Oakville 1/2 Marathon 2011 - Race Report

It's done! 1 hour, 40 minutes and 28 seconds. It could have been worse since I was really pushing to finish around 1 hour 35 minutes. Loosing five minutes is like losing an entire kilometre. That's a long way. It's a huge loss.

So what happened?

Got up at 4:00 AM, couldn't sleep. So I went into the kitchen and got something to eat. Some left over sweet potato. The race wasn't for another 3 hours and 40 minutes, everything would be digested by then, so no worries. After eating, I lay down and actually slept. The alarm went off at 5:00 AM, but I was now groggy and sleepy and didn't want to wake up so I switched it off and went back to bed. Not a good idea, but still I had prepared everything the evening before so I didn't really need to get up. My bib was already attached to my running shirt. My shorts were ready. Gels and electrolyte drink ready. Timing chip already attached to shoe lace. I could be out of bed and out of the house in five minutes if I wanted to.

So I slept till about 5:30. I wanted to get to the race for 7:00 AM. didn't know what parking would be like since the warning on the event website said that we'd have to park in the side streets, which meant that I'd have to leave by 6:30 at the very latest. But if there was any trouble at all on the way, I should plan to leave earlier. What if I got a flat, god forbid!

I was a little nervous, training had gone very well but I think I may have pushed too much mileage the last week and not rested enough. I ran 56 K from Tuesday to Friday and only rested on Saturday. I was a bit tired, but the Saturday rest should be enough for a 1/2 marathon.

I got to the park before 7:00 AM and managed to meet Rob who was running the 10K. We chatted for a bit and then he went off to the start of the 10K. The 10K event was starting at 7:30 AM with the 1/2 marathon 10 minutes later.

I've never paced myself, don't even know what a 1:35 pace feels like, but fortunately, I caught sight of the 1:30 pace bunny. So, I decided that I'd stick to them for as long as I could, and if they pulled away, so be it. I was really close to the starting line. When the final whistle blew, it probably only took a few seconds to cross the mats and the race had begun. The 1:30 pace bunny took off and I followed obediently. The pace was fast, too fast for my style. I'm used to taking a long time to warm up to a race. In fact, in the 2004 Mississauga marathon, it took me 1:46 to get to the 21.1 K mark and 1:41 to run the second 21.1. This negative split is my M.O. And in this case, the first 5K were brutal and I was pushing hard. When we turned onto Morrison Street at about 7K, I'd lost sight of the bunny and decided to let it be. I was sure that 1:30 wasn't my target but quite pleased that the 1:40 pace bunny was still behind me. I was somewhere in between. Morrison Street is an uphill grind and my training helped tremendously. Some of the runners that had passed me in the last kilometre were slowly making their way up the hill and I was able to run past them comfortably. I could actually feel myself getting stronger as we went up. The sharp incline is about 1.25 K in length and you feel every step. But I knew that once we got to the top, the rest of the race was flat and downhill. I kept glancing back and could see some space opening up. Great, I thought. Not too shabby. Feeling strong, and we're almost half way. Near the top, we turned left, as though we were heading back and the road flattened out. I saw the 8K marker come up but I was fatigued and was now at cruising speed. I thought that my training could take me all the way, as long as we didn't have too many stressful climbs. From what I remember of the maps, it was all downhill from here. A smile started somewhere inside me and slowly found its way to my lips. Not too shabby, I thought again.

But I slowed down significantly. I'd left the 1:40 pace bunny before we got to the hill, but surprisingly at close to 10K, he caught up with me. This was bad, I thought. Only half way, and now looking like I'm going to slip way behind my time. The 1:40 bunny also looked like they were cruising at a fairly fast clip. I fell in behind the group, a couple of girls, and one guy, and decided to stay with them. 11K came and went and so did 12K. By this time I was alternating between fatigue and feeling fit. I'd carried three energy gels with me, one I'd consumed at about 5K and another past the 10K mark. The plan was to consume them every 5K; 5, 10 and 15. This is probably what was now working its way into my system. The nourishment. At each water stop, every 3K, I made sure I took a few sips of water. There wasn't a lot of water in the small cups and I managed a couple of mouthfuls, sometimes only one, at each stop. But I didn't need that much anyway.

One of the water stops, probably at 15K was absolutely disaster. The girls giving out water ran out of cups and were just giggling as runners came by. I stopped, so did one of the girls in our pace group. She went up to the table to get herself some water, I waited and asked for a cup. I finally got one and by the time we took off again, the pace bunny was about twenty metres out ahead. Not to worry, I thought, plenty of time to catch them, but it was a bit concerting since the pace bunny was moving fairly quickly. I'd totally underestimated what a 1:35 pace felt like, and was now having problems keeping up with 1:40. Metre by metre I fought my way up to the pace bunny. The girl who'd lagged behind at the water stop was also scrambling to catch up and she was also having problems. I caught up with her and passed her slowly, making my way up to the pace bunny who by now only had one guy running next to him, and a girl who looked like she was falling back. Indeed when I finally caught up with them, it felt like a relief. Moving up to get to them was some work indeed. In hindsight, I could have kept going, past them and perhaps broken that 1:40 mark, but I was content to stay where I was. Tucked in between the pace bunny and the guy next to him. Beside me, the only girl left was starting to fall back. She'd catch up with us and then fall back again. The water stop girl had since dropped back.

As we came up to 19K, I felt relaxed enough to join in on the conversation between the pace bunny, whose name is Neil, and the guy next to him. Managed to wriggle myself in between them and while we were chatting, the guy who was with us started to pull up ahead. Neil, the pace bunny, I found out was running a short distance due to injury. I believe he mentioned that he's done a few marathons before, but concentrates mostly on 5K's, 10K's and half marathons. He was planning on doing the Toronto waterfront marathon in October, but due to injury, might wait till November and run in the Hamilton marathon. I didn't even know that Hamilton had a marathon. Looks like a good one for me since it gives me over a month to get ready for it. Should be more than enough time to build up the mileage and strength. So I'll probably register in a couple of weeks for that one. Should be fun to drive out to Hamilton and run in unfamiliar territory. Neil's stride was absolutely comfortable. Looked very easy and relaxed. The kind of gait that I would like to have. Didn't look like he was running hard at all. In fact, looked like he wasn't going too fast, but being beside him, I know that he was pushing it fairly consistently. Helps to have a watch so that you know exactly where you are. I plan on getting one soon. I've never trained or run with a watch. Too much pressure, but I guess, knowing how fast or slow you're going helps you pace yourself and gives you that mental edge.

At this point in the race, approaching 20K I had tons of energy, but I'd learned all the lessons I needed to learn for today. Wouldn't make much sense in sprinting and gaining an extra minute, if at all. Finishing comfortably was the goal at this point and we even started encouraging runners to keep going. Some people were really tired, and even though the finish line was so close, couldn't manage to overtake and sprint to the finish. Miraculously, one of the girls we'd dropped appeared about 100 metres from the finish and caught up to us. Neil turned around, encouraging her to push on and run past, but in the end, she managed to finish just behind us. We actually all stepped on the mats simultaneously. Neil reach over to shake my hand, and I said "thanks!" The girl, who I later found out is called Teresa, also came over, she seemed really pleased with the run, shook my hand and said "congratulations." I congratulated her as well.

Lessons learned.

Keep to my game plan. I'm not an early sprinter, and my body needs to get acclimatised to the road. That takes a while for me and I shouldn't panic as I see people dash past. I should aim at starting the race at about halfway.

Pacing's important. It's absolutely important to know where you are in the race, if you're ahead, it gives you a boost, confidence that you'll make your goal. If you're behind, then you can calculate how to get back into the game slowly, given the distance you still have to go. It was comforting knowing at 15K that we were on track, especially since I felt good and strong. I knew that I could sustain the pace. Not knowing where you are you might tend to overrun, or under-run. But a targeted pace will keep you sane. I should buy a watch.

Slow and steady and relaxed wins the race. I remember watching some people as they passed me and thought, my gosh, that looks very uncomfortable. Shoulders pulled back, arms dangling oddly in front, like a t-Rex. Legs kinda shuffling along, not striding. But they were moving better than I was. Even though they didn't look fast, they were passing me and moving ahead. I should work on my stride since I found out that increasing my stride length worked for me. I could relax more than with shorter strides. This means that I will have to spend more time stretching so that I can get better range of motion.