I’m a marathoner!

August 27, 2007 | Filed Under activities 

Hello everyone!

Now that I’m a little bit mobile, I thought I would write a post to let everyone know that I successfully finished the Quebec City Marathon yesterday. My time was just under 4 hours which was within my goal.

The run went very well for the first 20 miles. I stayed with the 3:45 pace group who were doing a run/walk mix where you run for 2 kilometers and walk for 30 seconds. I didn’t join in the walks until we had passed the 1/2 marathon point which I crossed in 1 hour, 50 minutes. After that, the walk breaks were just a good idea. I tried my best over the entire run to stay hydrated and cool. I usually drank a gatorade and a water at every station.

At mile 20, someone put a grand piano on my back, my legs got shorter, and the air got significantly thinner. This was the mythological “wall” that you hear about. Nothing in my training prepared me for
the next six miles. At first, I didn’t think there was any way for me to finish. My hamstring, quads, and calves were cramping; my pace had slowed to a shuffle. But I pushed on one kilometer at a time. I would usually run for a 1/2 kilometer, then walk for a minute, then run again. These last six miles took me 1 hour, 10 minutes with a
pace of 10:30. Although I had absolutely no energy and wanted so badly to walk, I ran the last 2 kilometers so that I would cross the finish line running… which I did.

Ashley was waiting just before the finish line, and seeing her gave me that final push that I needed (you can see my smile in the pictures.) She then ran down to the finish line to get pictures of me getting my medal and then to help me get home. My legs didn’t want to work anymore, but we still had to walk up a huge hill back to the hotel.

Once we got back to the hotel, I got a shower and then napped for 4 hours. Ashley worked… go figure. Then we managed to walk (err… shuffle) back down the hill to get dinner at a local pub where we could get some local Quebec brew.

Today everything hurts but I think I’ll manage. We are going to go jump in the hotel pool for a bit to let my muscles relax before doing some sight-seeing.

Oh, and don’t expect me to say that I’m training for another marathon any time soon. I’ll stick to 10ks and maybe 1/2 marathons for a while. And it’s definitely time to play some more frisbee.

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