This year was no exception and I was glad to see that the old downtown race had been reinstated. It's a really great race; the start is on the Alexandra Bridge looking up to the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa while they play the national anthem. After that it is a gruelling uphill towards the American embassy, out onto Elgin Street and then a screaming downhill alongside the Rideau canal by the locks and then you follow the bike path along the Ottawa River, cross into Hull via the Portage Bridge and then it is a sprint to the finish past the Canadian Museum of Civilization to the finish line by Jacques Cartier Park.
With the anthem over I got into a frame of mind that would hopefully propel me to a new personal best. I had hit the mark of 21:22 the year previous in the Canada Day race (on a course in Kanata) and was hoping to get closer to breaking 21 minutes.
As anticipated, the first kilometre was tough, up hill and jostling for position. My Garmin showed 4:21 and I knew I had to go quicker than that to get a PB so I hammered it, especially on the downhill stretch past the locks by the Rideau Canal. 4:10 for the second kilometre; better. I am not sure how much of a toll that hard downhill stretch had but I fell off the pace while going along the river, and vowed to just keep pushing as hard as I could and see what I ended up with. 4:31 and 4:30 for kilometres 3 and 4 I held on and ran with what I had left, legs screaming, lungs screaming and hit the finish line as fast as I could nearly ploughing into John Stanton (CEO of Running Room), breathlessly accepting my medal from him as I fumbled with my Garmin to see how I fared. 21:24, just 3 seconds shy of a new personal best, damn that hurts!
Not only that, but I just missed out on a podium place as well with 4/17 in age group (M30-39).
However, on reflection I was really happy with the result, it showed me that:
a) 21:22 last year was not a fluke.
b) That even though my pace dropped and I felt like quitting, I pushed myself to the max and nearly gutted out a PB.
c) New 1km split PB of 3:53 on the last kilometre is crazy fast for me!
c) New 1km split PB of 3:53 on the last kilometre is crazy fast for me!
d) 21:24 on a course with a punishing uphill and downhill stretch is bloody good!
