Summary of Race Results

It’s been a long time since I posted anything on here, and since I just completed the Ottawa Half Marathon today (for the 3rd time), I figured I’d sum up the results of all the races I’ve participated in, just so I don’t lose them, and for easy comparison.

May 29th, 2005 – Ottawa Half Marathon – time 1:59:32

This was my first half marathon, and I went from not running, to running this.  My original plan had been to run the marathon, but I managed to sprain my ankle pretty bad with about 3 weeks to go (thanks Ellie!) so I opted to drop down to the 1/2 distance.  I think originally I picked a number out of my butt for a goal time (1:45:00 if I remember correctly) but was happy enough to come in under 2 hours.  Grant kicked my butt on this one – don’t remember his time but I remember him beating me by a lot.

May 28th, 2006 – Ottawa Marathon – time 4:03:46

My first marathon.  I remember being severely disappointed with this time.  If I remember correctly, it was pretty hot that day.

July 1, 2006 – HBC Run for Canada (10 KM) – time 46:30

Yet another race I lost to Grant.  :)  It was after this race, in talking to Grant, that I figured out that maybe I wasn’t pushing myself hard enough.  This was the shortest distance race I’ve ever done.

Jan 28th, 2007 – Ottawa Hypothermic Half Marathon – time 1:47:21

In my mind, this time is still under protest.  The race wasn’t timed by chips and the woman listed as finishing 2 seconds ahead of me, never actually got by me before the finish so…  This is also the race that I’ve come closest to beating Grant – his time was 1:47:14, so he beat me by 5-7 seconds…  Despite all this, I was pretty damn happy with this race.  I also remember getting violently ill (norwalk) about 10-12 hours after this race – lost about 11 pounds if I remember correctly.

May  27, 2007 – Ottawa Marathon – time 3:46:43

Certainly an improvement over my first marathon.  I believe I had been hoping for around 3:40 so I was a bit disappointed with this one too.

May 24, 2009 – Ottawa Half Marathon – time 1:48:54

I didn’t train much for this one unfortunately, and for some reason I decided that I didn’t need to take on any liquids AT ALL during the race.  In the end, my ‘strategy’ didn’t pay off and I wasn’t too happy with the result.  This was the first race I had done where I didn’t see an improvement in my time from previous races of the same distance.  I think that was the most disappointing part to me.

May 30, 2010 – Ottawa Half Marathon – time 1:44:20

Absolutely perfect running weather for this year’s race.  I was once again disappointed with my time, although it IS a personal best so I’m not THAT disappointed.  Leading up to this race I was continuously getting sick, which really hurt my training.  4 days before the race, just after a short easy run (the first run I had done in a week and a half) I was feeling a ‘weirdness’ in my chest.  The feeling is difficult to explain, but it kind of feels like I can’t get a deep breath.  Unfortunately that persisted right up until race day, and throughout the race – and continues right now.  It didn’t help things I’m sure, but like I said, I can’t be too disappointed.

So that’s it – that’s all the races I’ve ever done.  Looks like I’ve been disappointed with my results more than I’ve been happy with them.  Perhaps I’m expecting too much of myself, or maybe I’m just not training/pushing hard enough.  I’ll wait until I get healthy and actually complete a training program properly before I try to decide which.  :)

The next race I’ve got scheduled is the Perth Kilt Run, which is a short 8 km race that is also to be a world record attempt – to get the most kilted people running a race together.  As a bonus, we get a ‘free’ kilt for running the race.  Should be fun, and yet another opportunity for me to try to beat Grant in a race.  :)