Chilly Half Marathon Weekend/Race Report

So, this weekend was busy. We had hockey Friday night, I was gone all day Saturday for my uncle's funeral, and Sunday was race day and Leah's first birthday party. I made my to-do list and got done what I could, when I could! MVP for the weekend was Jonathan, for sure! He had the 3 kids for most of it AND did a tonne of the work for the party. Also, a special thanks to Uncle Kevin and Auntie Chantale for watching Leah. They are lovely people.
So, I got to bed in decent time Saturday night and slept through (ie no kids/dog needing me in the night!). I had my standard toast and coffee (sometimes it's tea) for breakfast and started sipping on some eload. I got to Burlington in good time to get a good parking spot near the start, and away from the crowd to get a decent get-away. I even had time to read a few magazines and doze before warming up! It was cool and sunny and I almost wore shorts but because of the lake, I decided to wear long sleeves and capris ... good thing because it was windy. The race itself was fairly uneventful, which is really what you want. I ran the entire race on my own (great mental prep for the marathon!) and felt I was giving a consistent effort but when I checked my garmin during the windy spots, I was slower than I wanted to be. I was aiming for 3:33/km and just didn't have it throughout. The last 5 km were quite strong, which is great. I think I need to work on staying strong in the third quarter of the race. I know I am definitely capable of sub 75 min but will have to wait until Montreal 1/2 Marathon Championships (Apr 29) to prove it. I still ended up first female with a personal best time of 1:15:42. Two years ago I ran a 1:15:55 at the 1/2 Champs so am well ahead of the game for this racing season. I hope to have a decent recovery week, ramp it up for a week, then bring it back down in preparation for Around the Bay. Typically I run the 30 km Bay race at goal marathon pace. This puts me at a goal time of 1:49:55 (3:40/km) in order to get a sub 2:35 in May.
My leg was acting up a bit last week but appears to be fine now. Regardless, I'll be making regular trips to the chiropractor/massage in order to keep it in check.
Today I had a great 2km swim and steady 18 km treadmill run. Because I haven't had a complete running day off for 10 days, I'll just stick to a longish bike ride for tomorrow.