I ran the Calgary Marathon yesterday, and now that I have had a day to think about the results, here is my race report.
- Getting to the start line on the day
Yikes, another boondoggle with getting to the start line. By the time to were getting to the zoo parking lot, it was closed off for the race! After looping around a few times, we finally drove downtown, parked at a hotel, hopped a cab, and had him drop us off at the memorial drive LRT overpass.
- the start
Not the best start. I usually have this routine that I go through, chatting up the fellow competitors, and then having the pre-race Gas-X, 2 Advil and a Gel. well, we started, and I was getting to the bridge over memorial, past first K before I realized that I had not done that yet. So the process of getting a Gas-X opened while wearing cloth mitties was fun. Finally had to take them off to get it done. This was a good thing, as I had to do the 2 advil and the gel, and they would have been tough with gloves. Way to get your mind into the race.
no sign of the pace bunny, probably a good thing, after my experiences with last years.
- First 10k
Not a lot of chatty people this year. Tried to strike up a few conversations, but nothing coming back. Shut up and run.
Saw a homeless guy with a bag of bottles try to cross the race route in front of me. He actually did quite a good job of dodging runners, and altering his path to keep out of their way, until he found the guy who was running and looking at his feet. Heard a single swearword behind me, so I pretty much knew what happened.
Had my water bottle with e-load. That stuff does not actually taste good, I decided during this race. I did not finish it all by the 10K mark, and actually was still drinking it up to the Shaganappi hill, finally pitched it at the last aid station before the hill. The nice thing was that it let me skip the water stations for the first almost 15k of the run. They are always chaotic and crowded, and once you get rid of the rabble of the halfers, they become much more civilized.
- Shaganappi Hill
I think I managed the hill very well again this year, slowed down so that my heart rate did not climb more than 10 BPM, and I think I saw a peak of 156 BPM, well below threshold of 165.
- Fun in Varsity
The up and down of the little hills did not seem to bother me much this year. I will say that by this time, I was not paying so much attention to the Garmin, and I distinctly remember one steeply banked curve in the residential area, thinking that any velodrome worth visiting would be proud to have banked turns that steep. Luckily, there was only one that silly, and it was not that long, so didn't cause too much bother.
There is one part where the road goes through a golf course, and we ran past several golfers coming across the road. I yelled "thats what I should have done this morning, gone golfing instead of running." They laughed, and asked our pace, which was now headed for a 3:30. They seemed impressed.
I chatted with a fellow runner after this, as he confirmed that we were about on pace for a 3:30. My real concern at this point was whether I had to pick up the pace at all in order to get that 3:30, as I was starting to get more pains than I should have in this area. This was leading back to the 31K mark and the Shaganappi hill.
- Down the hill, and the last 10K
No bonkage!!!! I was wondering if I would feel any bonking, or symptoms during this race, and none were to be seen. Of course, this is when my weird knee pain started, and I think it was starting before the downhill, so I can't really blame it on that. My pace down the hill really didn't get better than 4:50, which surprised me, being downhill and all.
- Happy to be finished
Seriously thought about picking up the pace to a tempo run at the bottom of the hill. Really. The engine was fine. but the various pains would not let me go any faster. Kept saying to re-evaluate at 7k and 5k, and got the same answers from my body. Not Today.
Yikes, that last 3k was hard. I had lots of pains showing up everywhere, the knee was feeling weak rather than painful, as if it would give out if I landed wrong. Pushing the pace was difficult, and I did the best I felt that everything would put up with, which was luckily about my 5 minute pace to get me in for the 3:30.
I managed to get my water and keep running through the last aid station. surprised me, but then only a little went in my mouth, and the rest on my head.
Got my medal from Shawn DeFo :-) gave him a big hug for the honor. Geoff and Helen were at the finish line screaming for me. But first, I had to stand in the mist for more than a little while.
Quote of the day, courtesy of Rob Mott: "You can't fake a marathon. You can fake a 10k, and perhaps even a half marathon, but not the marathon."
Oh yeah, and his other quote. Response to 'How was the race'?
"Ouchy"
- Final thoughts
Eh, it was good and bad. Ran only 2 minutes slower than my PR, so thats good. But the whole race felt like work, as I never found that easy stride that I usually have.
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