Race Report: 2013 Around The Bay 30K

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Cecilia

After four winters of living back in Southwestern Ontario I finally got around to running the Around The Bay 30K! ATB’s claim to fame is being the oldest road race in North America and it’s been on my running bucket list for quite a while. Training through a long cold dark winter was rough but the race itself was great.

Pre Race

I spent Saturday in Toronto with Laura doing important pre race activities like shopping at Target and carbo loading with pasta and a bruschetta pizza. We drove into Hamilton on race morning and met up with Steve who had kindly picked up our race bibs the day before. I did not have a time goal going into this race although I thought a finish time around 3:15 was realistic. Steve, Scott and I made our way to the open corral and lined up near the 3:30 pace bunny. Race day weather was cool and just above freezing but there was no rain or snow so there were no complaints from me.

Start – 10K in 1:03:25 (average 6:21 min/km)

During the first few kilometres I tried to let my legs find the pace that they wanted to run. I decided to do a 9/1 run/walk which meant that that occasionally a walk free fast kilometre would bring down my average pace but I wasn’t too concerned. I was mostly just worried about my ITB. The first 10K was nice and flat and passed relatively quickly. Believe it or not, some of the runners ahead of me actually got stuck waiting for a train to cross the course but it was all cleared up by the time I got there.

10K – 20K in 1:04:02 (average 6:24 min/km)

The first part of this third of the race ran along Beach Blvd and up to the Burlington lift bridge. I felt a little twinge in my left knee which caused a bit of panic but it seemed to resolve it self on its own. I hit the half in 1:35:25 feeling pretty good. After the bridge (which is a metal grate and not fun to run over) we kept running north and them made the turn into Burlington and onto North Shore Blvd. I knew that the hills would be starting soon but I hadn’t really memorized the race profile so I just took them as them came. There were a few easy rollers before the 20K mark but nothing too bad. I actually sort of appreciated the change in terrain and let my pace adjust naturally.

20K – 30K in 1:01:02 (average 6:06 min/km)

There were lots of small or medium sized hills at the start of this section. Again I just sort of took them as they came. I did occasionally move a walk break so I could take advantage of the downhill running. Around here I kept passing and then being passed by the 3:15 pace group. They were running continuously so they’d pass me on a walk break and then I’d pass them while I was running. The pace bunny kept talking about the two minutes they’d banked up for the “big hill” which seemed sort of excessive to me but what did I know?

The big hill came just after the 26km marker. It was steep but really it wasn’t that bad. By the time I was half way up nearly everyone was walking so I felt good about the fact that I still had some pep in my step. I took a scheduled walk break just before the 27km mark and decided that I was about ready to be done with this race. Up until that point I’d really been running within myself but after conquering the hill I was ready to call it a day. I kept up a steady pace and when I hit the 28km marker I decided to throw down the hammer. I reasoned the faster I ran the sooner I’d be done! My last two kilometres were by far my fastest at 5:23 and 5:06.

As I was running past Copps Coliseum I saw Laura, Alice and her girls cheering me home. The finish inside Copps was pretty cool although it happened very suddenly. Previous races I’ve run with a stadium finish were all on 400m tracks or football fields so you had a little more time to enjoy the crowd. Nevertheless it was a good experience.

Post Race

After the crossing the finish line on the floor of Copps Coliseum (3:08:27) I quickly picked up my medal and a bag of snacks. Then I went outside and found my friends. My legs were a bit shaky but all in all I was feeling great which was good because it took about another hour for our whole crew to finish and get assembled. Luckily Laura had bought cupcakes.

I’m really happy with how this race went. I definitely did not run as fast as I could but that wasn’t the goal of the day. Also I negative split ATB by over 2 minutes!! I’m quite pleased with this given that all the hills come in the second half of the course.

Race Report: 2012 Toronto Waterfront Marathon

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Cecilia

Sometime back in 2010 I promised my friend Alice that when she was ready to run her first marathon I’d make her a training plan and run the race with her. This race report is my perspective on her first marathon – her version is here. By the way that offer goes out to pretty much all my friends. You want to run your first marathon. I am there! Think about it.

Pre Race

Alice and I drove into Toronto the day before the race and headed to my friend (and number one running supporter, seriously she’s been to 4/6 of my marathons) Laura’s place. From there we headed down to the expo to pick-up our bibs and then to my favourite Toronto vegetarian restaurant for lunch where we feasted on veggie burgers and green tea.

We awoke on race morning to pouring rain and made our way to the start area fairly efficiently. Even though we’d given ourselves lots of time by the time we got from the car, through the porta potty line and into the corral we only had a few minutes to spare before the first wave went off. It was still raining lightly but fortunately we has bought ponchos from the dollar store to keep us dry.

Start – 10K (35:19/35:14 5K splits)

Our goal was to run at an average pace of 7:07 min/km (for a 4:59:59 finish which is equivalent to 5K splits of 35:35) while doing a 6/1 run/walk pattern. Alice’s watch was counting down the run/walk intervals and we used my watch to lap at each km marker and keep us on pace. This part of the course headed north up to Bloor street and then back down south to Lakeshort. Since the marathon and half marathon started simultaneously we were surrounded by runners (although never crowded) and there was good spectator support.

10K – 20K (35:19/35:49 5K splits)

At this point we were running well within ourselves and headed west to the turnaround and then back east towards downtown. The half marathon and marathon courses split somewhere around the 19th km. It got pretty quiet after that point and things started to get a bit more serious. We were doing a good job sticking out our run/walk plan and taking in nutrition (I took a gel every 8km or so and alternated taking water and gatorade from the aid stations).

20K – 30K (35:25/35:33 5K splits)

We hit the half way mark at 2:29:14 proving that I am a pacing ninja! This section of the course was probably my least favourite. It was mostly through light industrial roads with a few out and backs and very few people around. For whatever reason, I’m not a huge fan of out and backs. We kept plodding along and maintaining our goal pace.

30K – 40K (36:01/46:34 5K splits)

The section from 30-35K ran through the Beaches neighbourhood. This was a really nice part of the course with good support and generally friendly motorists. I ended up running anywhere from 5-15m ahead of Alice trying to keep on pace for a 5 hour finish. This was as per our agreement, I would stay on pace and if she wanted me to slow down and give up her goal time she would have to tell me to do so.

You can tell from our splits that the wheels really came off just after the 35K mark. Our split for the 36th km was 9:53. Alice’s legs just didn’t have any more to give. There was stretching, there was walking and there were tears but we just kept making forward progress. I tried to distract Alice with silly stories and we started ignoring the 6/1 run/walk. From here on out we ran when Alice felt she could and then walk when we needed. I was seriously impressed with the race organization in the last five kilometres. We were asked by multiple volunteers on bikes if we were doing OK. We were fine but it was nice to know they were ready to provide support/medical attention to those who needed it.

40K – Finish (18:43 2.2K)

I insisted that once we make the turn north towards the finish that we start running because I felt it was really important that we finish this race strong. We came across the finish line in a chip time of 5:13:56 with smiles on our faces.

Post Race

After the race we met up with Laura and Scott and I called Alice’s husband to let him know he was now married to a marathoner. Then we had to walk back to the car which Alice had completely not factored in her marathon mental plan. I guess I should have warned her the crossing the finish line didn’t mean the day was over yet! Despite the fact that this is the slowest marathon I’ve ever run it was a lot of fun pacing Alice and totally taking the pressure by having no personal time goals. To top off the day we got to feast on marathon celebration cupcakes baked and personalized for us by Laura!

Running Reboot

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Cecilia

After more than a two year hiatus I’ve decided to reboot this blog. The truth is that for most of 2011 and part of 2012 I wasn’t doing very much running so I didn’t have much to say here. It took me a very long time to recover from the insanity of the Goofy. The biggest problem was with my left ITB. I went to physio, I rehabbed, I cross trained, I eased back in (at one point I was doing only 3 reps of a 2/3 run/walk) running a few 5Ks here and there in fall 2011. Then in the winter of 2012 I finally had enough confidence in my leg to attempt a longer race. I ran an eight mile race in February 2012 only to have my knee seize just after half way. This time around I saw a sports medicine doctor (who confirmed the ITB syndrome diagnosis) and send me off for more physio, a gait analysis, and massage. I ran two slow 10K races in the spring of 2012 and then (thanks to physio and a metronome in my ear at 175bpm) was able to pace a friend through her first marathon in the fall of 2012. As you can see, we had a lot of fun.

Coming into 2013 I felt like my ITB was mostly under control. I’d been running consistently and worked up to a three hour trail race in January and the Around the Bay 30K at the end of March. I wasn’t pushing the pace but I was getting in the mileage. A couple of weeks ago I suffered what I hope is only a minor setback during the Waterloo half marathon when my ITB flared up again around 15km. The difference was that in this race I had tried to push the pace. So now I’m back in physio working on balance and strengthening my glutes. I’m very motivated to get this injury under control once and for all because I’m signed up for the 2013 New York Marathon in November.

Over the next little while I’ll be filling in some of the historical blanks with short race reports from the past couple of years. Then I hope to get back to regular blogging as my training for NYC ramps up. July 15 is the official training start date!

Race Report: 2011 Goofy Challenge – Marathon

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Cecilia

As Douglas put it, I felt confident in my ability to complete one half marathon on Sunday. The problem was that I was about to do two.

The alarm once again went off at 2:40am on Sunday morning and we were out the door at 3:20am for the now familiar pre dawn trip to Epcot. The half marathon had 21,965 finishers and the full was just over half the size with 13,529 finishers. You would never have known it from the crowd in the staging area though since everything seemed nearly equally busy. I thought it was a nice touch that the marathon runners had red bibs while the Goofy runners (all 4,621 of us) had blue ones because it made it easy to give knowing head nods to our fellow crazies. It was definitely cooler on marathon morning so I wore a pair of cheap boy’s XL wind pants I’d picked up for six dollars at Target. I dropped them in a clothing donation bin just before the start of the race. This time around Douglas and I had been assigned to corral B. We waited with trepidation for the race to begin. Once we started shuffling forwards I said good-bye to Douglas and moved as far back in the corral as I could before crossing the starting line. I thought that in a best-case scenario I could maybe pull off a 4:30 finish time.

We started with a loop in and around Epcot and then headed out towards the Magic Kingdom. Because the course was marked in miles I decided to set my Garmin back to miles and forsake the metric system for a weekend. It was a throwback to my Seattle running days. I hit mile five in 0:52:08 (pace 10:25, predicted finish 4:33:22) but I already knew a 4:30 finish was not going to happen so while I kept hitting the lap button of my Garmin at each mile I stopped monitoring my pace.

There were three medical tents between miles five and 10 and I think I visited all of them. I had felt a hot spot forming on the arch of my right foot within the first 5 km of the race so I stopped once to adjust my sock and shoe and then a second time to cut off my arch tape (I usually tape my arches to prevent blisters but today it was the cause of the blister) and rub some Vaseline on the blister. I also stopped at one point to put some Biofreeze (topical pain reliever) on my right ITB. I don’t know if it worked or if the effect was psychosomatic but it didn’t really matter to me at the time. Interestingly the medical tent volunteers (who were wonderfully helpful) were recording the bib number of each runner who stopped at the tent and what they needed (Biofreeze, Tylenol, Vaseline, etc). I’d love to know what they’re going to do with this data.

I hit mile ten just outside of the Magic Kingdom in 1:45:35 (pace 10:33, predicted finish 4:36:49). At this point I was maintaining a decent pace but my legs did not feel great. The 1.5 or so miles run through the Magic Kingdom were the same course as during the previous day’s half marathon. It was sort of like I got these miles for free because the crowd support up Main Street and the excitement of running through the park carried me. When I hit the water station just outside the park reality really sunk in. I was now facing a long five mile stretch of road towards Animal Kingdom. I took a gel and a long walk through the water station, put more Biofreeze on my right leg and then started to focus on running from water station to water station. It was clear that I absolutely could not afford to bonk during the race so taking in sufficient calories and liquids gave me something to focus on.

At the half marathon mark my time was 2:19:00 (pace 10:36, predicted finish 4:38:00). I would have been quite happy to stop there and call it a weekend (two back to back half marathons has to be enough of an accomplishment right?) but of course I kept plodding along. Somewhere around here my left knee started bothering me. I have never had issues with my left leg before so this came as a very unpleasant surprise. I finally reached the Animal Kingdom and got to enjoy running about two miles through the park. The park wasn’t quite open yet but there was some nice crowd support along the parking lot as we exited.

After Animal Kingdom came the longest four miles of my life: highway and service roads on the way to Hollywood Studios. By this time my left knee was in bad shape. Every time I would stop to walk through a water station it would seize and I’d really have to fight to start running again. The only thing that kept me going was the thought that if I ran I’d finish sooner than if I walked. I took several longer three or four minute walk breaks but continued to make forward progress. Mile 20 came in 3:38:47 (pace 10:56, predicted finish 4:46:48). As the miles slowly ticked off I became increasingly frustrated with myself for putting myself in this position. My legs hurt and honestly it was a level of pain that I am uncomfortable having subjected myself to.

I think somewhere around the entrance to Hollywood Studios there was a candy stop where they were handing out mini chocolate bars. More races should hand out chocolate. Once again running through the park was a nice distraction. At this point the park was mostly open so there were more crowds around which helped. I did feel a little bad for guests who were just there to see the parks and had to wait to get across the course though. After Hollywood Studios we ran along a pathway and boardwalk to Epcot. This section had the most crowd support and all the encouraging words actually made me quite emotional. The second half of the marathon had really become a mental battle for me and every time I would let myself think about getting close to the end I’d feel like I was about to cry and hyperventilate. Then I’d do some deep breathing and refocus on just making it to the next landmark 100-200m down the road.

The last 2.2 miles of the course ran through Epcot. I moved past being emotional to almost numb to finishing the race. I knew I was going to finish and I think the stupidity of what I had just done was starting to sink in. My marathon chip time was 4:50:55 (pace 11:50) but I really did not care. I have never been so happy to just be done with a race. I got my marathon medal and then headed to the medical tent to start icing both my ITBs. I was not the only one walking around with ice strapped to both knees. From there I picked up my Goofy medal and headed to the food tent. I immediately drank 500mL of water and then picked up another bottle of water, a bottle of Powerade a banana and some small Clif bars.

I found Douglas after the race and we agreed that this was probably one of the dumbest things we’d ever done. We hobbled to the bus and eventually back to our cabin where Laura was waiting. I declared Laura to be the “brains of the operation” for the afternoon because, although I can’t speak for Douglas, I was physically, mentally and emotionally shot. Of course this didn’t stop us from spending the rest of the afternoon and evening in the Magic Kingdom. I eventually went to bed just before midnight on Sunday after having being awake for 21 hours straight.

On Monday morning I awoke with a headache and what I, in retrospect, suspect was sun stroke. It’s not that it was hot on Sunday but I think a combination of exhaustion, dehydration, and exposure to the sun for most of the morning and afternoon made me ill. I was nauseous, feverish and I had the chills. In short I felt awful. It took me over half an hour to eat a banana. I could have stayed at the cabin in bed for the day but that would have meant admitting defeat which isn’t really my style. Instead I went to the Magic Kingdom with my friends although I did bow out of roller coasters for the day. At about 3pm we took a ride on the People Mover in Tomorrowland and somehow that ride healed me. By the end of the afternoon I was feeling like my usual self with the exception of my legs.

Now that more than a week has passed and I can once again walk around pain free most of my frustrations with myself have subsided. I am in fact glad that I completed the race because I can only imagine the regret I might be feeling had I not toed the line on Sunday morning. Plus is gave me a little insight into just how far I can push myself. I still think that doing the race on minimal training was not very smart. I have no plans to ever attempt the Goofy again but I will be wearing my shirt with pride in the future.

Race Report: 2011 Goofy Challenge – Half Marathon

Posted on January 15, 2011 by Cecilia

It has taken me some time to finish composing my Goofy Race and a Half Challenge race report. Today I’ll be posting the first installment and the second will come in the next few days. Part of the trouble I’ve had is that it’s ridiculously long. I’ve done my best to keep things concise but I can’t help that I’m a details person. The other trouble I’ve had is with tone. You see, logically, I should not have run the Goofy this year. In the nine weeks between injuring my right ITB while setting a new PB at the Hamilton marathon and Disney race weekend I ran a grand total of 80.2 km. However, the vacation was booked and the race entry paid so going in I decided to do the half marathon and make the marathon a game time decision. While the overall experience was positive there were some low points and I don’t want any negativity that I express to be interpreted against the race itself. For the record: I think the Goofy Challenge is a great race. Doing might just have been one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done though.

My friends Laura, Douglas, Donna and I arrived at Disney late on Thursday morning and checked in to our cabin at the Fort Wilderness Resort. We chose the cabin because all four of us would get to stay together and we had a full kitchen to use to cook our pre race breakfasts and pasta dinners. One slight downside was that although Disney says there is direct transportation from all resorts to the expo and start line we actually had to take a bus to the Wilderness Lodge and then transfer to the race buses. We missed this memo upon arrival on Thursday and ended up taking three different buses to get to the expo. Not ideal. The expo itself was fun and we moved through fairly efficiently collecting our goody bags, race bibs and shirts and doing a bit of gear shopping.

We spent Thursday afternoon and evening at Epcot and then visited Animal Kingdom on Friday. We made our own pasta dinner back at the cabin and then turned in to bed around 8pm Friday night. I heard the 9pm Epcot fireworks so I estimate that I fell asleep at around 9:30pm. With the alarm going off at 2:40 on Saturday morning that meant I got about 5 hours of sleep but thanks to adrenaline I had no trouble waking up for the race. We left our cabin at 3:20am and fairly quickly caught a bus to the Wilderness Lodge where we transferred to a waiting bus to take us to Epcot. We spent about 20 minutes waiting in the staging area and then another 20 minutes walking to the start line. We eventually made it to our corrals at about 5:10am. That’s a long time to be on your feet before the starting gun has even gone off!

Due to some overly ambitious projected finish times made last March, Douglas and I had been assigned to corral A. It was a bit chilly waiting in the corral (thankfully I was wearing my signature garbage bag) but the weather was a dream compared to the freezing temperature and sleet runners faced in 2010. Mickey counted down to the race stat and we were treated to an early morning fireworks display. As we shuffled towards the start line I couldn’t help but wonder what the next 30 hours had in store for me.

Douglas and I stuck together at the start of the half marathon pacing just below a 10 minute mile. We were surrounded by runners but never had any issues with the course being over crowded. The highlight of the half marathon course is running in the Magic Kingdom and through Cinderella’s castle during mile six. After exiting the Magic Kingdom Douglas and I decided to split up and he pulled ahead while I slowed my pace and tried to take things easy. My legs were feeling decent but not great. The bulk of the remaining miles were spent running on roads between the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Periodically there would be Disney characters at the side of the course. I ran with my camera but didn’t stop for any special photos. One of my favourite parts of the half was running up a highway on ramp in mile ten. There was a toy soldier character (from Toy Story) set up at the side of the road with a microphone encouraging the runners up the hill. That was great.

The last mile and a half of the course ran through Epcot which was neat. I kept my pace under control and cruised across the finish line with a chip time of 2:12:42, a new personal worst and exactly 2 minutes slower my first half marathon in 2006. Immediately after finishing I did something I’d never done before: I went to the medical tent. I was not in any distress but I visited the “self treatment” area to get some ice for my right ITB. I figured recovery had to start immediately if I was going to pull off a marathon the next day.

Due to a mix up in meeting location Douglas and I ended up waiting nearly two hours for Donna and Laura. We never found them so we eventually bailed and went back to our cabin (where they were waiting for us). Both of my legs were tight and I had some tenderness in my right ITB but all in all I was doing OK. We all donned our half marathon shirts and spent Saturday afternoon at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This was a good choice because we stretched out our legs walking around the park but we also were able to attend several stunt shows which meant that we sat down and didn’t overextend our self. After all, overextending ourselves was so be saved for marathon day.

2010: Running Year in Review

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Cecilia

This year my annual running year in review comes after almost two months of severely reduced mileage due to an ITB injury. It is hard not to focus on my current injury but it certainly does not define the year for me. Instead, I’ll focus on having set new personal bests in the 10km and the marathon (I’m now only 49 seconds away from crossing the elusive 4 hour marathon mark!) and running my first ever 25km trail race. More important that personal time goals were the two races in which I got to pace friends. There is something incredibly rewarding about getting to help someone run their best race on that day.

Looking forward to 2011 I have the Disney Goofy challenge this weekend. I’m only committing the running the half marathon, the marathon will be a game time decision based on how my ITB feels. After that I will likely spend a few months focusing on cross training and babying my ITB. Then I hope to do my first Sprint triathlon in June and maybe a few 10kms or half marathons along the way. I can only assume that in Fall 2011 I’ll make yet another attempt at the sub four hour marathon! To wrap things up I can not resist including this picture of my friend Alice and I. I think it best expresses the joy I feel when running.

Race Report: 2010 Hamilton Marathon

Posted on November 12, 2010 by Cecilia

Pre Race

I awoke at 4:40am on race morning and launched into action. This was not nearly as painful as it could have been because it was the night we went off daylight savings time and thus only felt like 5:40am to my body. I quickly made some oats and tea for breakfast, gathered my pre packed bags and hit to road to Hamilton at around 5:10am. The drive was uneventful and I arrived at Confederation Park around 6:15am. I was able to pick up my race bib and shirt, make a quick pit stop and immediately board a waiting school bus for the ride up to the finish line. While on the bus I ate a banana with some peanut butter and drank about 300mL of water. The start line was at Saltfleet High School (or as I prefer to think of it, Star Fleet High School) and the runners were gathered in the gym waiting for the start. I settled into a comfy spot at around 6:45 am and had 1.5 hours to kill before the start of the race. The time passed quickly and soon enough I had checked my bag, listened to the national anthem and found myself heading over to the start line.

In the start corral I met up with the 4:00 pace group. I spoke to the pace bunny and he said that his plan was to run a 5:30 pace stopping to walk for approximately 30 seconds at each aid station (which were supposed to come every 3km). I suppose that would have worked out to a 5:41 average but I didn’t think it was the plan for me. Basically I didn’t think I could manage a 5:30 pace even with the walk breaks. So I decided to go it alone and try to average 5:41. I planned to walk through aid stations but expected that my natural variation in pace would account for any time lost there.

1 – 10km: 0:57:05 (avg 5:43 min/km)

The race started and we headed out of the school parking lot and out onto country roads. My first freak out occurred in the first kilometer when I realized that I couldn’t feel my toes. This happens when my feet get cold but I guess I hadn’t realized that my feet were that cold! I reasoned that as I ran they would warm up and the feeling would return. Despite the fact that I started right behind the 4:00 pace bunny and was averaging exactly a 5:41 pace I got passed by literally hundreds of runners in the first few kilometers. I resisted the urge to speed up and focused how good it would feel to pass runners in the later stages of the race. My nutrition plan was to take 100cal gels at around the 8, 16, 24 and 32 km marks. I also had 4 eload electrolyte caps that I planned to take in the second half of the race. I took a gel in the ninth kilometer and just kept cruising along.

11 – 20km: 0:56:47 (avg 5:41 min/km)

Most of this quarter was run on an out and back section of country roads. It was here that I truly appreciated how fast the field running this race was. In my previous races I’ve been around the mid pack but in this race I was definitely closer to the back of the pack. I saw the race leaders go by and the eventually the various pace groups went by heading in the other direction. The 3:20 and 3:30 pace groups were particularly big. In fact the 3:30 group looked like an army of fitness. There was a bit of a headwind in this section so I was very happy when I made the turn and got to enjoy a tailwind for a change. My pace was fairly consistent in this section ranging from a 5:30 – 5:49. I took a gel around 17km and continued to take water and/or eload at each water stop. I don’t usually train with eload but it definitely tasted weak to me.

21 – 30km: 0:55:35 (avg 5:34 min/km)

The half way point was not officially marked. After I hit the 20km mark I looked approximately 100m up the road and created my own half marathon mark. When I hit it I looked at my watch and it read exactly 2:00:00. So goal 1a was accomplished. I had not gone out too fast but I wasn’t feeling as good as I would have hoped for only being halfway done. My right IT band was hurting and I just didn’t feel springy. My cardio was feeling fine but I really wasn’t sure how I was going to muster another half marathon out of my legs. Truth be told I’d had some concerns about my right leg going into the race. In last last few weeks of training I’d had sporadic problems with my ankle, calf and quad. I’d start the run with some tightness that would tend to go away after a few kilometers but it wasn’t consistent. I took my taper quite easy but I had three pain free runs in the week before the race so I thought I was good to go.

During the 23rd kilometer we entered the Red Hill parkway and started descending. My first downhill kilometer split was 5:08. I wanted to take advantage of the downhill without thrashing my quads too much. The fun part of running on the highway was that I really got to focus on running the tangets on the course and I was very happy to be on nice smooth asphalt. Once again my right ITB was not happy though so I made the tactical decision to stop monitoring my pace. My thought process was that I would still push myself to run hard but I didn’t want to risk getting down on myself if I started to see my splits getting higher and higher. We came off the highway in the 29th kilometer.

31 – 40km: 0:57:34 (avg 5:45 min/km)

During this section of the course we were running from the highway to the lake along miscellaneous city roads. It wasn’t a particular scenic route and since I’m not familiar with the city I really didn’t know where I was at any given time. Granted I didn’t really care that much at this point. Eventually we made it to Beach Drive which is one block over from the shore of Lake Ontario for the second out and back portion of the route. At this point the distance was taking its toll on the field and my fellow runners were definitely slowing down and taking more walk breaks. I resolved to only walk at water stations but I was struggling to maintain focus and block out the pain in my hip.

The turn back occurred at approximately the 35 km mark. This water station had no eload which I was unimpressed with but the volunteers were enthusiastic. The route back was on a multiuse trail right along the shore of Lake Ontario. I was now 7km from the finish and felt a little revitalized. I realized the the pain in my hip, while not enjoyable, wasn’t getting any worse so if I could just run through it I’d still be able to finish strong. I kept picking off runners and trying to run as fast as I could.

40 – 42.2km: 13:47 avg 6:16 min/km*

When I hit 40km I looked at my watch for the first time in over an hour. Honestly I didn’t know what I would see. I wouldn’t have been surprised if I’d been on pace for a 4:10 finish. As it turns out I saw that a sub four hour finish was still in reach. When I hit my lap button at the 41km mark my total time was 3:52:26. I was totally thrilled because I though I had about 7:30 to run the last 1.2km and that was totally doable. I saw my friend Laura in the last kilometer and gave here a wave feeling pumped that I was going to achieve my goal. We kept running along the trail for quite a while and then all of a sudden took a right hand turn onto a gravel pathway. I could not believe we were running on gravel this late in the race (and this was coarse gravel not nice smooth gravel). I kept looking for the 42km sign but it never came. When we turned off the gravel I got my first glimpse of the finish line and it looked so far away. I glanced down at my watch and saw that I now had less than a minute if I was going to break four hours and judging the distance to the finish line I knew it wasn’t going to happen. I was crushed. How did this happen? I’d been running hard all this time. It didn’t make sense.

I ran strong through through to the finish sprinting the last 100m (generating quite a cheer from the crowd). When I crossed the finish line I hit my Garmin and it read 4:00:49. Darn!

Post Race

After crossing the finish line I doubled over in exhaustion and was immediately grabbed by a friendly medical volunteer. I told her I was fine and just needed a minute. Laura found me and the medical volunteer was satisfied I wasn’t going to pass out on her (although she did mention my hands were cold). I grabbed a banana and a hot cup of lentil soup and Laura and I sat on the grass surveying the sceen.

*According to Laura at least one of the pace bunnies that had finished ahead of me had missed their time and commented about the last last km. According to my Garmin last 1.2km of the course were actually 1.6 km long and it took me 8:21 to cover the distance. If the distance was 1.2km that would be a 5:44 pace. If it was 1.6km my pace would be 5:02 which is much closer to how I felt I was running. There was been much discussion of this long finish on various running websites and discussion boards. In the days after the race the race director released the following statement:

“The Marathon course has been certified and is accurate. However, during course set up the km markers on the Red Hill Valley Parkway were short by 400m, resulting in the last km being 400m further.”

I suspect the error might have occurred around the 28km mark since my 27th kilometer was measured (by my Garmin) at only 840m. The total distance measured by my Garmin was 42.3km which is certainly reasonable given the margin of error of GPS unit and the fact that I may not have run the most direct route from the start line to the finish line. So at the end of the day I’ve accepted that I ran a 4:00:48 marathon but I’m a little upset I had my excitement of finishing in sub four hours crushed at the very last moment.

I feel good about the fact that I only ran a 48 second positive split and a personal best is nothing to be disappointed in. I’m also glad that I was able to push through my ITB problem but clearly its an issue that needs to be addressed. I’ve decided to take 7-10 days completely off running. My plan for the next two months is to do enough training to complete the Goofy Challenge but I definitely will not be running that race with a time goal.

Hamilton Marathon Training Graphs and Goals

Posted on November 6, 2010 by Cecilia

In less than 24 hours I will be toeing the start line of my fourth marathon. The excitement and nervousness has definitely hit me. I think I’m well trained for the race and I’ve assembled my list of goals for Sunday.

Goal #1: Finish in under four hours
- Goal #1a: Go through half in 2:00 – 2:01
Goal #2: Set a new personal best (<4:02:21)
Goal #3: Finish happy and proud

I would really love to get the four hour marathon monkey off my back. I think I’ve got a good chance to meeting my first goal but I also know anything can happen on race day. Fortunately it looks like the weather will be on my side: variable cloudiness, low/high -3/7C, wind W 15km/h. As per usual I’ve been chanelling my nervous energy into making graphs. To start with I have my weekly mileage over the last 13 weeks. I only missed one run during the entire training cycle (a tempo run in week 12) so the graph looks quite pretty.

Last year I made a graph comparing the 16 weeks leading up to each of my marathon. It wasn’t really feasible to add a fourth set of data to that graph so I had to do something a little different. Here’s what I came up with: a panel chart. What I think is most striking from this graph is how much more training I’ve done this year than last year. The different is mostly more than ten weeks out from the race but I’m hoping the increased volume will help me.

I’ll try to do a quick post on Sunday with at least my finish time and then stay tuned for a blow-by-blow race report early next week!

Goofy Training – Weeks 10-13 of 22

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Cecilia

Yesterday evening I completed my last training run before Sunday’s marathon. I’ve been a bit of a slacker when it comes to training updates so today I have four weeks of summaries all in one post. Tomorrow I’ll post my marathon goals and a few pretty graphs that I’ve made to summarize this training cycle. My focus right now is on hydrating, eating well and staying relaxed.

Week 13

I did my usual race week set of 4, 5 and 3 mile runs. It’s worked for me in the past so I see no reason to do anything differently. I decided to skip swim class on Wednesday because I didn’t want to push too hard. Also last week I got a cramp in my right calf and it actually hurt the next day so there was no way I was risking having that happen again. Wednesday’s tempo run was great. Overall I’m feeling good although I will admit to having some tightness in my right leg. It’s not too bad and it’s not consistently a problem so I’m hoping some good stretching and the foam roller will put me on the starting line in good form.

01/11	-	Rest day
02/11	6.5 km	Easy run: avg 5:59 min/km
03/11	8.0 km	Tempo run: 5km @ 5:14/07/08/14/00 min/km
04/11	5.1 km	Easy run: avg 5:58 min/km
05/11	-	Rest day
06/11	-	Rest day
07/11	42.2 km	HAMILTON MARATHON RACE DAY!
Total	61.8 km	YTD: 1754.5 km

Week 12

This was the week that I gave midterms in both the classes that I’m teaching. I also had a grant application due on Friday. So having to submit the grant, and prepare, administer and grade the exams on top of my usual to do list didn’t leave as much time for running as I would have liked. In fact I missed my mid week tempo run. I’m of the opinion that once a run is lost it’s lost for good so I didn’t try and squeeze it in later in the week. I just reminded myself that the last time I set a half marathon personal best I barely ran in the two weeks before the race.

25/10	-	Rest day
26/10	8.0 km	Easy run: avg 6:23 min/km
27/10	XT	Triathlon Swim Training: 90min
28/10	-	Rest day
29/10	-	Rest day
30/10	15.0 km	HORROR HILL RACE with Alice
31/10	5.0 km	Easy run: avg 6:14 min/km
Total	28.0 km	YTD: 1692.7 km

Week 11

This was the last high mileage week in marathon training. It was also the week that I surpassed the 1000 mile mark in my year to date training. This was almost exactly one week later than last year (Oct 10, 2009). My last long run of 32 km went fairly well. I did fade a bit but I held it together without too much trouble.

18/10	10.0 km	Easy run: avg 6:09 min/km (passed 1000 miles!)
19/10	-	Rest day
20/10	XT	Triathlon Swim Training: 90min
21/10	13.0 km	Tempo run: 10km @ 5:29/37/26/18/15/20/25/07/09/4:44
22/01	10.0 km	Easy run: avg 6:16 min/km
23/10	-	Rest day
24/10	32.0 km	Long run: avg 6:20 min/km
Total	65.0 km	YTD: 1664.7 km

Week 10

This was the week after Thanksgiving and there’s something about having a Monday holiday that makes me feel like I’m playing catch-up for the rest of the week. It didn’t help that I went out of town for the weekend so I had to squeeze my long run in after work on Friday evening. It wasn’t ideal but I got it done and it freed me up to do an easy run on Sunday with my friend Laura. Good times.

11/10	10.0 km	Easy run: avg 6:30 min/km
12/10	-	Rest day
13/10	13.0 km XT	Speedwork: 4x1mi (0.5mi recovery) in 8:03/8:11/8:14/7:47 Triathlon Swim Training: 90 min
14/10	-	Rest day
15/10	26.0 km	Long run: avg 6:26 min/km
16/10	-	Rest day
17/01	10.0 km	Easy run: 5km avg 7:52/6:28 min/km
Total	59.0 km	YTD: 1599.7 km

Race Report: 2010 Horror Hill 15K

Posted on October 31, 2010 by Cecilia

Yesterday I paced my friend Alice through the Horror Hill 15K Road Race. We each had own reasons for taking the race easy. Mine is a marathon in 8 days; Alice’s is revealed in her race report. The run starts half way up a hill and is very hilly for the first 7km and then moderately hilly after that. The actual “Horror Hill” peaks at the 4km mark. Alice’s mother and daughter met us at the 2km mark and we were able to snap a quick photo with Alice’s husband Steve who was also running the race.

By 5km into the race we had secured last place and were treated to our own personal police car escort. Actually the car was trailing us so I’m not sure that’s technically an escort. We joked that this was actually the safest race we’d ever run because he had way more protection from the traffic (the course wasn’t closed) than any of the other runners. We just kept ticking off the kilometers, chatting and enjoying the beautiful, albeit windy, fall day. We ended up finishing in just over 2 hours but this race was all about the experience not the finish line.

When I got home from the run I was looking through some of my race shirts and I discovered that the Horror Hill 15K occurred exactly five years to the day after my first ever road race: the 2005 Dawg Dash. This was the race that triggered my love of running so it was very cool to have celebrated (granted unintentionally) this anniversary with another very memorable race.