Campus to Campus Half

This years Campus to Campus Half Marathon wasn't really a campus to campus, the University is no longer a sponsor It seems, so the race started at the college and ended at the college. The course was mostly flat except for a 3 km stretch heading from Clement to Cerise Rd to Mountain Rd. I was quite thankful it was a flat course as hills do not make my strained anterior tibularis muscle feel very special at all.

Coming into the race I had two goals. First, I wanted to beat 1:40 and second, I wanted to at least break my personal best of a half marathon time of 1:44:58. I know I can beat 1:40, and have done so on training runs several in the last three months, but beating that time today was going to be totally dependant on how my legs felt.

The course was flat for the first 5 km. I felt good and I did it in 23:18. Something I find neat about this race is that they have a relay race for the half also. So every 4 km or so all of a sudden there's a batch of runner with fresh legs to pace against. It pushes you a bit harder.



The next 4 km were still flat, followed by the beginning of the only uphill portion of the course. I think it was around the 8 km mark of the race I started running with someone. I feel kind of bad because I didn't even catch his name. His goal was to finish around the same time as my goal so we ran together. It's always nice to be pushing back and forth with someone else. At the 9 km mark the steep part of the hill started. Did this 5 km section in 24:18

There was 1.5 km of more hill, which took us to the first corner of the road on Knox Mountain. And then downhill followed by more flats. This flat section is probably the nicest section of the course taking us through the boardwalk on Okanagan Lake and Waterfront Park. Did this 5 km section in 24:33. The 5 km splits were starting to slow down, but that's ok. My leg started to hurt at the end of the climb around the 11 km mark, and around the 15 km mark I realized unless I was able to put in a nice kick at the end I wasn't going to break 1:40

The next 5 km were along lakeshore road and then back on Richter. Did this section in 25:17. I lost my running buddy at the 19 km mark. At a corner near one of the parks on Lakeshore there was a group of girls holding signs for the runners. One of the signs said "marathoners go further" I laughed and shook my head. Someone else told her the sign wasn't very nice. I thought it was awesome.

Did the last km in 4:30. The guy I was running with for most of the race finished in 1:41, and I finished in 1:42:30. Both of us beat our personal bests! I beat mine by 2 minutes and 20 seconds. And I beat last years time in the same race by 30 minutes! (The year leading up to that was not a good year for running). It would seem the 1 minute for every pound rule applied.

Overall, it was a good race. Always fun, I hope next year the University gets back on board.



1:42:30 HECK YEAH!

Nazzer