owen stampflee

The Victoria Half was originally meant to be my first half marathon when I decided to run a half marathon, it ended up being my third but expectations and nerves were both high. When I registered I put my estimated finish at 1:45 and only having run a 1:59 at Oak Bay in May, it was probably a bit of a stretch. After a great training cycle and being injury free, I knew 1:45 was definitely in reach.

My alarm went off at 4:50am before the pretty simple pre-race routine of coffee, cheerios and an hour long drive into Victoria. We park about a mile from the start and jog there going through all my usual technical drills. Wish my wife good luck on her 8K and wait for the gun with a friend (@Runner_D). We’re both a little nervous in the minutes leading up to the gun.

First mile was really congested and slow… got dropped by my buddy pretty quickly. I ran hard up a long hill the second mile to be rewarded with a cramp through the third mile… rolled through the 5k marker right under 5:00/km. Perfect. My Timex GPS watch never synced so I’m just watching how far under 5:00/km or 8:00/mile I am. Take my first ShotBloks and a another cramp sets in, all I can do is run through it.  The next 5k go really smooth, I’m passing people pretty consistently, my 10k split is 49:26 which is an official 6 minute PR. I catch up to a guy from my Triathlon group and we chat for a bit before he drops back.

By the 16km marker, I’m 60 seconds under 5:00/km, my is plan was to speed up to 7:30/mile at this point but I’m starting to feel the lactate in my legs. My pace quickens a bit but I cant hold it. Some other folks from my triathlon group were cheering around the 17km mark; I don’t notice them and they tell me a few days later, “You were really focused”. All I’m thinking at this point is “Just gotta hold on”.

With 3km to go I’m starting to get passed by people surging and I’m no longer attacking the hills like usual, but my pace is still fairly consistent. 2km to go and I get some sharp pains in my left foot that I’ve never experienced before… 1km to go and I’m starting to hurt everywhere pretty bad, I think the “800m, 400m, 200m to go” signs are simply taunting me. Finally with 100m to go I can see the finish and the clock and I drop into a pretty pathetic sprint thinking that I have to cross the finish line under 1:45…

I ended up with a gun time of 1:44:50 and a chip time of 1:43:59, beating my old personal best by over 15 minutes and only 30 seconds behind my buddy… I’d like to think I had another thirty seconds in me, but I know that’s doubtful. To say that I’m happy with the result would be a bit of a understatement.