The Montreal Half

A quick recap cuz I'm behind in my blogs. In my last post, I set my Half Marathon goal at 1:30. Not unreasonable given that my PR is 1:27 and my most recent was a 1:30. But maybe a bit ambitious given that I hadn't run for over 4 months due to my sprained ankle.

So the results weren't catastrophic, but they weren't super inspiring either: 1:35: 09. This would mean that I should qualify for Boston, but it'd be a bit of a chore.

Next up -- the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon in Albany...

Re-qualifying for Boston 08

So this year's been a hectic one. Jen and i had a beautiful baby girl, Jada. We sold our Vancouver home and shipped off to Montreal for a new job writing for Ubisoft. A great job, a great city. But all the activity did a number on us. And running took a hit too.

I missed Boston this year and am now planning a Fall marathon to re-qualify for Boston. And the marathon is the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon in Albany, NY. It's in early October, is a couple hours from Montreal and is supposed to be a time-friendly course.

I'm aiming for a sub 3:10 but I've got a lot of training to get in before I hit that. And that ankle is still giving me grief (from a March injury!).

To prep for the race, I'm running the Half Marathon in Montreal on Sept. 9th. If I can hit a sub 1:30, I'll feel very good. But I'm not really that sure if I can hit that time. We'll see...

Canada Day 10K

It's been 10 months since I've been in a road race of any kind. The last one a few days before Jada was born. At that 10k, I ran 40:00 - on the dot. I couldn't squeeze out a nano-second to do a sub-40.

I had plans to re-run Boston this year but the Montreal winters were a challenge. Then I seriously twisted my ankle on black ice.

So here I am now getting back to form and gearing up for a Fall marathon to qualify for 2008's Boston run. I'll run either Montreal or Quebec City.

I ran the Canada Day 10k in Montreal. It's the third time I've run it. Jen and I made 2 long weekends of it before in Victoria. But this time we're in Montreal so I ran here. The course was good. Very flat along the canal. I've done lots of training runs along that route so I know it well.

But my twisted ankle haunted me the whole run and I finished with a 43:05.

Given my forced hiatus from running, I was hoping I'd do a sub-42 at the most. So 43:05 was a bit of a disappointment but at least my ankle felt fairly strong the whole way through.

We'll see how training goes in the months ahead...