Another Marathon done.
On Sept 27th I ran the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.
My mileage was down leading into the race, due to work commitments as well as a small bout of insomnia. It’s almost as if I tapered for a race.
Saturday, I had to work half the day and then I spent 5 ½ hours at the expo helping out at the team booth (not counting the 1 ½ hours I was there on my own before working at the booth) Not exactly the way to rest up the day before.
I did meet up with a friend from online, who was doing his first marathon, as he cruised through the booth and helped him out with some gels.
Got my race Tech Tee as well as an extra one from a friend running another booth.
Not too bad a night’s sleep (for me) and I was off to the race, arriving about an hour early.
After checking my bag, talked with the guys working my friend’s booth, until I met up with some of my running group members. Got separated from them, while I made a porta-potty stop and then headed to my corral. Goal time was 3:50-4.
Talked to a couple of RunningFree teammates while waiting in the corral, but we quickly became separated as the crowds jostled for position.
Took about 5 minutes to get from my corral to the start line after the gun, as there were also 7894 doing the half marathon, along with the 2713 doing the full.
Started off reasonably well, although I took a nose dive into the pavement after tripping over the minutest little crack at 4.5k (stutter stepping to avoid running into a swerving runner). Scrapped my knee and elbow, but not too badly.
Also had to take a porta-potty break at 5.5k
Started out at a pace for 3:45 figuring I would fade a little in the second half, but although the hammies complained a lot, I managed to hold the pace pretty good right through. Did have some difficulty after 32k as I hadn’t been taking in enough fluids, but started hitting every waterstop after that and managed to hold on.
Finished about a minute behind one of my local buddies, who was happy to finally beat me in a road race (he usually beats me on the trails though). My chip time was 2 minutes better though, so I’ll have to rub that in later.
Met up with more of the group and was at the final 500 meter mark when I cheered in my friend doing his first. Met up with him at the finish and congratulated him on finishing his first marathon. He met his goal time too.
My finish time: 3:47 872/2713
