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Comments: Started out near the front as my goal was a sub-3. After the Mayor finished telling us to spend lots of money in Victoria he counted us down and we were off. Tried to settle into a good pace early on, checked my watch at 1k mark and was at just below 4min (target= 4:15/km) I was expecting this. I felt really good though so I kept it up. Found a pretty good groove and a few others as well which made it easy to keep the pace. One thing I found over the first part of the course, on the uphills I would always get a bit ahead of my "group" and then on the downhill they would either catch or pass me. I gotta figure that one out. Felt pretty good as I was coming up on the halfway point, hit the mat and I now have my fastest half marathon time 1:25:59! As I was heading to the turnaround point the leaders passed me going the other way - man was it awesome to see them running so fast and still looking so strong. Shortly after the turnaround it started to hurt. I could definitely feel my legs trying to tell me to stop or at least slow down. I was at 30k and kept telling myself it's only 10k more to go - that's easy 40-45mins!! I can do that! It was the longest and hardest 10k I've ever done, ever. It started to rain which didn't bother me at all, I'm glad I wore the long sleeve at this point. Now I just tried to focus on the people in front of me and tried to keep up and not loose them. It was all about seeing how slow I could run and still beat 3 hours. At about 1k-ish to go passed a friend of mine who sounded excited that I was going to beat 3hours. The last part seemed to take FOREVER! But when I turned that last corner and saw the finish line I sprinted as fast I could - which probably wasn't very fast. I looked at the clock and saw 2:56:?? and was thrilled!! It was very emotional after that, I almost broke down just getting my medal. I was finished! Months of hard work paid off! My first Marathon!! And in my goal time!! Looked around frantically for my wife and gave her a looong hug and cried just a bit, I just couldn't help it. That was probably the hardest physical thing I've done and it took a lot of focus and determination to finish it. I was happy! 5k Splits: 5k: 19:54 10k: 20:23 15k: 20:18 20k: 20:51 25k: 20:10 30k: 21:04 35k: 22:02 40k: 22:14 2.2k: 9:38 First half 1:25:59 Second half 1:30:38 What would you do differently?: Not much, maybe train a bit faster. I always seem to run faster than what I should. And train to stay fast after I get tired.  Post race
Warm down: Put my jacket on from my wife and a plastic sheet they were handing out to keep the rain off. Started to get cold so I ate a bit then walked back to the hotel. Tried to jog but that wasn't going to happen!! Did some stretching and had a nice shower! What limited your ability to perform faster: Lack of experience. My training wasn't exactly the way I wanted in the last few weeks because of my achilles acting up. However, they didn't bother me in the run so I must've done something right! Event comments: Great race, loved every minute of it. Course was great too! Would definitely recommend it! Last updated: 2007-09-22 12:00 AM
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Canada
12C / 54F
Overcast
Overall Rank = 33/1979
Age Group = M25-29
Age Group Rank = 5/66
Really good pasta dinner at a local Italian restaurant Lucciano's where I met and talked to a few others running the race. Got to bed at a decent time and slept really well considering how nervous and excited I was. Got up before the alarm (no surprise there!) and got downstairs to have breakfast: bagel with PB & honey, banana and some water - the usual! It was nice having the race start at 8:30 so I didn't have to get up super early.
Walked to the start line from the hotel. Just as we were leaving, saw Simon Whitfield fly past on his way to win the 8k Road Race. Did some light jogging with a few strides thrown in and then some stretching. Was happy that it was mix of sun and cloud as they were predicting a wind storm with heavy rain!??!