Ottawa Marathon 2018
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Ottawa Marathon
First the 10K
This year the Ottawa Race Weekend was a family affair for us, as we had three members competing in two events.
My daughter was scheduled to run the half marathon, but she got injured two months before the event, so she decided to scale down to the 10K. And she said she would walk it, instead of run it, again because of her injury.
My wife, upon hearing that, decided to join her for the 10K walk.
So, on Saturday evening, my wife and my daughter were at the start line (together with other seven thousand people!). They had a blast, walked most of the way, did short stretches of running and even some dancing... :-)
Then the marathon
The following day was my turn to get to the start line, this time for the full marathon.
My daughter went with me to the back of the "corrals" and even accompanied me in my warm-up exercises, we jogged together for ten minutes or so. Then she went to the start line to see the elite go and then wait for me to take a picture of me starting the race.
The first few kilometers were great, I was feeling energized and started passing people left and right. I had started behind the 5h30 bunny and soon I passed him and then the 5h, the 4h45 and even the 4h30 bunnies. I was feeling so well that I didn't even stop there, I left them as well behind and pursued the other bunnies (4h20, 4h10, 4h). I ended up reaching the 3h55 people (that is a random time to have as your goal...) and stayed with them for a while. I knew I couldn't keep up with them for long, but I wanted to try for the longest possible time.
I did the first 5K in less than 27 minutes, my best ever during a marathon. And the second 5K was even a bit faster, I was on fire!
By km 15 a sub-2 half marathon looked like a real possibility. And I only slowed down a bit in the next kilometers, I crossed the 21.1 K mark in a time of 1h56m01, so my first sub-2 half marathon was part of this marathon! Wow.
I slowed down on purpose after the first half, I knew I couldn't keep that pace, I didn't want to kill myself.
Unfortunately, by km 29 the gas ran out and I had to walk for the first time, my pace started to suffer a lot. The bunnies and their groups started passing me back.
Km 37 was the worse ever, I walked for most of it, it took me ten minutes to complete that kilometer.
But then I started jogging again and by km 38 I met my wife and my daughter; they took a picture of me and my daughter even jogged by my side for a few seconds.
My Garmin ran out of battery before reaching the 40K, so I don't know my exact timing during those last three kilometers, but the official timing says that I did the final 2.2 Km in 8m27s per kilometer. Kind of horrible, but considering how bad my legs hurt, that was expected.
My wife and my daughter were by the finish line to take another picture of me just before completing the race.
I finished the marathon in 4h33m, a new personal best (by seven minutes!). I was very tired, but very happy, too.
I met my wife and daughter by the beer garden, we got back to the hotel, I changed, we took our car and headed back to Montreal.
What a fantastic week-end we had!
This year the Ottawa Race Weekend was a family affair for us, as we had three members competing in two events.
My daughter was scheduled to run the half marathon, but she got injured two months before the event, so she decided to scale down to the 10K. And she said she would walk it, instead of run it, again because of her injury.
My wife, upon hearing that, decided to join her for the 10K walk.
So, on Saturday evening, my wife and my daughter were at the start line (together with other seven thousand people!). They had a blast, walked most of the way, did short stretches of running and even some dancing... :-)
Then the marathon
The following day was my turn to get to the start line, this time for the full marathon.
My daughter went with me to the back of the "corrals" and even accompanied me in my warm-up exercises, we jogged together for ten minutes or so. Then she went to the start line to see the elite go and then wait for me to take a picture of me starting the race.
The first few kilometers were great, I was feeling energized and started passing people left and right. I had started behind the 5h30 bunny and soon I passed him and then the 5h, the 4h45 and even the 4h30 bunnies. I was feeling so well that I didn't even stop there, I left them as well behind and pursued the other bunnies (4h20, 4h10, 4h). I ended up reaching the 3h55 people (that is a random time to have as your goal...) and stayed with them for a while. I knew I couldn't keep up with them for long, but I wanted to try for the longest possible time.
I did the first 5K in less than 27 minutes, my best ever during a marathon. And the second 5K was even a bit faster, I was on fire!
By km 15 a sub-2 half marathon looked like a real possibility. And I only slowed down a bit in the next kilometers, I crossed the 21.1 K mark in a time of 1h56m01, so my first sub-2 half marathon was part of this marathon! Wow.
I slowed down on purpose after the first half, I knew I couldn't keep that pace, I didn't want to kill myself.
Unfortunately, by km 29 the gas ran out and I had to walk for the first time, my pace started to suffer a lot. The bunnies and their groups started passing me back.
Km 37 was the worse ever, I walked for most of it, it took me ten minutes to complete that kilometer.
But then I started jogging again and by km 38 I met my wife and my daughter; they took a picture of me and my daughter even jogged by my side for a few seconds.
My Garmin ran out of battery before reaching the 40K, so I don't know my exact timing during those last three kilometers, but the official timing says that I did the final 2.2 Km in 8m27s per kilometer. Kind of horrible, but considering how bad my legs hurt, that was expected.
My wife and my daughter were by the finish line to take another picture of me just before completing the race.
I finished the marathon in 4h33m, a new personal best (by seven minutes!). I was very tired, but very happy, too.
I met my wife and daughter by the beer garden, we got back to the hotel, I changed, we took our car and headed back to Montreal.
What a fantastic week-end we had!
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