BMO Okanagan Half Marathon

I made sure to give myself ample time to recover from Muskoka and then got back into training. I got into the nice training rhythm where you just eat ,sleep, work and train. I put down a solid training block and finished it off by running the Half Marathon at the BMO Okanagan Marathon. The race has about 3500 people in it making it the biggest running event in the Okanagan. The plan going in was to run my goal half Ironman pace for the 70.3 in Austin the following weekend which meant 3:27 kilometres. The rain and wind really picked up as soon as the gun went off. A really big guy, I mean massive guy, took the lead. He had a shirt that said something like "Extreme Boot Camp Hardcore Fitness" and was rocking headphones. I am glad I was running against him and not getting in a scrap or an arm wrestle otherwise I would have had no chance. The pace was pretty hot but it was only a matter of time before he slowed and at about the 1k mark I took the lead and locked into my pace. I was amazed at the consistency of my kilometres. I felt like a bit of robot out there and got to the finish first at 1:12:51 feeling pretty good. Dave Matheson had a great race on a tough day to finish second. My brother also took part in the event and finished the 10k. There was no official time for him as his chip did not read. This means he has to sign up for another one in the near future. He did really well off almost no running training. After the race he asked me what the secret to not cramping was? I told him “Train”.