I will start this recap about a year before. November 2011 I just finished up a pretty good year of running, no injuries, consistant training and the fire to improve burning brightly. I just finished the Scotia Bank mMarathon in a time of 2:55 so i was ready to try and break the 2:50 mark in 2012. I started off 2012 a bit to agressive by running to fast too soon and didnt keep up with strenth training and yoga, in turn i started to become very stiff and beat up. I started to feel like a bike with 2 flat tires by the end of the running week. I made the decision to not be smart and train through it which lead to very soar shin splints and a very frustrated runner. By the time spring races came i was so beat up that it was a struggle to run the same times i did a year before which was depressing. After the Boston Marathon i took some time off and recovered for a few weeks in which one of them I got married to my now wife and also Team Running Free athlete Lesley. When summer hit and i decided to run Hamilton Full i was 100% commited and feeling good. I started my buildup in Aug for Hamilton, and made sure i incorporated 1 day of yoga, 1 day of core and lots of routine stretching. Things seemed to be going well had a gradual buildup of speed, hills, tempos, and long runs. I ran Scotia Half as a tune up race for the full, i planed on running a sub 1:20 with no issues or pushing to hard. race day was another story i just wasnt feeling the pace out there and had to really push to come in at 1:24 which was my slowest half. I was still commited to running well at Road to Hope though, so finished up a few more weeks of good training and had a great taper.
The Day of the Marathon i was so excited, i wasnt nervous because i had been there before and i knew my training had gone well. Lesley and I got to confederation park early that morning becausee we didnt want to be waiting around for a shuttle like last year. There were so many available busses i said to Lesley that this is better than it was in Boston. Once we borded the Bus and on route to the start thats when the ipod came out and i really start to get into a different state of mind, i start thinking about how i want to run the race, different sections, what to do when i start to feel like i need to slow down and so on. When we arrive at the top of Hamilton Mountain at the start of the race lesley and i made our way to the bathrooms and the schools gym where we could take a few minutes to relax. 30 minutes before the race we start our pre race warmup with some light running, strides and streching. everything is warmed and ready to roll. We now go our seperate ways and find a spot in the corral. The first 10km i mostly ran by myself running a 4:10 pace which i planned on doing until i settled in, at the 10 km mark i picked up the pace to 4:05 and started to get a good rhythm going. I was passing alot of people at this point due to them going out too fast and me started a bit far back at the start. At the 18km mark i found 2 other guys that were running about the same pace so i stuck with them and locked in the pace. At 21km i was feeling good and the pace was feeling comfortable at this point i said to myself ok you are halfway there now lets set into race pace and execute this plan, i droped the pace to 4:00km’s and said theres no going back now lets see what im made of. From 21km to 29km i felt good the pace was great and i had a couple of guys with me to help keep the pace. At 29 km the fatigue started to set in, i remember thinking that it was to early in the race to start to feel this way but i tried to just shake it off. 32km. At this point i was starting to have to dig pretty deep to hold race pace which i didnt want to do until closer to the 36, 37km mark. I knew at this point that i was in some trouble, The other runner that i was running with began to pull away from me and told me to hang in there. I wasnt alone though as i had Bob with me on his bike since the 21 km mark, we knew i was slowing down i told me i need to pick it up. At 35 km i was in alot of pain my quads where so tight from the downhill sections and i could feel my stride reducing. I was having trouble even holding a 4:40 pace at this point, i knew all the good work i had put in up to this point was starting to all come undone with each km. At 38 km i tried to give it one more push i looked deep inside of me gritted my teeth and just ran as hard as i could. That only lasted for maybe .75 of a km until my body just said no more a started to really shut down on me. I made it to the finish line in a time of 2:57.53. When i crossed i was disipointed but after about 5 minutes of feeling sorry for myself i said suck it up and move on. After i changed and got some fuel in me i made my way back to the finish to watch my wife lesley finish in a time of 3:28 2 minutes under her goal time! and another BQ.
Now about a month after the Marathon i am back at it and i am working on building a stronger more flexible body to become a better runner. I am looking forward to training intelligently and for a great year in 2013.
Hamilton Road To Hope was a great race, The shuttles were great, the starting line was in a great location tobe able to get in a good warm up. I enjoyed most of the course, the changes they made after you get off the Red valley parkway is less than enjoyable i found it really tight on the paths trying to get past the half marathoners. The finish was great and its always good to hear Running Free’s own Nick on the Mic. I think for people thinking of doing this race make sure you work on running downhill to get your qauds ready to handle the load the corse will put on them.
