Quebec in 2017
Back to the index
Quebec City Marathon
Pre-Race
We drove to Quebec City on Friday night. Getting out of Montreal was a nightmare, for some twenty minutes we were going at 15 kph on the highway. Fortunately it cleared up and we could move at a more reasonable pace for the rest of the trip. We ended up arriving at Quebec around 9 pm.
After some uncertainty getting into the city we got right into the harbour area, where our hotel was located. We quickly found it, an employee of the hotel was kind enough to come to our car to get it to the parking lot and brought our luggage to us.
The room we got was more than we expected, it was a kitchenette, we had booked a regular room, so this was already a nice upgrade, the room was bigger than what we are used to. We went to bed soon after we got to the room, we would have a full day on Saturday.
___________________________________
The breakfast (included in the hotel price) was simple, but quite nice. After the breakfast we walked to the Congress Centre, where the Expo was happening.
The Expo for the Quebec City Marathon is a smallish affair, we didn't spend too much time there. But my wife managed to buy a pair of running shoes for her.
We went back to the hotel by way of the old fortified town, getting in many little shops, enjoying the nice weather that we got for the entire weekend. When we got to the hotel we left our stuff there to go unencumbered to the museum.
Our hotel has a very good location, it is near everything that we care about, including the museum of civilization. We spent the day there, we visited the expositions on Hergé, the brain, cats and dogs, nanotechnology; we had guided tours in two of them, quite nice.
We got back to the hotel at the end of the afternoon and then we headed to the Café du Monde, a nice restaurant nearby. We had dinner there by the river. We love this place, we go there every time we visit Quebec City.
We went to bed early because the next day was race day.
We drove to Quebec City on Friday night. Getting out of Montreal was a nightmare, for some twenty minutes we were going at 15 kph on the highway. Fortunately it cleared up and we could move at a more reasonable pace for the rest of the trip. We ended up arriving at Quebec around 9 pm.
After some uncertainty getting into the city we got right into the harbour area, where our hotel was located. We quickly found it, an employee of the hotel was kind enough to come to our car to get it to the parking lot and brought our luggage to us.
The room we got was more than we expected, it was a kitchenette, we had booked a regular room, so this was already a nice upgrade, the room was bigger than what we are used to. We went to bed soon after we got to the room, we would have a full day on Saturday.
___________________________________
The breakfast (included in the hotel price) was simple, but quite nice. After the breakfast we walked to the Congress Centre, where the Expo was happening.
The Expo for the Quebec City Marathon is a smallish affair, we didn't spend too much time there. But my wife managed to buy a pair of running shoes for her.
We went back to the hotel by way of the old fortified town, getting in many little shops, enjoying the nice weather that we got for the entire weekend. When we got to the hotel we left our stuff there to go unencumbered to the museum.
Our hotel has a very good location, it is near everything that we care about, including the museum of civilization. We spent the day there, we visited the expositions on Hergé, the brain, cats and dogs, nanotechnology; we had guided tours in two of them, quite nice.
We got back to the hotel at the end of the afternoon and then we headed to the Café du Monde, a nice restaurant nearby. We had dinner there by the river. We love this place, we go there every time we visit Quebec City.
We went to bed early because the next day was race day.
Race Day
I woke up at 3 am but got back to sleep. My wife woke me up shortly after 4h30 am. The wake-up call that I had asked for did not come. Fortunately I didn't need it.
I got ready and at 5h20 am I left the hotel. My wife stayed in bed, she would not be accompanying me this time to the start line. The pick-up area for marathoners was nearby (we really got a hotel with great location this time).
The ride to Levis was quite uneventful. When we got there I went to the concentration area. I didn't get into the hotel because I remember that two years ago we had been angrily expelled from there by a hotel employee. However, this time, I soon realize that there were way too few people in the concentration area, I headed back to the hotel to investigate. Everybody was there! This year they allowed us to stay in the warmth of the hotel.
I found a place, sat down and rested for a while. Some twenty minutes later came one of the organizers plus a hotel employee to inform us that we could not remain there, so we all got out in the cold.
This year the organizers divided the runners into two groups: those who said they would take longer than 5h30 to finish and those who would take less than that. The first group had an earlier start, at 7am. This was a small group, not more than a hundred runners. A little before seven o'clock they were ready to go and the other runners, including myself, were there to cheer them up.
After the slow group had gone out, we still had another half hour until the main start. The temperature had started rising; it was still cold, but the sun was out and I could already see that the second half of the marathon would be under heat.
I did some stretching and some warming up starting at 7h15 am and two minutes before 7h30 I was at the back of the pack of a thousand people who would participate in the marathon.
We started at exactly 7h30. It was cold, great to run. I started slowly passing people and soon I was with the 4h30 bunny crowd. I spent some time with them and then decided they were a bit slow for me, so I went up to the 4h15 people. But I was feeling great, so I pushed a bit more and left those guys behind as well.
I was wearing an armband on my left arm that indicated to me the time I should be making at every two kilometers. The goal was to finish in 4h45. On my first check I was already a minute ahead of the time, which meant that I was doing each kilometer half a minute faster than expected. And I was feeling great, I was not over-exerting myself.
I kept at this pace for most of first half of the race and a little bit after, too. My official time at the halfway point was 02h05m45s, my second fastest time ever for a half marathon. By km 24 I had a fifteen minute lead on my time for the 4h45m mark.
But then the temperature crossed the comfort threshold for me and I started suffering. I had to start walking a bit more and the 4h15 people passed me. A few kilometers later it was the time of the 4h30 to pass me and leave me behind.
I struggled more and more as the temperature rose and the sun continued to shine bright. The organizers had some "showers" at a few places, I took advantage of all of those points, but the heat really started bothering and seriously affecting my performance.
The last kilometers of this marathon are on the road from the Quebec bridge to Quebec City, not a nice view. It's ugly, it was hot, not a lot of fun to run those last few kilometers.
By km 40 my Garmin gave up the ghost, so I had to fly blind. But I knew that my time would be good, I had accumulated enough lead time to beat the 4h45m mark.
The last kilometer is inside the city and there are indications at every 250m of how far the finish line is, a nice touch that I would like to see in more marathons.
My official time at the crossing of the line was 4h40m30s, a new personal best. I was very happy with my overall performance, even though my second half had not been so great.
I met my wife soon after crossing the line, we stayed a few minutes in the finish area and then we headed back to the hotel, where I took a shower for the trip back to Montreal.
This year the organizers divided the runners into two groups: those who said they would take longer than 5h30 to finish and those who would take less than that. The first group had an earlier start, at 7am. This was a small group, not more than a hundred runners. A little before seven o'clock they were ready to go and the other runners, including myself, were there to cheer them up.
After the slow group had gone out, we still had another half hour until the main start. The temperature had started rising; it was still cold, but the sun was out and I could already see that the second half of the marathon would be under heat.
I did some stretching and some warming up starting at 7h15 am and two minutes before 7h30 I was at the back of the pack of a thousand people who would participate in the marathon.
We started at exactly 7h30. It was cold, great to run. I started slowly passing people and soon I was with the 4h30 bunny crowd. I spent some time with them and then decided they were a bit slow for me, so I went up to the 4h15 people. But I was feeling great, so I pushed a bit more and left those guys behind as well.
I was wearing an armband on my left arm that indicated to me the time I should be making at every two kilometers. The goal was to finish in 4h45. On my first check I was already a minute ahead of the time, which meant that I was doing each kilometer half a minute faster than expected. And I was feeling great, I was not over-exerting myself.
I kept at this pace for most of first half of the race and a little bit after, too. My official time at the halfway point was 02h05m45s, my second fastest time ever for a half marathon. By km 24 I had a fifteen minute lead on my time for the 4h45m mark.
But then the temperature crossed the comfort threshold for me and I started suffering. I had to start walking a bit more and the 4h15 people passed me. A few kilometers later it was the time of the 4h30 to pass me and leave me behind.
I struggled more and more as the temperature rose and the sun continued to shine bright. The organizers had some "showers" at a few places, I took advantage of all of those points, but the heat really started bothering and seriously affecting my performance.
The last kilometers of this marathon are on the road from the Quebec bridge to Quebec City, not a nice view. It's ugly, it was hot, not a lot of fun to run those last few kilometers.
By km 40 my Garmin gave up the ghost, so I had to fly blind. But I knew that my time would be good, I had accumulated enough lead time to beat the 4h45m mark.
The last kilometer is inside the city and there are indications at every 250m of how far the finish line is, a nice touch that I would like to see in more marathons.
My official time at the crossing of the line was 4h40m30s, a new personal best. I was very happy with my overall performance, even though my second half had not been so great.
I met my wife soon after crossing the line, we stayed a few minutes in the finish area and then we headed back to the hotel, where I took a shower for the trip back to Montreal.
Comments
Post a Comment