Hypothermic Half Marathon

Woke up at 4:30 AM. Breakfast of Maple & Brown Sugar oatmeal, then a tall glass of water, vitamin, 2 fried eggs over hard and 1 slice of multi-grain toast with peanut butter.

Equipment:
Hind baselayer
Polyester mesh baselayer
Nike Element Thermal jacket
Hind fleeced lined tights
Hoorag
Toque
Gloves
Adidas winter socks
Brooks Cadence

Met Sean at the Walmart parking lot and we arrived on site (Fort Whyte) at 6:30am for the 7:30 am start time for wave 1.

Weather was cool -12C with windchill of -20C. Cold but Sean and I have trained in this weather prior as it's been a long cold winter this 2013. We had a nice easy pace of 6min/km for the first 8km and we started getting faster. I kept up with Osty to the 12km mark then he turned on the gears and started going. My exhaustion set in at mile 11 when I ran up the hill and found myself alone in the frozen field on my way back to Fort Whyte with only 2 miles to go. My feet started getting cold and the doubts crept in along with both calves seizing up on me. I walked for about 500m and the sweat from my jacket and tights started to freeze. I crossed the finish line to a 2:07:20 PB. I'll need to re-think some of my winter wear for a -20 and lower temp as I was getting really cold near the end.

-More work needs to be done to get the gas tank bigger for WPS and MB 1/2.
-Meet Mike from seekmikerun.ca as he was sitting 2 tables from Sean and I.

Post script:
I didn't get to set what I think is my true PB. The weather wasn't ideal and I know that the current training cycle I'm on is for future races in the spring. This race was a training race as it helped me get that all important gut check for a 1/2 distance. I haven't run more than 10miles (16km) prior to the 1/2 marathon distance this year.