Harry's Spring Run Off - 8K High Park

Oh lord have mercy. I was awake before the birds were this morning. I had all my running gear laid out last night. Weather said 4 degrees. So long sleeve tech and a vest, capris, compression sleeves & of course my Saucony's. Made some porridge to eat along the way, filled up my water bottle half way & I was debating about using it in the run, but figured I better just in case I decide to take a swig on a walk when there were no aid stations. There was one at the 4K mark and 6K mark. The first hill is around 3K so.. this time I'll take my waist belt. however; I didn't shut the spout well enough and it soaked my back seat. Awesome... I arrived at High Park with plenty of time to spare for my 9am meeting ( which apparently means 9:30 to newbies) ggrrr. I had a chat with my sis, bro in law & neice for half an hour and headed over to the park. I was suppose to meet a few fellows from work that were running it, I said 9am. They interpreted that to mean 9:30 ... I advised them I was going to be waiting til 9:30 then doing a warm up run and getting ready to be in my corral (red... I know I over estimated... eheheheh) I lined up for the loo as well. I'm not changing my race day plans for folks, I'm sorry, I'm just not going to do it. So off we went - I checked my Garmin 4:15 pace. HOLY SHIT BOPPERS... take that sucker down a notch please and thank you. That's pretty much the only real down hill of the race of any distance. I did my first kilometer in 5:03 ... YIKES Theo is going to kill me. He said 5:30 ... but I knew the hills were going to be tougher possibly more mental than anything but there you go. I round the sharp right at the 2 k mark and was still hitting 5:13 pace, but was going with it. I had my halls in my mouth and was letting my legs go. The only thing I noticed was I didn't have my sound track in my head. I had too much negativity floating around in there. Lots of self talk & doubts. Not good. The 3k hill loomed before me & I took it on. I ran about half way up it and decided walking was okay. It's a frigging long ass hill. I took another quick walk break and by the 4 k mark I was at 21:xx minutes. So well on my way to making my time. the 4 to 5 k distance was probably the only flat part in the race and I tried to keep it at a 5:30 pace as much as possible. 5-6 k ggrrr... you could feel the incline, my leg was aching a tad, nothing horrific, but it was my lungs that were having difficulty keeping up to my legs. I had popped another halls before the other one ran out just to be safe. The 6k run was very rolling - why do I always forget that it's rolling with an emphasis on up hill ? WHy? I don't know. At the 6K mark just coming out beside Parkside rd. ( and the water station) I was at 33 minutes dead on. so that means 11:xx something for the 4th and 5th kilometer. Not bad I think. 6k-7k is a steady run - you again can feel the incline starting. I had a quick little walk break just to let my lungs catch up to me. Then 7k.... ohhhh yeah ... 600 more meters till that effin hill ... and again the incline ... I pushed and pushed at the 400 meters left mark came the hill... I got about 200 m up and I had to walk my lungs were screaming. I walked about 100 meters and then started again, I knew my 44 min goal was toast. At this point I was just hoping to finish before last year's time. As I pushed on through I could hear my sister yelling for me... that was so nice, I really needed that. I finished in 46:23 (chip - 46:36 gun) so it was a PB by 23 seconds. I'll take it that's for sure, but honestly I am disappointed. I could have made it if I had run up more of both hills. Maybe. Or maybe I'd have burned out. The one thing that I do know is that I need to work on the breathing. This activity induced asthma is a pain the behind. I took my puffer and I had my halls, but now I have to get my lungs to the point where the understand that I need more air to be allowed through. I'm not sure how to do that - perhaps more hills with speed? More spinning with "hills" in it? I don't know. I'll have to figure that out. That's what smarter runners than me are for. :) Well I'll be running tomorrow .... We'll see what the Half clinic is doing, but I actually feel like doing the highway run. all 21.1 k of it. Am I crazy? Goofy? Delirious? perhaps. We'll see that the old body decides to let me do in the morning.