Bust :(

I didn't have to think long about the title of this post. While the news is not quite that bad, the title of my last post was BQ or Bust, and even if I did establish a new PR, it wasn't nearly fast enough to qualify for Boston at my age. As I had outlined in my previous post, race strategy could go either way, what I didn't anticipate is that even while blowing up I would still land a respectable PR with 3h19m10s. The race itself was epic for me, as I guess every marathon is. I moved through the entire range of emotions in this race, from despair to elation to despair again.

I felt pretty ready for the race. Having traveled a full day ahead so that the day before could be spent resting and a proper night's sleep could be guaranteed. My pre-race nutrition and hydration was right on schedule. I went to bed even 1 hour earlier on the count of daytime savings being over. I woke up fresh and ready to tackle the distance.

I finally got to meet Marlene when I was headed to the start line. Her husband looked ready to race, even going through the effort of doing warmups before the race. Don't get me wrong, I totally respect warmups, but for a marathon, I need every mile in me before the race, there's no juice to spare for warmups. Things turned out differently for Marlene's Hubby as you will most probably read soon over Marlene's blog, he turned in a new PR by 16 minutes! I saw Marlene multiple times during the race and her cheering and M&M costume always brought a smile to my face and added speed to my stride.
At the start line, I realized how small a race this was. At 1500 marathoners, this is the smallest marathon I ever attended. A far stretch from LA's 25,000 or even Ottawa's 6,000. There was a pretty diverse crowd of young and old and everyone seemed upbeat about the perfect weather. I noticed how some people were carrying camelpacks. I found it funny to bring your own hydration at a race, kinda like bringing a sandwich to a buffet. I found out the reason why once I was on the course. Water stations were a bit sparser than I am used to and e-load was the chosen race drink. I am not very familiar with e-load but it did not feel sweet or taste like anything except salt. I regretted not bringing my own bottle of sports drink.

Warming up at the start line, I realized I was hanging out with the fast guys. It was a smallish race but being that close to the start line can be a bit intimidating. No waiting around after the gun looking at those heads bobbing up and down, when the gun goes off, you get going! Everyone settled into their own speeds fairly quickly.I settled into a good groove right at the start with a fast first 2 kilometers, right on pace for a BQ.

• 4:27
• 4:28

At about km 2, my left leg had a weird feeling in it. Not sure if it was the cold or if I was rusty from tapering. I didn't know if I should stop to relace my shoes, maybe they were too tight? I slowed down to see if that would help. I got a bit worried that there was something seriously wrong with my leg after the feeling didn't go away after a few kilometers and even considered dropping out to prevent serious injury. Eventually the feeling went away at about km 10.

• 4:30
• 4:33
• 4:38
• 4:32
• 4:36
• 4:32
• 4:33
• 4:33

At kilometer 10 I realized a was a bit behind on my 3h10 goal. Nothing major with about 20 seconds to make up but I realized that I had two choices if I really wanted to qualify for Boston, get faster or get older. I wasn't getting any older on the spot so I decide to get faster. Throughout the race, I pictured a fictitious runner called BQ and always remained aware of how far ahead (or even behind) that runner was. So I pushed a bit harder and got back on track.
It was great to see Alex cheering for me. I felt really good about the race so far. Marlene was also cheering a bit further down the line. Seeing her in her M&M costume was awesome and gave me an extra kick. Qualifying for Boston is what draws a lot of people to this race. Everyone was keeping track of where they were and where they needed to be. Some people had given up already by then and would wait for the next year when they would fall into a new category.

• 4:27
• 4:27
• 4:30
• 4:35
• 4:23
• 4:22
• 4:27

I was now back on track right where I wanted to be. The next portion of the course then started getting a bit downhill. I knew a downhill section was coming but if I knew how much of a slope it was, I wouldn't have stressed about getting back on track. It actually felt like cheating a bit to go down the slope.

• 4:18
• 4:19
• 4:19
• 4:26
• 4:20
• 4:13
• 4:12
• 4:17

I felt like I was flying. I accumulated a lead of almost 2 minutes over my fictitious BQ foe. I was so happy, I felt like it was now impossible for me to mess up and not make 3:10. Images of flying over the finish line at 3:08 flew in my mind while I ran down the slope. Once the downhill section was over, my pace felt slow even when it was 4:30m/km. It was becoming increasingly difficult for me to keep it up. I kept chugging along as as much as I could.

• 4:23
• 4:25
• 4:27
• 4:49
• 4:31
• 4:25
• 4:30

Marlene was waiting after an underpass and her M&M costume brought another smile :)
By that point I was becoming a bit thirsty. Avoiding the salty eloads at the water stops may not have been the best decision. I had brought my own gels and some starburst candies as well so I hoped that my carbohydrates were being replenished in time but there just wasn't enough water out there to quench my thirst. Shortly after km 32, my slow descent into hell started.

• 4:43
• 4:38
• 4:55
• 4:46
• 4:51

As I entered into the final stretch of 10km, I felt the wall coming on. I mentally calculated my minimum pace to keep my 3:10 goal alive and realized that a 4:40m/km pace would be difficult with what seemed like a pretty strong headwind. Environment Canada reports winds of up to 25km/h yet I don't think everyone felt the wind the same way. The wall sometimes has its ways with runners. I watched helplessly as my fictitious BQ opponent closed the gap and passed me. My legs were painful, the juice was gone and my spirits were quickly falling. As we turned around the final bend, I was hit by what felt like a wall of wind. It literally took all the energy I had just to keep going. I started the painful mental process of adjusting my goal to 3:12 then 3:15 to finally dig deep just enough to actually keep going instead of sitting by on one of the comfortable-looking and appealing park benches by the side of the path we were running on.

• 00:06:18
• 00:05:28
• 00:06:39
• 00:05:44
• 00:05:14

These last few kilometers were the most difficult I ever had to run. Finishing this race was even more difficult than the painful crawl of my first marathon. I just wanted to get the race done and over with and move on. Seeing everyone passing me by while I took walking breaks and extended every effort I could to just keep going. The disappointment I was feeling at not meeting my objective added to my exhaustion and made me feel really bad. Some really happy runners were prancing around shouting to the world that they were heading to Boston after trying for 10 years.

The final lap was pretty cruel with the runners going by the finish line and looping an extra few hundred meters. Wouldn't this race ever end? My Garmin reports the final 450m at 3:46 for an official chip time of 3:19:10. Marlene caught this great picture of an exhausted runner trying to stay together long enough to cross the finish line.
I was really glad to have finished. Coming in under 3:20 was actually fairly impressive given that the last 10km took me over 53 minutes. It's a new PR but could have been much lower if I raced smarter. I will learn from this to study the course profiles ahead of time to better plan my races. I could have taken it a bit easier on the first half to keep more ammo for the last end. Knowing that the water stations were 3km apart and knowing that eload wouldn't agree with me, I could have designed an hydration strategy that would have helped a bit.
I think the speed heat map tells the story pretty well.
And I wish I had taken a look at this elevation chart before I raced:
Overall, I think Hamilton's Road2Hope Marathon is a really well organized race. It's very small so there's not as much cheering as a bigger race could offer but there were cheerers peppered around the course. The course itself is fairly fast, if raced smart, even if a bit boring. The finishing kms would be very scenic if one had energy to take in the scenery. I'm not sure I would race this one again unless I was specifically looking for another go at the BQ. I think that I will do my time and train so that any race can be a BQ rather than try to cheat and pick a fast race to qualify.

My plans for now is a two weeks vacation from training. I know that I probably will not be able to withstand 2 weeks without getting out there but I'm not entering a training plan anytime soon. Miami is still on the table but I started wrestling with the idea of switching to a half marathon or at least of taking is easy and enjoying the scenery instead of pushing again for another PB/BQ. I know that I have a much faster race in me if I race smarter next time. I think 3:15 would be doable and I could hold it together until the end. As with every marathon, I learned a lot about myself during training and even more during the race. Marathons are life changing experiences in any case, difficult ones are even more meaningful if you ask me. As a friend told me yesterday, the fact that I ran faster than ever and managed not to get injured means I am doing something right.

New Pics + Ray's Giveaway

I've already ranted about the price of race photos. This race is no different with a single photo costing you $38 for a download. It's a shame because if they were priced a bit more reasonably, I'd be buying them. There are a few nice ones.

Also be sure to check out Ray's blog today for a super exciting giveaway of a Withings WiFi scale!

Ottawa Marathon 2010

The Ottawa Marathon is a yearly event that is part of the Race Weekend here in Ottawa. Organizers claim it to be the largest marathon and largest running weekend in all of Canada. It sure feels that way with over 30,000 runners out in the different distances and the countless volunteers and cheerers that line the course.

I was actually pretty relieved when I woke up to find out that the weather forecast that started at 29 Celsius (84F) and sunny on the Wednesday were nowhere near accurate. The adjusted forecast on Sunday morning was 15 Celsius (60F) and cloudy with a 21 Celsius (70F) maximum. Perfect running weather!

We got to the start line a bit later than planned so there's no pre-race pictures. I had just enough time to visit the port-a-potty and get in my corral before the gun went off. I had spied the 3:40 pace bunny and planned to follow it for a while until I knew how I felt about the race. I knew that I could beat 3:40, especially given the perfect conditions. I even had a secret hope of closing in on 3:30 if I was having a great day, more on this later. We started at a pretty good pace. The lower number of marathoners made the start much more orderly than previous year's half marathons with their 10k+ runners.

I settled into a nice pace as we passed parliament and I got so much into the groove that I don't even remember which bridge we took to Gatineau. I remember that at some point the 3:40 pace bunny and his following got a bit on my nerves. Someone even said to one of his runners that she shouldn't talk since she needs every little bit for the end. Feeling great and ready for a big day, I decided they were definitively not my crowd and I hurried on along. The new course took us to a much nicer part of Hull than in previous years. The Lac-des-Fees promenade was actually a bit scenic if you could ignore the sewer renovation project. Local residents were out and about in their pajamas with a cup of coffee in hand, smiling, waving, clapping and cheering. I loved it!

Soon enough we were heading back towards Ottawa. I got to see my mom waiting for me on the bridge. That was such a energy booster / awesome moment.
My mom had been a little late as well and missed the start but I had prepared a map with a list of possible sightings and estimate times for me to go through. I forgot to tell her at the bridge that I was actually a bit faster than the planned sightings because I was so excited to see her and her boyfriend cheering me on. Alex was at a good vantage point on top of the bridge to capture these great pictures.

The race then took us into Beachwood and then Rockliffe which is a bit of a swanky neighborhood in Ottawa. It was great to see the people outside their Mansions, cheering the runners on. It was much less hilly than I feared and overall I felt I was doing great even if I was running a bit faster than planned. As I crossed the halfway mark at 1:42:46, I had to make a decision. Slow down a bit and lock in a reasonably good PB or keep up the speedier pace and go for broke under 3:30. I decided to keep going while monitoring everything to ensure that I could adjust quickly in order to salvage the race.

The second part of the race was spent mostly holding on to my lead. I made an analogy of a surfer riding the wave to the beach and that is totally how I felt. I had reached the crest of the wave and now all I had to do was hang on. I hadn't told my mom and Alex that I was going much faster than planned so even my optimistic sighting times for each point of the race were now too late. They missed me by about 2 minutes at the canal and Laurier. I kept the speed up and enjoyed the company of other runners. Two guys behind me were really funny. Race day is not when you want to start doing mathematics, especially not at km 28. Their 3:30 pace bunny had just failed them with a leg cramp and they didn't know how to continue. I tried to help them a bit with the math but my own pace band for 3:40 was pretty useless as well at this point :)

As we passed Bronson, I started having stomach cramps. Panic started setting in. I will not be able to finish. I screwed up on my hydration. I shouldn't have had this double mocha gel at km 25. My whole race will be ruined. Then I realized I was past km 30 and that the dreaded wall was probably trying to control me. I slowed down a tad and focused on my breathing and reasoned with myself. I have trained for this. My long runs have taken me further than this point and I have experienced this before. I will get through it and everything will be fine. Turns out that 10 minutes later I was back in pace. As we finally turned around and started heading back to downtown, I knew this race was in the bag.

I kept feeling strong and fast as I passed marathoner after marathoner. I love reeling in people even if it is ever so slowly. Then the half marathoners merged and the speedy ones started passing me by, making me feel really slow. I checked my watch and my pace was still very acceptable so I tried to ignore them. They motivated me to push a little harder but at this stage of the game there wasn't much fuel left in the tank for sprinting. Alex was waiting for me at km 39 and what a relief to see him waving around and taking pictures.
The Endorphins mixed with the reduced flow to the brain creates some interesting emotions and feeling inside. I could have stopped and hugged him but the finish line was calling me. I'm not sure what I was thinking in this picture. I think my eyes are closed and it looks like I'm saying I got nothing on me officer :)

As the roar of the crowds got louder, the resolve to finish and the taste of victory was getting overwhelming. I didn't even look at my watch anymore, I knew I locked in a PB, I was pretty certain I was under 3:30 but really I wanted to finish this one in style. When I reached the finish line I saw my mom and Michel cheering me on. I think they were more excited than me and seeing them made me cheer and shout. I can't wait to see the official race pictures, they will be interesting for sure. When I finally crossed the finish line, I didn't want to stop. Most people collapse or go into a walk right away but it took me a good 5-10 seconds to register that I was done and I could shut it down. I eventually found Michel and then my mom and we chatted it up a bit until I saw my friend Falk finish. This guy is fast. Super fast. There's no way I could have beaten him. Yet, there he was, crossing the finish line after me! Woot woot! This is major bragging rights I earned right here!
I almost don't want him to race another marathon because until he does, I can say I'm faster ;)

Overall this race was really awesome. The new course is much prettier than previously even if some parts felt a bit lonely. The music stations could be closer together (some even seemed abandoned). I think that the focus of this even is really on the half-marathon but still the marathon is a very worthwhile destination on race weekend. The beautiful runners and plentiful crowds make for an interesting race. The rotating medal is also pretty cool.

The numbers:

The Course:
So I've decided to take 2 weeks off training. I may go for short runs but nothing over 15km. After that, when I start training again, my new mantra will be : 17 minutes to Boston! I will get there, yeah baby yeah! Hopefully I can squeeze in a race this fall and get closer to that 3:10 BQ. Any good marathons in November in your part of the world?