Executive summary: No BQ this time but I would recommend the race.
The Bermuda Triangle Marathon Challenge is 3 races in 3 days. A mile Friday night, 10k Saturday morning, and a marathon on Sunday morning. The event is really well run. $135 to enter all 3 races. Lots of loot in the race kit including 4 tech shirts! And they print your first name on your bib, so a lot of the people around the 2 lap course will cheer you on by name.
Mile: My goal for this one was to not hurt myself since I can safely say I've never run a mile. This race is a big deal for the locals who go through local qualifiers to produce the top 20 in categories from primary school to "masters". They put us "challenge" runners out first in 4 races going from old fogies to the youngest. I was in race 1.
The course goes back and forth on Front St. in Hamilton so there are 2 hair-pin turns. The race was mostly a blur. I can remember passing people, thinking this is really hard, and is it over already? My time was 6:23 which is 3:58km pace. My fastest pace was 2:49km at the start and coming downhill to the finish. Avg HR was 190 with a max of 220! These are numbers my Garmin hasn't seen before. I thought this was pretty good but it is basically mid-field in the middle school girl category. Back to the hotel to change, went out to dinner and we still managed to catch the last 2 elite races. Winning times this year was a 4:20.20 for the men and 4:33.61 for the women.
10k: I wanted to take it easy for this one. I'm here for the marathon. I decided to keep the HR in the low 140's for most of the race, allowing it to climb a bit going up hills and then let myself go for the last 2k. And that's what I did. The course was very hilly and in the end, my time was 48:53 with an avg HR of 147. I've gone faster in practice but for the few 10k races I've done I think this was a PB, and it felt like I just went out for a jog. 44/112 in my age group. Monique was in the top 1/3 of the field in the 10k walk.
marathon: I was prepared for this one. A lot of training in the last 8 weeks, lighter, well rested and carbed up. But I knew in the first 500m that this was going to be tough day. My legs felt heavy. The numbers in the first half were okay, just under 1:45 time and 143HR but it was a struggle. I didn't hit the wall in the 2nd half but it was a gradual decline in pace. HR was low at 139 where typically it should be higher. It seemed I just couldn't exert myself more to make it rise. The 10k and all the tourist walking probably didn't help but it was a tough course too. The course was rarely flat and parts of the course were not closed to traffic. I have other excuses too: temps around 20C, overhanging palm frawns, stinky flower blossoms, distracting turquoise ocean views. It was horrible...
I'm not disappointed though. At the 23k mark, a very British fellow by himself in the middle of an uphill, was coaching people on. He told me I was 31st (marathon overall), "Keep going, don't let off". I hope he knows I finished 28 out of 115 so it wasn't just me that was finding it difficult. 12/45 of men in the challenge and 3/14 in my age group.
So I would recommend this event but not as a BQ race. I kinda knew this going in but chose to train in denial.
