Ottawa 2016

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The day before

This year was my third Ottawa marathon and ninth overall. Due to the heat in the preceding days, there were even talks of cancelling the event. Fortunately, that did not happen.

On the day before the race we left Montreal early, right after 8h. We were five in the car: my wife and myself in front and our daughter in the back seat with two friends visiting from Brazil.

We parked our car near the Shaw Centre and went to visit the expo and get our bibs. "Our" because my daughter was also going to run. In the 10K. She wanted to do the half marathon, but she decided too late and the event had sold out, so she had to settle for the 10K, which happens the day before the marathon.

We spent the Saturday walking around downtown Ottawa, we visited the Parliament Hill, Byward Market, the Rideau Canal. We even visited the museum of fine arts in the afternoon.

At the beginning of the evening we all went to the starting line of the 10K. It is quite a different experience to be in a race as an spectator. I so wanted to be there with my daughter to run those 10K...

It started raining right around 7 pm, the start of the race. Considering the heat of the afternoon, that rain was quite welcome.

We sheltered in our hotel for a bit, the rain quickly stopped and we went to the finish line to see our daughter arrive. It was fantastic to be there and see the runners finishing their race. Our daughter finished with a very respectable 52m35s, in the top 10% of her age group.

She went back to Montreal and we stayed behind for the big event the next day.

The big day

I woke up early, got ready and by 6h30 we were going downstairs to meet our friends who had stayed in a motel in Gatineau. They were not there. We had agreed that we would wait until 6h35 for them and then we would have to go to the starting line. Well, we waited until 6h40 and they were not there...

Just as we started making our way to the starting line, a taxi stopped in front of our hotel. It was them. There had been a snafu with the taxi and they had been delayed.

Anyway, I went to the end of the starting line, they went to the beginning to see the elite start the race. I passed by five minutes later and they took pictures of me as I started my race.

As the day would get very hot later on, I decided on a different strategy today: instead of a regular pace throughout, I would go out stronger than usual, in order to get the most of the cooler temperatures in the beginning of the day.

So, with this strategy, I started passing everybody that I could. I started my race behind all the pace bunnies. First I passed the 5h30 group, then the 5h, 4h45, 4h30, 4h20 and reached the 4h10 group still in the first five kilometers.

I stayed with that group for half an hour or so. It was easy in the beginning. But then, I had to let them go. and this would repeat itself for the next hour: every half hour another group would pass me and I wouldn't be able to keep up with them. So it was with the 4h20 people, then the 4h30 and 4h45.

By km 30 I walked (not the first time of the day...) in order to eat some olives that I had brought with me. After I finished them, I just didn't have the resolve to resume running, I kept walking all the way to km 32.

Right after that the 5h people caught up with me and I made a mighty effort to stay with them, but that lasted only up to km 36. I knew then that a sub-5 was out of my reach, once more... :-)

The last four kilometers were just a mix of light jogging and walking. After the km 41 marker I "ran" all the way, because I knew that my wife and our friends would be waiting for me close to the end of the line.

They were there, 100m before the finish line, to take pictures of me. I crossed the line with a time of 5h13m53s, not exactly one of my best...

I met my wife and friends, went to the hotel to take a shower and started on the way back to Montrel. What an adventure this weekend was!