Josef's Journey Since Ironman Lake Placid 2008: 2012-05-06

Yes! it's true! Joanne Smoked me at the Mississauga half marathon on Sunday May 6, and finished 25min faster then me with a 2:33. Congrats to her, all her hard training paid off! ,,,Oh I finished with a 2:58.

Now how can that happen? Well to start out with, I did no run training except for a couple of short 1-2k runs. Why? because I couldn't run without pain with my sciatica, so I didn't run to train for this race. All in all except for the pain I had the whole race, I think I did pretty good! :)

You can check out myYou Tube video ...enjoy!.... Video

Race day report.....

Joanne and I got up at 4:30 and got our gear and nutrition ready for the race which included my Go Jo Juice, you know the green stuff I concocted with a great taste and packed with lots of energy to carry us though the race, and of course my stroopwaffles! Joanne grabbed her energy bars and filled her fuel belt bottles with Go-Jo Juice because she like's the stuff! She also made and packed some oatmeal into a thermos to eat on the way down, I ate a couple of stroowaffles and was planning on getting an egg Mcmuffin and coffee at the drive threw for the drive down to Mississauga. When we got to McD's and I ordered my EggMcmuffin to my suprise they said there don't serve breakfast yet? I said WHAT!! It's morning!! The person said they don't serve Breakfast until 5am? I said WTF!! and ordered coffee and a muffin to go.

On the road now heading down to Mississauga, it was still dark and the moon was shining bright to the western horizon, Tonight was a full moon and tonight they were calling it the super moon because it was going to be in the closest orbit to earth making it look bigger then normal! I must say it was bright!.....This picture doesn't do it justus as I was driving trying to take the picture.

We got to the race sight parking lot were we caught the first shuttle bus that was organized to take the racers up to the race start about 10 mins away. There was a chill in the air but as the morning light rose there was clear blue skies and the forcast for the day was going to be perfect for running with a high of 18C. When we got to the starting area we met up with some friends and tried to stay warm until the race started.

Joanne staying warm beofre the race...

Me putting on a tencer for my bad knee

Joanne relaxing before the race

So far I haven't mentioned about my sore back and hamstring, but now I'll let you know. With every step while I jog I get a shooting pain radiating down my left leg, my left hamstring pulling and hurting at the same time and as I walk or jog I look like a penguin waddling about moving my body side to side to compensate for the pulling in my hamstring.

Before the race started they played the national anthem then the cannon went off! we are on are way!! Weeee! ...well so I thought? We didn't start moving for a few minutes as we seeded ourselves back at the 2:15-2:30hr finisher area of the start line, we then started to slowly walk up to the start line with the crowd of 10,000 participant in the race. It took about 3 mins to get to the start line and off we were, we started to run keeping pace with the 2:30hr pace bunny.

Start of the run as we crossed though and beyond the start line, Cool buildings behind Joanne

Joann and I ran together keeping pace with the 2:30hr pace bunny to the 8k mark where I had to slow down as my whole leg was radiating with pain, I told Joanne just keep up your pace and go on, I never saw her again! I continued on at my own pace walking and jogging and videoing the rest of the way I got to the 10 k make in ruffly 1:14 and was thinking maybe I can manage a 2:35-2:45hr race? but as the run continued I was getting slower and hurting more, even to the point Of quiting! But no I couldn't do that, so I pushed on, run 100 feet walk a hundred feet, and tried to amuse myself along the way to take the pain of my hip and hammy away.

I finally got to the lake shore and knew I had just a few more Km's to go, maybe 4k? As I hobbled along, the lake, lake Ontario was as flat as a pancake and I thought to myself, next year I'll be swimming across here and I sure hope the lake will be this calm!! ...I continued on and in the distance I can here the announcer calling people in the finish with music blaring. I only had a little way to go. With camera in hand video taping coming into the finish I hear my name being called and with a chukle I hear the announcer say, "Josef is even videoing his finish" Which I did! lol

Done! 2:58 and change for a finish! I made it under three hours with no training and a cripple body! Is that amazing? or just stupid? I think most people would say it's stupid! lol But I don't care, I had fun pain and all, It's not like I would die or something!? and Joanne accomplished a great goal with her official first half marathon! and getting a PB of over 20 min on her un-official Half Mary I did with her last year of 2:49.....

Check out my left hand holding out my camera videoing my finish.

When I crossed the line I went straight to the med tent to get some work done on my leg to ease the pain a bit, then I collected my medal and met up with Joanne where I said to her "You smoked me!!" and she quickly replied, "YES I DID!! lol We then met up with friends and took some pictures, said our byes and went home where I had some well deserved nutrition and hydration waiting for us.