Rimouski 1/2 marathon : Race report!

I Start with the conclusion since the result is so amazing for me!

Time 1h24'39 (4min/km pace)
Personal best by 3 minutes!
Rankings :
 * 5th/106 (M40-49)
 * 19th/925 (overall)

During the race I had the dream to go below 1h23 to qualifiy for 2016 NYC marathon but couldn't make it.
Now that I reached 1h24 wihout a specific half marathon prep (my periodiszation is built for 70.3 Austin in november), I know I can run 1h22!

Weekend started really well since I joined Sandra, Simon and Gilles André to ride to Quebec on friday afternon. I don't see them as often as I used to since I left the company where we used to be workmates for full time coaching. I had a great time with them. Friday evening they went for a jog and I stayed home and did my favorite activity....a 20min power nap! 2 days prior my races I'm always off. I joged on saturday am instead before heading to Rimouski. I have to say I hadn't great legs, Ran 4'20min/km but felt not as easy as usually. This affected my self confidence a bit. Hopefully I knew I'll have another full day of rest and a good night of sleep.

From what I saw, Rimouski is a cute little city near the St-Laurent river.

Needless to say that the marathon expo was...how to say...minimalist! The pasta party was cool even if few people showed up (less than the year before it seems).

Gilles-André(GAD)  & Sandra. GAD changed his registration last minute from half to full marathon!

I finished my meal and I was still super hungry!! An organizer wo saw my 'problem' came to me and kindly gave me another free meal ticket!! After 2 meals I was then full. On our way back to the hotel (5min by walk from the expo/start&finishline), we had this beautiful view, giving us plenty of performance thoughts before sleep :)

8:30 pm, all of us, in the same room, were in beds!
In the morning, I felt fully rested and started to get more and more confidence back about my race plan. It was super cool to stay so near from the startline. We could eat and rest in the room until last minutes. We took 5minutes to go out and take this great team building picture!

It was really cold (Feel -1) so the warmup was a no brainer! I did my 20minutes (3min power walk, 7 min jog, 4x50m accelerations and, 3min @pace 15k) then move to the startline. But I was weeeey too far and couldn't reach the front of the pack!!!! I knew I would finish in top 30 so I wanted to start at the front. BANG!!! C'est parti!

I passed some people and started right away with my race plan : 4km at 4'00/km pace. Rapidly the pack exploded and few runners were around me. No idea of how much runners were in front of me. Simon, who aimed for 1h30 for this race was running beside me! Cool! He is a very fast runner (2h52 in Berlin few years ago) so I was happy that he changed his plan. We chated a bit. He will run according to his heart rate finally.

The first 4k were really cool, moderate perceived effort, a bit cold but I had very good legs. I tried to run with several small groups of runners during the next 10-15 minutes. But the pace was a bit slower than mine so I moved a bit forward. At some point I accelerated a lot to catch a guy in front of me. I stayed with him but the pace dropped a bit again so I decided to leave him. km 6, as planned I accelerated just a bit (3'55/km) and catched another guy. Contrary to Ottawa in 2014, I didn't feel I was slowing myself down. I was running a good pace and wondered if I would be able to sustain it for 15 more kms...But I felt strong this year so I decided to be confident. Between 7 and the half mark I passed 4 or 5 guys, and 1 girl. Took my gel after 30minutes as planned. The cool thing about out and back races is that I could count the number of runners in front of me! 24th was my raking after 10.5k. I saw Pierre Lavoie who, at the age of 50, we'll finish 5th overall in 1h18...Starting the way back I saw Simon who counted for me too. Nice :).

Km13th, perceived effort was higher now and I had to ''push'' harder to maintain the same speed. I knew this would happen. There's no 'fast' (everything is relative) race without effort and pain. The way I manage my races in terms of perceived effort whatever the duration of the race is always the same : 1st third is moderate/a bit hard then 2nd third is hard/very hard and the final third is hell!

Now the race really starts and the mental part will be key. I focused on my fast cadence and ligth forward lean (starting with my head position = looking down). Km15 I started to catch the last runners of the 10km race. It was a good feeling to pass many people especially when maintaining my speed was harder and harder. Km17, according to my race plan I had to speed up (3'50/km). That would not gonna happen! I take me sooooo much effort to maintain 4'00/km. Everytime I was at an aid station to drink I slowed down a bit and it was then soooooo hard to accelerate again.

At some point I was passing runners from the 10k race and heard people on the side of the street : ''Let's gooooo half marathooooner!!!!'' One of the girl I passed said amused ''Ha, ces encouragements là c'est pas pour nous!''. And the other one answered : ''Non!! .....C'est des machines!''. At this specific point I realized how much work I did during these 10 years of training and how my performance had improved. I used to run like them when I first started and was so impressed by people running faster. It gave me a good mental kick!

I passed 1 or 2 other half marathoners. I was 18th overall then. No idea about my age group ranking...Then I had this guy exactly 19 seconds in front of me. Yes, I count the gap with people in front of me!  I find this way very effective to (try) to run faster! After mayby 500m I counted 9 seconds! Let's go JL, catch him! But my legs couldn't go faster and I was now running the same pace as him. The last km was totally hell! I even lost some seconds on this guy. I watched quickly behind me but saw nobody, I kept on passing 10km runners, some encouraged me very kindly. I gave everything left and felt something on my chin...I was drooling...Yak!! Few meters left, I kept on pushing and stopped like 10m before the finishline! Too much is too much. I walked the last meters until the finishline for the very first time!

It took me a few seconds to recover mentally and realize how happy and proud I was about my race. Simon arrived a few seconds after. I was super cold and went to the tent to get my clothes and try to get warmed. Sandra arrived a bit later and GAD too. He PBed his marathon by 17 minutes!

We add a private joke that weekend coming from GAD and we all had to do this ''hand move'' at the finishline. Everybody did it...exept me :( Too much in pain to think about it guys, sorry! :)

Thanks guys, it was an amazing weekend!!
Next step is Mont-Orford trail running race on october 17th and then my final A-race : Ironman 70.3 Austin!! I've reached my best running and cycling level since I've started triathlon so I can't wait!