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The Moose
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« on: September 25, 2006, 11:05:45 PM » |
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I had asked my friend to wake us at 4:30 am to get ready. So I lay awake half the night wondering what time it was, and whether he had over-slept. At 4:30 I heard the alarm from upstairs and then footsteps down the stairs to wake me. After 2 heaping bowls of Raisin Bran I downed two bottles of water and got dressed for the race. Outside the rain had just stopped, and it was already unseasonably warm (for 5:30 in the morning anyway).
6:10 am: Our ride's alarm still hadn't gone off, so we made the decision to wake him ourselves. Off we went (he must sleep in his clothes) and arrived downtown at 6:28. Still dark and cool we agreed that shorts and dri-fit T-shirts were appropriate, and stood in line for the port-a-potties. The Raisin Bran was showing itself as a poor choice of energy.
The forecast was for rain all day...Again weatherman proved to be the greatest job on earth. What other job lets you be wrong so often, yet remain employed?
We lined up, Tim stretched, and we tried to stage ourselves appropriately for our projected finish time.
At 7:00, and still too dark for sunglasses, we were off. It was difficult working through the crowd that I could barely see (sunglasses), and building any pace was nearly impossible.
The first 3km went by just below my goal pace and I felt extremely comfortable. By kilometer 6 I came to realize that Tim wasn't kidding about only 1 training run (he's a second degree black belt in Karate and trains 5 days a week) I'd never doubted his conditioning before, but my confidence in my friend was seriously waning. Tim had encouraged me to run my own pace, but he'd helped me through enough times that I told him I'd like to stay with him for the first 30km. By kilometer 9, I was over 10 minutes behind and Tim encouraged me to go. I hung in to 12 km, and at 13 minutes behind my goal pace I thanked my friend, apologized and went.
I had been aiming for 3:30 and after running sub 5 minute kms until half, my time was 1:57:36, I had a lot of catching up to do, and hadn't made any real ground up. It was around this point when I realized that all these people yelling my name weren't family members, only my Mom calls me Michael, unless that's what they put on my bib.
The second half of a marathon is always gut check time, but to run a negative split in this event was far beyond anything I expected of myself, especially into that wind. Unfortunately, trying so hard to regain all that time cost me dearly, I had some truly remarkable kilometers, but some truly trying ones as well.
All in all, I think this was one of my strongest marathons. I did not get a personal best, but wasn't as crippled afterward as normal. I was strong enough at the end that km 41 was 4 minutes 29 seconds, a far cry from the normal lying to myself, or focusing on the road to just get to the end.
Oh, the finish line. After the emotions that naturally come with the end of a long and hard fought race, the frustration of walking half a block to get Gatorade was annoying. I continued to move forward, had my picture taken and began to panic as I another entire block was closed to the public and no food was in sight, nor was my family. The injustice of having to walk entirely around a city block, after running 42.195kms to find my ride home seemed too much to handle.
After a wonderful race, fantastic aid stations (with proper paper cups), lots of live and lively entertainment, super spectators and a very well marked course, I was completely let down by the finish. I couldn't believe how everything fell apart at the end. My family complained about not being able to see me finish, or take any pictures.
Lessons learned:
1) No raisin bran before a race. Until this race I thought only gold could be pressed into something as thin as that toilet paper in the port-a-potties.
2) Runners trots are no fun after the race, and they're really no fun during it.
3) Run your pace for the whole race, it's one thing to try and claw back a few minutes, but another to claw back 12.
4) Find a training plan and complete it, missing a few days may not seem like much, but if you make a habit of it, you'll pay. This time I didn't pay.
5) Smile, you may not run any faster, but if you're going to be running for close to 4 hours you might as well enjoy it.
6) Start a little closer to the front that you think you should in an event this large, everybody else is doing it, and it's a waste of energy to be trying to struggle through the walkers who are going to finish 3 hours after you.
7) Pay attention to the other runners. I saw Sharon Voteary from Belleville, Diane Kent from Frankford and Jamie Young from Kingston (who graciously helped Diane and I through that terrible head wind, and kept us on pace).
Congratulations to all, especially Diane and Sharon who both qualified for Boston.
I'm sure Sandy will tell us all about the half.
Mike
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