Ottawa Marathon, 2011

Background: I ruptured my left Achilles in 2002. I tried running again, but developed tendinitis in my right Achilles, and was advised by my doctor in 2004not to run anymore. When my daughter wanted to run a 5k in 2007, I went to a sports doctor, who cleared me to run, as long as I took it slowly. I had a great time with my daughter, and continued running. After my 1st half marathon in 2008, I decided to try to run a marathon - a goal that I assumed was dead after my Achilles rupture. I did my 1st marathon in May 2009 with a goal of hitting 4:10-4:15. I finished in 3:56, enjoyed the whole thing, and the last 2 km were the fastest I ran. Right after the race I started thinking about trying to qualify for Boston, needing to hit 3:30:59. My thought was that this was at the outside boundary of possible.

I trained using my own plan, hitting four 50 mile weeks at the peak of training compared to one 40 mile week in 2009. The right Achilles has been a problem all the way through training though, and was bugging me the days before the race.

We were in a panic here all week about the forecast : Mid to high 80's F, unbroken sun. Then there was a last minute improvement in the forecast, but nothing like what we got. We wound up with a completely cloudy day, starting temp around 60 at 7AM, rising to 65 at 11 - perfect.

I wound up doing the same thing as last year before the start: Having to hurry to bag check, then into the corral as the national anthem was playing. I found the 3:30 pacer, and went up to chat with him. I explained I hoped to qualify for Boston with 3:30, and would try to follow him for as long as possible. He told me that he's in about 3:10 shape, so this was a pace that he uses for a lot of his workouts. He told me that he's run Boston 13 straight years, and absolutely loves it. Then the gun went, and it took us about a minute to get to the starting line. My plan was to break the race into 10 km sections, aiming for around 49:40 for each. I assumed that at that point I could hold my pace to the finish, which would get just under 3:30. The goal was BQ, and even though 3:30:59 would do it, I didn't want to mess with that, and hoped to come in under 3:30.

The first 10km is a loop through Gatineau Quebec, and has a few rolling hills - not enough to cause problems, but people always comment that it is hillier there than they expect the 1st time they run the full or half here. It didn't take long to be cruising along at pace, but the 1st 3 kms were very crowded. I eased back a touch and found that about 30 meters behind the pacer was much more spread out. So I just kept following him from that distance. One thing that was clear early though was that the pacer was fast. I hear so many people say their goal pace feels easy in the 1st 10 km, and it occurred to me about 5km in that this was not happening. Now a lot of the people around me sounded & looked like they were working harder than I was, but the pace still wasn't easy. I could feel my right Achilles, but it was clear to me that it wasn't an issue. Also it was fast, not hugely so, but enough to notice. But, I stayed in my position a ways behind the pacer. First 10 km split, 48:50 - Too fast.

At the 11 km mark, I decided I needed to run my own race and let the pace group go. I never saw the pacer again. So, I eased up to my target pace, and enjoyed this stretch. Around 13 km I passed a flower shop, where I resolved to buy flowers for my wife next week if I BQ'd. The route this year added a fairly sustained hill at the 18 km mark, I was ready for this, and slowed to around a 5 m/km pace (8/mile). Split for the 2nd 10 km section was 49:33 - perfect. I hit the halfway point in 1:43:47. Feeling good, with a bit of margin.

The third 10 km started fine, and I was holding a steady pace. I saw the wife & kids at the 24 km mark, high fived the kids then stopped to give my wife a quick kiss. Wife was floored that I stopped (I figured it would be good luck). At 26 km I realized the party was over. My left quad started to hurt, and I got a minor side stitch. Focusing on breathing dealt with the stitch fairly well, but the quad was more of a worry. I ruptured this quad 20 years ago, and it does hurt during longer races, but this was early to be feeling it. I was still right on pace, but started to slow a bit. I told myself I just needed to push through, I've done plenty of runs longer than 26k, and hopefully this would pass. So, I set a goal of getting to 30 km to re-evaluate. I finished the 3rd 10km section in 50:15 - too slow, and I realized I was using my margin.

30-40km sucked. No way to sugarcoat it. I knew if I could just hold that 5 m/k pace till the finish I'd make it, but if felt like I was working WAY harder than 5 min pace. At 30km I told myself only 1 hour if I hold that pace, and I pretty much counted down ever km marker like that. At 32 km I resolved never never never to do this to myself again. I also decided that I was probably finishing this race on the ground, the only question was which side of the finish line I'd be on. During this stretch my other quad started to hurt, and one foot felt like it wanted to cramp (or something, really weird feeling in the foot). Right Achilles hurt. Left (repaired) Achilles however felt great! With 5km left to go in the race I was getting dizzy, and my arms were tingly. It was all I could do to hold something resembling a reasonable pace, but coming out of each water station I was having a hard time getting my pace back up. I finished the 4th 10 km section in 50:33.

At this point I realized I was in trouble. 2.2 km to go, under 1.5 miles. I was very lightheaded. My quads & achilles were in a lot of pain. The crowd was huge but I couldn't even turn to look at them for fear of falling if I turned my head. The last 20 km had chewed up my margin. And if I missed a BQ by 2 seconds after stopping to kiss my wife she was going to feel hugely guilty (no matter how many times I explained that it was 100% ok, and totally my fault). But I couldn't get my pace up, or do the math to figure out if I even had a shot. There's a sign at 750m to go, and when I checked my watch I was convinced I couldn't get there. The next sign at 500m took forever to arrive, and it still seemed too far. I couldn't even look to try to find my family. At 200 m to go I heard my daughter screaming, I was breathing as fast as I could, pumping my arms, and I STILL couldn't get my pace under 5 min/km. With 200m to go my watch said 3:29:30, and I botched the math and convinced myself that it would take me 2 minutes. I was gutted, but made myself push as hard as I could As I approached the line, I looked at my watch, and realized I'd made it. Final time: 3:30:36 (I had 3:30:42 on my garmin). Several people that I know saw me in the home stretch, and say my form was still good, but that I was breathing really hard, and clearly incredibly focused.

I wobbled as soon I got over the line, two medical people got my arms and helped me into a wheelchair. I stayed there for about 5 min, then with some help got up, and started towards the recovery area. I definitely was in pretty much the worst shape of anyone in the recovery area, but what this said to me was that I'd left it all on the roads.

So, I'm putting Boston 2011 on my calendar, but planning to set a goal of somewhere between 3:50 & 4 hours and enjoy the experience. My guess is that will be my last marathon, and I'm good with that.


Update: The 3:30 pacer finished in 4:09. Apparently his calf cramped at the 25 km mark, and he took some ibuprofen, iced it, and limped to the finish. I actually passed someone at around that point hollering to a medical station to ask if they had ibuprofen, but didn't realize it was the pacer.