Race Recaps

Vancouver Marathon 2010!





A little late but here is a race re-cap from the Vancouver Marathon on May.2nd 2010.
What a way to spend the day after your  birthday! Instead of spending the night of my birth getting drunk with friends, I spent it anxious and nervous with my roomie! I guess turning 25 really does mature a girl.. well we had one glass of wine, but that was only to help us sleep!
Since January, I had been training with the Broadway Running Room marathon clinic. Or should I say Greatest Clinic Ever under our awesome leader, Dave.


The clinic was a great experience, I learned so much about running from nutrition to running hills and doing speed work. I also met a ton of great people along the way. A lot of the time the only thing that got me through our Sunday long runs was the thought of brunch after!


Throughout training, I ran with the 3:30 pace group. As race time came closer, I began to really want a Boston Qualifying time (3:40). I knew it was in my reach, but had no idea what would happen on race day and if I would crash in those extra 10km's.
BMO did a good job of conquering the many faces of my marathon, I'll let the pictures do the talking and the fact that they say "proof" is only evidence that I completed it... 

The Beginning:


Tom, Andy and I decided to run together during the race. We agreed that if any of us felt good or bad it was during the race, we could go on without them. I am so very thankful I had them to keep me on pace for the first half, otherwise I really think I would have gone out too fast. We didn't start the race until 4 minutes after the gun went off because we were in line for the bathrooms. Luckily it is based on chip time! I think this helped our pace but we also had to dodge around a lot of people to pass them which probably tired us out more in the end. Race day was rainy- which I was happy about! I love running in the rain. Running with these guys was awesome, we kept a steady pace and had so much fun for the first half of the race. It flew by.
At about 20km, I decided I felt good enough to pick up my pace. I left the boys and felt good for the next 12km. At around the 33km mark I started to feel the pain but I wasn't in to bad of shape.


After the 37km mark and over Burrard Bridge I started to hate my life. I knew I could run the last 4-5km but I felt so sore! I just wanted it to be over- and there was no more smiling for pictures. Burrard bridge felt like the steepest hill in the world!
Not a happy camper...

Tom ended up passing me again as we headed over the bridge. My pace slowed down a lot in the final few km's but I made it through!

It's like as soon as you finish, you forget the pain! (Until the next day when you try and walk...)
 

Final Results: Boston Qualifier!
Time: 3:34:10
Pace: 5:05/km
Rank: 590
Place in Division: 43/292

Lessons Learned: Overall, I felt trained and rested for this race. I think the pacing at the beginning was great and I really got into zone for the middle portion of the marathon. However, the last 5-7km were really, really hard. Next time I may consider practicing longer runs or hopefully will have stronger legs to carry me to the finish. However, it wouldn't be called a marathon and I wouldn't have worked hard enough if I didn't feel like I was going to die at the end!