Goals for Rock ‘N Roll Montreal Half Marathon

Disclaimer:  I received a free entry to the Rock ‘n Roll Montreal Half Marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

First of all, I want to say thank you so much to everyone who has congratulated me on my engagement!  It’s crazy, I always knew the day would come, but it’s been nothing like I imagined…and I love it!

This weekend I am so excited to be running the Rock ‘n Roll Montreal Half Marathon, my first international race and my kickoff race for the fall!  While it is not a goal race, I still have goals – and I look forward to sharing them with you!

I’m linking up with Susie, Debbie, Lora, and Rachel for the Running Coaches Corner and Annmarie, Nicole, and Jen for Wild Workout Wednesday! 

[bctt tweet=”So excited to share my goals for the @runrocknroll Montreal Half Marathon! #RNRMontreal #bibchat” username=”Janelle_RWNR”]

Goals for the Rock ‘n Roll Montreal Half Marathon

So the big weekend is finally here – I’m so excited to have my first fall race in Montreal, a gorgeous city that I’ve never visited.  I’ve heard such great things about Montreal and I am going to make the most out of this race-cation.  Even better, my fiance(!) Bret will be running the half marathon too, so it’ll be great to enjoy this experience together!

Logistics

We’re flying from Philadelphia to Montreal and I’m so relieved to have direct flights that were purchased months in advance!  After all the craziness of Seattle, I wanted to make sure that I made no mistakes with our arrangements.

We will have plenty of time to enjoy the city and I’m looking forward to having a couple of short runs before the race, maybe even going off the beaten path.  I have a list of the major attractions but I still don’t have a clue what we’re going to do…I’m going to do my best to “wing it”!

I’ll most likely hit the Expo on Friday just to get it over with, lol.  I’m hoping that I’ll get to run into Kim from KookyRunner, one of my faves who I will FINALLY get to meet!  Anyone else out there running Montreal?  Let me know!

And I believe the race provides us with a Metro pass, so getting to the race start should be easy.  After the snafus in Seattle, I’ll make sure we get on the train super early to avoid delays!!

Racing Strategy

As most of you know, I have been training this past year with Coach Laura from This Runner’s Recipes.  She has served me extremely well, so I am looking forward to following her game plan for my first fall race:

• Treat this race as a harder long run.  Run the first 3 miles easy, treating them as a warm-up, gradually increasing pace.  In the middle of the race, run 3 sets of 2 miles at goal half marathon pace (9:30-9:40/mile) with 3 minutes easy in between (you can set this workout on your watch under Intervals to make it easier for the adrenaline of a race).  Run the final ~3 miles at a moderate effort, focusing on finishing strong but not all-out racing.

At first, I was thinking that maybe I would push the limit on the course to see how well I could do, but considering the weather forecast (more on that in a moment), I’m going to stick to Laura’s plan and see how it goes!  Again, this isn’t my goal race!!

Fueling and Hydration

Fueling and hydration are going to be extremely important for this race.  As usual, I’ll be fueling and hydrating the same way I always do – Honey Stinger Chews and  Vitalyte Natural Electrolyte Powder (affiliate link).  One packet of the powder will go in my 20-ounce water bottle (Orange Mud Hydraquiver) so that I have the electrolytes I need with every sip.  And I’ll take my chews about every 3 miles.

When I looked at the weather forecast for the half marathon on Sunday, I thought “okay, it seems a little warm, but it won’t be the same kind of heat in Montreal as in Philly, right?”.  Besides, it’s not my first rodeo running a warm, humid race!  Unfortunately, I received an email update that while the half marathon start time was moved up to 7:30 instead of 8:30 am, the full marathon on Sunday is CANCELLED because of the heat and humidity.  I couldn’t believe it!

Apparently, it is unseasonably warm in Montreal and the organizers were not equipped to support the runners the marathon distance on such short notice.  Thankfully, RNR is allowing marathon runners to get a refund or transfer to a different RNR marathon.  Even as a half marathoner, I was given the option to get my money back.  The race is earlier, but they reduced the finish time from 3:45 to 3 hours.  It’s all just very shocking…even the Buffalo Marathon proceeded back in 2016 when the weather was in the 90’s.  How bad is it really going to be on Sunday??

In any event, no matter the outcome, I think that Montreal is going to be a very memorable race.  Hopefully everything works out and I’ll have a wonderful race recap to share with you early next week!

Are you racing this weekend?  Have you ever had a race canceled at the last minute?