A whole lot of soles...: ottawa marathon race photos

Monday, May 27, 2013

Race report: Ottawa Marathon 2013

For multiple marathoners, there exists a silent code. Over time, we don't tell others our goal times. Oh sure, we may announce a BQ attempt once in awhile but humbled enough, we start to announce broader goals. "Oh, I want to finish" or "I want to run it strong." PBs and race times are announced after races -- they're earned, just like shirts we refuse to wear until after race day.

Whisper goals, as some may call them, can make the failures a little more easy to bear. Fine enough to say "I want to run a 21 minute 5K race" but I guarantee you're not feeling the anguish in the final 400 metres in the same way you feel slip of a time goal during a three to four hour race. Seconds missed feels like minutes, minutes feels like kilometres. This is the other part of of being a lonely long distance runner.

(Ottawa Marathon 2013 race results / Ottawa Marathon 2013 race photos)

I've watched the Garmin signify lost goals. Damned hell to look your watch at kilometre 39 of an otherwise perfect race as your goals go down the drain with a cramp or as you bonk. Of all my now two dozen marathons run, I can list only a few that went flawlessly in that I didn't hit a wall, ran strong, smart and had a finish to be proud of. The Ottawa Marathon wasn't all of that, but it came damn close.

Ottawa was the second marathon of the spring, but from the moment I joined Sam in pacing the 3:50s at the Goodlife Marathon, I knew that I'd leave a hell of a lot on the table for a strong second race. The winter of respectable mileage, the strongest months I've had in more than a year, left my endurance at a good level -- without any of the quality work. My Around the Bay time of 2:24ish in theory gave me a 3:30, but I knew I wanted to add some buffer. I had not raced a sub-3:30 since Boston, 2011, so I'd rather get a low one than bonk and end up with another marathon around 3:40. (In retrospect, doing two to three marathons in a single season, often in one month, isn't advisable for fast racing. More in another post.)

Race expo

When asked about Ottawa goals, I kind of broke the rule. I confided with my friend Lee I'd go for 3:35 -- then I revised that. "Somewhere between 3:30 and 3:35, we'll see."

Arrived in Ottawa Friday and settled in. Took some sightseeing in but mostly set camp in my suite hotel (with a kitchen), foraging for all the groceries I'd need for my Friday and Saturday meals. Much cheaper and I'd rather cook my own pre-marathon carbs anyways.

Did a little gallery hanging out on Saturday and did a bus tour offered by the marathon which is great because although I ran Ottawa last year, most of it was a blur. It was nice to get a gauge for the course and make mental notes about the elevation, turns, sights. Immensely helpful -- and I took pictures on the way. I met Shazia and her husband on the bus tour she was taking before her first marathon!

Before the race, I was thinking about what would be my mantra. I remembered this one I spotted once. It may very well be my new one. Here's the last tweet I put out before race.