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Comments: RACE DAY The weather forecast had been calling for rain and heavy winds. I was pleasantly surprised on Sunday morning that it wasn’t raining, and the sun was even shining out from between the clouds. The start of the race was a little bit crowded for about 500m, and then it thinned out nicely. I tried to settle in to my pace and not get too far ahead of my Garmin virtual pacer. At about 1.5 km, Eljeffe (a guy I know from Runningmania.com) came up on my left and said hello. We were both shooting for 3:30 so we ended sticking together for quite a while. Then Bunsontherun (also from Runningmania) went past us, and I recognized the orange shirt and chatted with him for a few seconds. He was moving just a bit too fast for my virtual pacer, so I decided not to try to keep up with him. I just stuck with my plan, took my gels every 6km, and took Gatorade at every aid station. By the half way point, I was about 750meters ahead of my virtual pacer. I had run the first half in 1:43:10 (416th place overall), and I was still feeling very relaxed and strong at that point. I stuck close to Eljeffe until about 25km. Then he made his move and tried to step up the pace. I sped up a little bit and kept him in my sights, but I didn’t try to match his pace. At about 28km I passed Bunsontherun. At 31km I was catching up to Eljeffe and I was about 20 feet behind, but I badly needed to pee so I stopped to use the port-a-potty. I think I wasted about 45 seconds in the port-a-potty and when I came back out I passed Bunsontherun again and started looking for Eljeffe. I finally caught up with him again at 34km, and he was starting to slow down a bit. This was around the point that the heavy rain started. By this point I had stopped looking at my watch, and I was mostly just trying to pace myself off the faster runners. Every time somebody passed me, I would try to run behind them and hold on for as long as I could. Holding onto my race pace was getting increasingly difficult. By 40km, my 750 meter lead on the virtual partner had shrunk to about 300m. Just as I passed the 1-mile-to-go sign, my watch beeped to tell me I was at 41km. Crap!! I my trusty virtual pacer was off by about 400m, and I only had a 300m lead on him. I had set my pace for 4:57 instead of 4:58, but would that be enough to make up the extra 100m? My brain was in no condition for that sort of complex math, all I could do was speed up. I ran at a 4:50/km pace for the last mile, but it sure felt like I was going a lot faster. I rounded the last corner, and I could still see 3:28:?? on the clock. I could slow down a little bit. It was just past 3:29 when I crossed the mat. I had beat 3:30!!!  Post race
Warm down: My official chip time turned out to be 3:28:53. A Personal Best by 11:50!! My split on the second half was 1:45:43, which included my bathroom break. I had moved up from 416th place to 295th place in the second half, gaining 121 positions overall. I guess #2006 was a lucky number afterall! Profile Album Last updated: 2007-08-16 12:00 AM
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Canada
Precipitation
Overall Rank = 295/1979
Age Group = M3034
Age Group Rank = 43/127
#2006 -- GOOD LUCK OR BAD OMEN?
I’ll admit, I have a bit of a tendency to over-analyze my race numbers for numerological significance. At the package pickup in Victoria, they gave me #2006.
Instantly I thought it was some sort of bad omen. 2006 was a pretty rough year for me. It was the year I planned to qualify for Boston, until my whole world fell apart in the middle of training. 2006 was the year my 10-year marriage came to an end, and I went from seeing my kids every day to only seeing them on weekends. It was they year went on antidepressants and gained 60 pounds.
But then when I thought about it more, a lot of good things happened in 2006. It was the year I learned I had been married to a lesbian all those years -- it wasn’t something wrong with me. 2006 was the year I met my fiancé Tara. 2006 was the year that I signed up for Ironman Canada 2007 and started to turn my life back around.
Was #2006 a bad omen or was it good luck? I was going to have to leave that up to the finish clock to determine.
TRAINING
Ironman was only 6 weeks earlier, but I had managed to squeeze in two 32km long runs and a total of 238km in those 6 weeks, including Ironman recovery and marathon taper. I would have done a lot more if it hadn’t been for the complications with my Ironman tattoo. Both of my 32km runs went really bad, and both times I had to slow down dramatically from my 5:40/km LSD pace after about 22-24km.
PRE-RACE PLANS / GOALS / EXPECTATIONS
My goal going into this race was 3:30. I have done 2 marathons before, and both times my goal was 3:30. The first time I finished in 3:49, and the second time I finished in 3:40. (I have also done 4 ultras and 1 Ironman, so I have a little more experience now than most third time marathoners). I set my Forerunner to go at 4:57/km for 50km (because there’s nothing worse than having it stop on you before the finish line due to a GPS error).
The toughest decision was whether or not I should carry a water bottle. I finally decided not to carry any water, and just rely on the aid stations for liquids. But I was questioning this decision right up to the start line. I wore a bike jersey, and I had 8 gels in the back pockets. The plan was to take 1 gel every 6 km, and I would only need 6 gels if the race went as planned. The 2 extras were in case I started to bonk or I took longer than expected to finish. I also planned to take 1-2 cups of Gatorade at each aid station, approximately every 3km.