What a difference a year makes! Last year, I logged a time of 2:19:47. This year, I had as my goal to beat that time. Little did I realize that the 2:12:13 in this year’s BMO Half is a new personal best! I can point to two main factors why I did as well as did this year:

• I ran the whole thing non-stop (except for walking pauses to consume gel or water that never exceeded one minute). In training, I consciously made the decision to move away from the run-10-walk-1 method I’ve used in training for, and running in, the last four half marathons. I quite surprised myself with the result, not just in the time, but in the fact that the whole run was consistent from beginning to end, and as I’ve tweeted soon after the race, I took great pride in that.
• I knew what to expect. The hill heading to Prospect Point is the main challenge in an otherwise flat course on the Downtown Peninsula. This year, I forced myself on to those grueling hill sessions with progressively steeper inclines. This was what was neglected in previous training sessions, and I did ignore them at my peril. I also knew to conserve my energy once the run entered Stanley Park. This paid off too: my speed in the section that included Prospect Point was greatly improved over last year.

Training Summary: The total km logged over 16 weeks of training was 352.2. I’m sure that had a lot of influence in this year’s result (vs. 275 km last year).

Next up: I think I’m going to capitalize on the momentum of this result by registering this week for the Royal Victoria Marathon. What I did today shows I am more than capable of taking on the rigors of training for a full marathon, and I’m keen to get started!