatively short) STEEP hill! I think I actually said out loud when I saw it “I guess this is why you should always check out the course prior to race day eh?”

I ran up half way and then my trail running sensibilities kicked in and I started hiking. I crested the top and bombed down the other side. I carried on in my steady effort, feeling like I was working, but not too too hard and was happy to see that Kirsten wasn’t too crazy far ahead of me on the out and back section.

She smiled and told me to hurry up.

As we neared the 8 or 9km mark I started chatting with a girl in the 10k and we encouraged each other up one of the many little rollers before separating a bit as she headed to her finish line and I headed back out for my second loop of the course.

The next 3-4km were pretty lonely and all I wanted was a splash of water and somewhere to throw my gel wrapper. Finally an aid station appeared and then the route turned onto a nice straight stretch along Jacklin Rd. To my surprise, I was able to see Kirsten a few hundred meters in front of me.

I continued to plug along. Had a bit of banter with a nice spectator who told me “You’re almost there” before taking it back and saying “well, actually not really.” It made me laugh.

I had a slightly low moment around the 15km mark, but was actually able to stop the negative talk pretty quickly and vowed to just keep moving. Just keep pushing at this pace and try not to let off the gas pedal.

I walked the giant wall of gravel. Laughing with another girl and we clawed our way to the top.

I crested the top and bombed the downhill.

Slowly but surely, Kirsten was getting closer.

Part of me didn't really know what to do with this feeling that I was actually closing the gap on her. A part of me even thought “oh, how nice, she decided to wait for me so we could finish together”. When I was finally side by side with her, I noticed she wasn't matching my pace and I was starting to pull away.

“C'mon.” I grunted.

“I don't think I can.” she responded.

“Yes you can.” as I waved my hand in a ‘get your butt moving’ motion.

But she didn't come, and for the first time in my running life, somewhere between the 17 and 18km mark, I found myself in front of my big sister. Again, momentary thoughts of “maybe I should wait for her” crept into my head, but I quickly dismissed those and realized I needed to keep the pedal to the metal or she was going to go flying past me in the final stretch.

I gave Lesley a thumbs up as we passed each other on the final out and back and never looked back (mainly because I didn't want Kirsten to see the fear in my eyes if I checked over my shoulder, haha).

From there, my head and legs cooperated and did what they know how to do. Down the final little hill and onto the final flat stretch of road, I was working, but feeling good. I was pretty sure both Kirsten and Lesley were going to go tearing past me in those final few hundred meters until I saw my parents and the look of shock on their faces told me otherwise. I think my Mom said “where's Kirsten?” and I pointed behind me with a shrug and a huge smile (sibling rivalry at its finest).

I crossed the finish line in 1:49:36. Good enough for a new PB and a great boost of confidence. This course was much tougher than I expected it to be, and running this on super tired legs made me realize I've got an even faster half in me somewhere. My goal for a sub 1:45 half doesn't seem all that unrealistic anymore.

Anyway, it was a really fun morning, and while I've spent most of this post being a totally ungracious ‘winner’ it is all in jest. Kirsten had a much more unusual week leading into this race than I did, and I appreciate so much that we can challenge and push each other. But, like I said before, I may never actually beat her again, so I'll just savour this moment while I can.

Sunday was definitely a happy day. Here are a few more...

Day 52