National Capital Marathon, Ottawa
Sunday, May 30, 2004
Race report for Esther's first marathon...
Date: Mon May 31, 2004
Subject: Ottawa Marathon Race Report
Hello Penguins, I finally did it! I ran my first marathon on a glorious day in Ottawa this past Sunday. I finished
short of my time goal but I'm extremely happy to have just finished without any major incidents. The whole marathon experience has been quite an emotional, mental, and physical journey for me.First about the course:
The first half of the "new" course was extremely scenic. In the 1st km we ran by the Parliament and with the early morning sun shining on it was just spectacular. The view while crossing the bridge to Hull and back was also amazing. We ran by some very nice neighbourhoods with a few homeowners coming out to cheer on the marathoners. But the volunteers were so enthusiastic and they definitely did a great job of keeping all the runners motivated and smiling. I'll never forget the Trio of girls singing Marathon tunes to "Happy Birthday" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" they were awesome.Freebies (smiles & more) along the way:
The second half of the course started back near the START line and stayed along the canal. This is also the 1st time since the start line that I saw my friends and seeing them was definitely a huge boost. Shortly thereafter I could hear the announcers announcing some runners finishing the race, I was at MY halfway point so I just smiled and kept going. The race seemed so organized (can you tell this is my first marathon :) The gels, Vaseline, sprinklers, and wet sponges were all new to me. I didn't know what the Vaseline was for but I soon found out while running beside some male runners. I definitely enjoyed the many sprinklers along the way, I ran through them for play more than for keeping cool. Although it was a very sunny day I didn't find it too hot at all and those cool wet sponges really did feel nice (I was very skeptical about putting a strange wet sponge on my face at first).The physical me:
During the first half, my legs were already a bit tired but nothing out of the ordinary. I decided to forget about the pace markers written on my bib early into the race and to just concentrate on running at a steady and comfortable pace. I started with my running partner but lost him at a biobreak and never did manage to meet up again. Luckily, I found another guy from my running clinic and ran the next 14km with him until he had to stop for some Advils. During the 2nd half my tired legs were feeling very tired. I stopped a few times just to stretch them. I kept looking out for the KM markers and started counting the KM left down. I knew I was going to finish when I hit the 31km but I had no idea how the last 5-6.2km would drag on for what seemed like forever.The mental/emotional me:
This part of me really came out especially when I was running on my own, my legs were hurting and seeing/hearing runners not being able to finish was very frightening. I loved being surrounded by other runners and having crowds of people just cheering you on, but it's just not quite the same as having someone right beside you.The last 5km were definitely very mental and emotional for me. I wanted to walk so badly but I just couldn't do it because there were so many people along the sides of the road and I had no idea where my friends would be. I tried to smile for the official camera but I'm sure my smile looks pretty tired :) People kept saying that the finish was SO close - I swear it was forever and after awhile I thought they were all lying to me since they've been saying that since 37km and even when I was at 41.5km I still had no idea where the finish line was. Maybe I was delerious or my vision was blurred because I had tears in my eyes perhaps from the pain, maybe from relief, but most likely from feeling so glad to be finishing a marathon. I pulled myself together and ran the last 100m as fast as I could and crossed the FINISH line. I found my friends and gave them both a huge hug and proceeded to waddle around the rest of the day :) It's been almost two days and I'm still kinda waddling but I'm a proud Penguin and I'm already planning my next marathon in Chicago this October where I hope to kill the time I got in Ottawa.
My goal was 4 hours but now I can just say that those 2.2km at the end just kill ya, but then what would a marathon be without that 2.2km at the end?
The cold hard stats:
Overall placement - 1861/3457
Official gun time - 4:10:04.7 (2:04:41 & 2:05:24)
Pace (km/min) - 5:57
Official chip time - 4:08:33.9
Overall woman - 464/1398
Women 20 to 24 - 20/53Most memorable moment that will always make me smile:
When a bike marshal passed me around the 36km mark to scream at us to "STAY ON THE RIGHT! FAST RUNNER COMING." (The half marathon started 3 hours after us.) So I moved to the RIGHT and two FAST beautiful runners passed me on the RIGHT. I swear if I blinked I would've missed them, thank goodness I didn't trip them. They were incredible.Esther
PS. Thanks for reading this far :) Hope to hear all about your running soon.
PPS. Keep Sunday morning runs!!
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