Having met my ‘A’ goal for this race back in February at the First Half, I really had no goal to consider. My main goal was to meet my PB time and try to better it. Just a month prior, I got the flu and it knocked some wind out of my sails so to speak. So, just three weeks prior to the race (coming into taper) and my final LSD felt cr@ppy, it left me wondering where I was mentally for this race. I re-grouped and had a do-over the following Saturday and had a much better run and felt more confident heading into Sunday’s race. Even my final LSD of 12K a week before the race felt great.
Now fast forward to last weekend. I had TnT related activities to attend to on Saturday afternoon, team meeting and TnT inspiration dinner. I was home relatively early, say 8pm on Saturday, some of the team stayed at the hotel while I decided to stay home and sleep in my own bed. I ended up talking to my MIL for a little, so I was a little late getting to bed (11pm). My alarm went off at 4am and I was out of the house at 4:30. Originally I was intending to take a taxi to the hotel and meet the team since public transit was a PITA for race day. My DW did not need the car, so I decided to drive and park at the hotel as it was cheaper than paying for a taxi. Sorry Marymac, it was a last minute decision. I would have texted or called, but it was too late I thought.
So I meet with the team, ate my oatmeal I picked up on the way (a pre-race ritual). We walked as a group to the Skytrain line and rode the Canada Line to the start. We spent the hour mingling in the runner’s compound. All this time I felt loose & ready, joking with the others. We said our good lucks & good-bye’s and we went to our assigned corrals. Now this is only my personal opinion but I felt the corrals were not really marked very well. I seeded myself where I thought I was near the front, but I was actually near the middle/back. I met with Jwolf and tried to move shortly after that, but I was locked in. We had the lame fitness workout like they do for the Sun Run. My thought, get the freak’n run going….
I setup my Garmin and my phone app (so I could do live updates to my FB account, which did not work.) just before the crowds started to move. Up to this point I was feeling confident and loose. As we got closer to the start, I started my phone app and when I crossed the start line I started my Garmin. The first 5k was uneventful. The crowds were a bit of a problem and my improper placing kind of hindered me a little as I had to do a lot of weaving. Keeping that in mind, I reviewed splits and I was well with in pace. At 5k I was at 25:56 (5:11/K pace) per my Garmin and shortly after I starting to feel my stomach issues. Ironically my phone app had me at 25:32 (5:06/K pace) for 5K. My phone app had me slightly faster for more distance in total and I shut that off a good min after I crossed the finish line, I’m taking my Garmin as accurate from this point.
At about 6K I saw my TnT coach from last year, exchanged high fives and I was off again. It was shortly after the 6K mark that my stomach issues began to come to light. I thought I might have to do to the washroom. I even utilized the port-a-potties at the start a few times (learning from the Scotiahalf last year), so this surprised me. I opted to push on and try to ignore it. At about the 9K mark I meet with G, one of our participants and we began to run together. He commented to me that he needed to go to the washroom, but the line-ups at each station were crowded. We picked up our coach Angela at the 10K mark and she ran with us to about 11K. Shortly after that we hit the 7mile water station and no line-up for the toilet. Unfortunately that was a short lived relief, the discomfort continued to linger.
I pushed on into Stanley Park and the water station at mile 8 which was sponsored by TnT. I saw some familiar faces and that gave me an added boost. A Tnt Coach from the Seattle chapter picked me up just after that station and ran with me to Pipeline Road. The hill on Pipeline is not that technical or hard, but Sunday it was just a nuisance! I’ve run that part many times and have never had a problem; the heat must have been a factor. On to the Aid station at mile 9, there were limited cups and unfortunately the volunteers could not keep up with the volume of runners. This is where I started to feel my foot problems. I was suspecting it to be a blister on my toe since it felt inflamed. After the race I realized it was the nail had cracked and caused inflammation, it was like it was in-grown but that was not the case. I trudged on with the notion that it was just a blister and I’ll deal with it at the end.
The final stretch, I hit the aid station at mile 10 and there were a few runners receiving medical attention and volunteers strongly encouraging the runners to hydrate at this stop due to the heat. Mile 11 was by far the most annoying station for me. Another runner was screaming to be showered with water as he was approached the station, which is fine in itself, except I got the brunt of the water in my face. FFS! I will admit that was a relief, but it came at a cost. That cleared the sweat & salts from my forehead and straight to my eyes. Now I wear contact when running and that just caused stinging for about 2-3min and that is the reason I don’t pour water on my head when running. At this point you can hear the finish line and see the area to need to go to.
The home stretch, I hit the 20K point and I knew it was only 1.1K left. I came up on Denman as I came out of Stanley Park and worked my way to Georgia. I turned on to Georgia and I saw my TnT coach from last year again. Albert encouraged me and I dug deep and pushed on the end. I came into the chute and I was focused on the finish line not 500m away. So focus that I total missed another TnT’r as she was cheering us in. I only caught her at the last minute. I came into the end and I could hear Marymac being called in. The race was over. Certainly not my best race by far, but I persevered and got it done. I know I left it all out on the course and I’m ok with the result, though it did take some time. Would I do anything differently? That is hard to say. Training for a spring race results in much of my training in the winter and that makes it hard to prepare for the hot weather we experienced. The positives far out way the negatives in this race and I’ll take what learned here and apply it to my next race.
I also have to give a big shout out to the volunteers out on course, they were awesome! They took a lot of grief and they continued doing what they did best. The crowds all thru the course were encouraging and vocal. Would I do this race again, hell yes! I have some unfinished business to attend to!
ETA
I saw these guys at the finish as I was watching and cheering the full marathoner’s coming in. Too funny!
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I'm still impressed with your result, esp'ly considering the heat, tummy troubles &toenail. Your next race this year better watch out, 'cause you might have a few things to prove in that one. 
