Wow, that was fun. The weather was perfect, well almost. There was a light mist for the first half of the marathon followed by a good shower (for a few Km), more light mist and it stoped for the last 5 Km.

For the first 3Km, everybody was passing me. I tried to pace myself during the first part of the race so I would have energy to finish the race. It turned out to be a good strategy. The first half of the race went fast (well in my mind) and I was really constant clocking 5:05 to 5:25 per Km for the first 25Km. I did not stop once during that period, drinking at every station (each 2Km) while running and eating a gel every 45 minutes. I felt very good. I wanted to complete the marathon in 4h. I did the first half in 1:51:47 and I still was feeling pretty great. I was not going all out and keeping energy for the last part of the race. The last 10Km really afraid me since my longest run was 32Km in training. I did not know what to expect.
Km 26, 27 28 and 29 were a little slower. I started walking at the water stations while drinking my fluids. But still felt pretty good, and everything was going according to plan. And then suddently at Km 30, there was a hill in the trail. Not a long one, maybe 50m but very steep. That was painfull......It really killed me. I started to have pain in my right knee. I started clocking 6:00 to 6:30 per Km from Km 31 to 38. But I was mooving forward. The pain was not so bad. I knew at that point that I would finish on my 2 feet with a smile. So at Km 40, with 3 Km to go I felt I still had energy and decided to push a little more and get in front of that lady in yellow that was in front of me. It went really well and managed to run my last Km in 5:36.
And overall, finished it below my objective of 4H. Yaououououououo!!!!!!!



Avoid the taekwondo black belt testing the day before.....

I found out that everthing freeze in your body when you finish the race. I tried to walk around, but at that point, I was starting to get cold. I was all wet from the rain. While jogging, I kept myself hot so I did not feel the cold rain. Actually, feeling that little mist during the race was pretty good.
Did some stretching, and went back to the hotel to get a shower and eat something good.



Had fun, hope to try it again next year...