Ottawa Marathon Notes and 100th Post

Very appropriate that this is my 100th post!

Date 25 May 2008
Time: 7:00 AM

Weather:
@7 Sunny, cool 7 degrees Celsius
@9 Still sunny, no clouds, getting warm quickly now
@10:40 Very warm, getting up towards the forecasted high of 23.

Race Day weight: 194.3 lbs

Race Day – 1 (Saturday) Nutrition & general prep:
- Pancakes at 11:00 AM
- Pasta at 2:30 with Garlic Bread from Prima Raviola
- Rest of Pasta at 6:30 PM
- Fluids were good, no dehydration noted.
- Stayed off my feet most of the day. Rented movies for Saturday afternoon and evening.

Pre-race Nutrition:
- 1 bowl of Oatmeal @ 5:00 AM
- 1 medium coffee at 5:40 AM
- 1 700ml bottle of SPE-3 at 6:00 AM

Race Nutrition:
- Planned bottle for 1st hour lasted until km 16 and then only ¾ consumed
o Stomach not taking in fluids very well at all through the first 16k
- Water only from 16 to 20k
- Water and Gel at 20k
- Between 20 and 30k just water with a bit of Gel.
o Stomach not doing well through here. Oscillated back and forth between wanting to throw up and being “just okay”. Difficult to figure out how to get more in.
- 1 more Gel at 30k, continued to only drink water
- Between 34k and the finish also drank some Gatorade to get calories in. I needed everything I could get in to get to the finish.

Race Play-by-Play comments:
1st 20k:
- Pace pretty much perfect and consistent.
- @ 20k 46 seconds ahead of planned 3:25 pace
- Pace felt easy again for the 1st 10k. Both Mississauga and here this was the case.
20-30k:
- Focused on keeping steady, not trying to micro-manage the pace too much through here.
- Slightly slower through this phase but very steady.
- @30k 1;35 behind target 3:25 pace

30 -33k:
- Steady but fading badly. Lack of nutrition catching up with me.

34-35 k Heron Hill/ Pre-Arboretum:
- Very much hit the wall here. Nothing left in the legs for any kinda of a steady effort. Decided to walk part of the hill to avoid going to much into the red zone
- Legs didn’t really start to come back until just before the arboretum.
35- finish:
- Used pretty much every water/Gatorade station to get to the end.
- Pace was steady but slow (between 5 and 5:15) when running plus the water station breaks.
Finish:
- Nothing left at the end. Distinctly remember wondering if I could even drive home after the race.
- Certainly no energy left for any kinda of pick up at the end
- Final time: 3:39:11

Overall comments:
- Although I was still running well for the 1st 25-30k I knew that the lack of nutrition would catch up to me at some point.
- Effort wise I felt this was my best marathon yet just not the time that we wanted.
- I’m sure the heat contributed in the last hour but otherwise was not a factor.
- No regrets for having run 2 marathons in 2 weeks. Recovery was very good between races. No residual effects from the 1st race. Legs were fresh.
o Last two or three short runs before the race went really well
- All in all I don’t feel that I would done anything different coming into this race. That’s a good sign.

Next Steps:
1. Begin journaling all my nutrition for runs lasting longer than an hour. Need to figure out how best to do this and keep it simple. I need to really get anal about this.
2. For the next several weeks recovery is the number 1 priority.
3. For the next 2 months maintaining fitness is the number 1 priority. This is a lot easier to do now that the weather is warm.
4. Kevin (Peak) and I will continue to workout the focus for the upcoming months.
5. Plan fall marathon race now that I have to do one to get my qualification for Boston.