Scotia Waterfront Marathon – Pacer Report

Race: Scotia Waterfront Marathon
Date: October 16, 2011
Result: 3:24:54 (goal time 3:25:00)

To pee or not to pee? That was the $36,000 question today.

The last few years pacing the STWM, I have made a pit stop while pacing. Easy enough to do: mark a runner, scoot ahead, let it rip in the portopotty, a 4 minute km later and I am back with my group. Never fails to amaze.

Pretty easy, really, to pit stop when the goal pace is around 4:45/k. But when the goal pace is 3:05/k, how exactly do you catch up? Run a 4:30 mile? Reid Coolsaet must have thought well about this little conundrum before pulling the trigger, and catch up he did. That by itself is a scary feat. In the end, he fell short of the Canadian marathon record by about 45 seconds. A very expensive pee indeed!

Or was it a number two that got him?

There were other ways to lose time. The tight turn back at the beaches probably robbed 10 seconds or more from the elites. The course setters need to do away with these energy burners. It almost cost Eric Gillis his Olympic qualifier, who made it on a one second margin after being comfortably ahead at the turn back.

Cramps have been the bane of my existance this year, and I started to feel my hams twitching at the first 12.5k turnback. In went salt pill number one. At about 19k we passed my traditional dewatering hole. Yes, I had been feeling the urge. However, a four minute catch up km was not going to happen with those cramps looking for any excuse to fire up. Unlike Reid, I held it. Two more salt pills, several prayers and a full bladder later, I am crossing the finish. Wow, that was the most worried 30k I have ever run!

The wind from the west was also a worry. The first bit out to the 12.5k turn was not as bad as expected. After that point, we decided to let the wind push us along as it may. It kept getting stronger the further east we went. By the time we got to the beaches turn back, we were 1:30 ahead of pace but relatively fresh due to the lighter effort. That of course changed once we headed westward again, and we ate up the majority of the 1:30 surplus fighting the wind, the beaches rollers and getting over the DVP flyover.

In the end, not very evenly paced, but more of an even effort which was likely a better tactic on this day. I put about 20 runners across the line ahead of me. We had a formidable group, and many runners were on my shoulder for long stretches, right to 40k when I told them to give it if they had it.

The bag check? I never knew how important it is to keep moving after a marathon, until I had to stand still in a line for 45 minutes. Talk about seizing up and freezing your butt off and needing a major wizz (which I had already been holding for two hours). I am sure this will be fixed for next year (the line up not my wizz problem). Main objective: keep them moving. Get more real estate. It just might be better to let us runners fetch their own bags. We are trustworthy afterall. 

My ears made me the local complaint department. There were many irate runners with no end of patience waiting in that line up. We Canadians can really grin and bear it. I told everyone around me there would be no way the race organizers would let this happen again (I know them and they won’t).

I thought the start area worked much better than last year. But it could have been a different story if it was raining. Scotia is big enough now – I believe it is time for the organizers to step up next year and have the start/finish in the Skydome. Around the Bay does this so well and it is necessary for the season. October weather can be hit and miss or downright nasty. Next year’s weather might not be so great. And if it is a fantastic day, have them open the roof!

My previous article (Canadian Marathon Record Alert) predicted Olympic qualifiers and a Canadian record. Two out of three ain’t bad.