Race Recap: Beaches Jazz Half Marathon

Another half marathon, another PB! We did this race as a progression run starting at 5:40/km and ending at sub-5:15/km pace.

I woke up at 5:15am, had my PB&J at 5:30, and headed out the door at 5:45am. Tracey picked us (Lisa, Brandon, me) up at 6am from People’s Church. We arrived at the Beaches at 6:20am. Nivia and Anshul parked right behind us. Good to see familiar faces.

We went for our 10 minute warm up run and Chris found us along the way.

After our warm up, we met Jose and his wife Yvonne for the first time.

Then I lined up for the porta potty. Even though I didnt really need to go but i knew I would regret it if i didn’t. I’m glad I went but i made it to the start line with just enough time to take an Endurance Tap and take these photos with Denoja, Anshul, and our favourite pacer Peng.

The first 7km we kept on going faster than 5:40 so we had to hold back. The second 7km, we were mostly on track. The last 7km, Lisa gunned it and I barely maintained a 5:15 pace.

It was actually quite nerve wracking to be so far behind the 1:55 and 2:00 pace bunnies. I didnt think we would be able to pass them. I kept on thinking: omg, I’m so far behind the 2:00 bunny, I’m not even going to get sub-2, nevermind a PB!

Meanwhile, Lisa had so much excess energy that she was cheering for all the runners who were running toward us. Clapping, cheering, calling out their names or IG names. 😅😅😅

At about 13k, I told her she needed to go all out for the last 7k because I felt I was holding her back and she needed to PB. So at 14k, she gunned it and got a huge PB! Even I was able to pass the 2:00 and 1:55 bunnies and it felt so good to be able to catch up to them. I got a great burst of energy when I saw Matt, Chris, Tracey, Gillian, and Sylvia cheering for me near the finish line. It was awesome! I ended up 1 minute slower than Lisa but still got a 1:30 PB and my first negative split race. I placed 8/44 in my age group. So happy!!!