4:24:55

That's the time for my first marathon. And despite the fact that it's light years away from my 3:59 goal time, it was absolutely the best I could do today. While there were a number of external and internal factors that led to my performance - I'll dissect them here over the next few days, in a nutshell two things happened: the weather killed me (it was cold and worst of all windy) and I hit the wall around 30 km mark and never really recovered.

First the weather. The first part of the race wasn't bad and I was on pace through 21km but on the run down the Red Hill Parkway the wind picked up and battered me senseless. It was like running in a wind tunnel. I watched as my pace per km just faded away. I'm not the only person who felt the effects: the winning time was 2:15:50, a far cry from the 2:11:00 record on Canadian soil set this year at the Toronto Waterfront. And the winner was one of the supposed race rabbits for the guy going for the record.

But more telling, 81 people of the 570 that started today's marathon dropped out - a rate of almost 15 per cent. By comparison the Toronto Marathon (not to be confused with the Waterfront version) suffered an attrition rate of just 1.5 per cent. I'm not the only person who thought the conditions sucked Welland Canal water.

Though I didn't quit, the thought did occur to me around the 30km mark. My legs turned to lead, my race goal had gone poof and I was running low on energy. One of my biggest criticisms of this race - and the Road2Hope people have been great to me, linking my blog to the main page and driving traffic through the roof so it pains me to do this - is that aid stations ran out of electrolyte drink astonishingly early. I would say half the aid stations I passed were out and that includes almost all of them during the last 15km when I really needed it. If it wasn't for some Westdale students who bailed me out with a banana and a clementine from their personal stash around 37km I might have bonked. Never again will I make a joke about the dorks carrying fuel belts on a marathon course.

But the truth of the matter is I wasn't ready for how hard this really was. I've already made a mental list of what I'll do differently next time but I want to mull it over for a day or so before sharing. Plus, I'm exhausted.

But I'm pretty sure there will be next time. This was a great learning experience but I think I have a better performance in me. I'm not dissapointed but I want to do better.

Comments

[peter haentjens]

Congrats...you time beats me by a lot
In your own words A small % of people ever run a marathon...
you are in the club ! Welcome! be proud!!!!
cheers

[Mark Collis]

Congratulations Drew.

You've completed probably the third toughest thing you'll ever do in your entire life (getting married and raising kids are the top two). I'm impressed. Usually, the first thing a newly minted marathoner says is, "NEVER AGAIN!"

That usually lasts about three to five days and they are lining up their training for their next race. I've seen it so many times we have side beds on the first timers.

As for the 30 k wall... Yup. The wheels fell off for me (well, not literally, Amanda finished the distance safely and warm) about the same place. I was a little disgusted that there were places on the parkway that I actually had to push because of the wind. The scary part for me was running down Beach Blvd, protected from the wind by houses, but I could hear the wind and waves roaring like a monsterous freight train. When we turned on to the beach trail, I wasn't disappointed. Yuck... I figure I lost enough time on the last section to cost me my sub 3:30 goal. Oh well, I ran what I had in me today. No regrets, no second thoughts, no worries.

One question about your training... What was your longest run? I think most of the Runners World / Hal Higdon schedules only take you up to 20 miles (or just over 30 km) for your longest run. Personally, I have found that to maximize my race day effort, I have to do a couple of 23 milers (about 36 km) to help you get past the wall. Obviously your mileage may vary (bad pun... I just couldn't resist).

Once again, congratulations. Now, you need to go to John Renison (Spec photog, 100 mile runner and Bad Water finisher) and tell him, "That wasn't so bad. When do we do a 100 miler?"

Mark Collis
www.ontherun.ca

[Marky Mark]

Think of it this way: you had a personal best in very tough conditions. If you do go ahead with another one you now will have learned a lot about training and about the race experience itself.

The wind along the water was such a challenge that my iPod earphones wouldn't stay in-not much you do about Mother Nature.