Toronto Marathon Race Report

First off, a big thank you to all of you who broke open your piggy banks and gave to support the Princess Margaret Hospital. We've raised over $2500 and still going!! Thanks to all of you!

Team Ironhead clutching the hot chocolate at the start line.

Now, onto the grumpy section of the post:


3:41:19.8. 449th overall, 72/214 in AG.


Hmmpph.


Many things have been said by many others, several spikier than I am about pace, or about endurance - not speed, but endurance. Speed comes from endurance, and endurance comes from the trifecta - PCF - patience, consistency and freqency. Endurance is the ability to keep moving, just keep moving. Clearly, I have lacked many of these things this year and my results to close out the year reflect that. On marathon morning (I can't really refer to it as "race" morning) I thought I could hold on to a 5 minute km pace to finish in the ballpark of 3:30:xx, give or take a minute or two. I had lined up A, B and C goals for the day. Sub-3:30 for the "A", sub-PR (3:40:14) for the "B" and to finish for the "C".

This is about the last time I was "flying" on the course.

I started out with the 3:30 pace bunny and decided to stay with him, but here's the thing. It's difficult to judge pace from a bunny that's making multiple bathroom stops. I later found out that the bunny had intentionally gone out at a faster pace in order to put a couple of minutes in the bank for the finish. I also was passed before the finish by the 3:45 bunny who must have crossed at least four minutes early.

In this, the year of re-education, what did I learn on this day?


You can't cheat the basework for a marathon. There's no faking it in a race this distance. One 16 miler and one 20 miler in training is not enough. You must respect the distance. Going out too fast always burns you in the end. And it takes twenty minutes to eat a bagel if you're too dehydrated to work up enough spit to chew.


I am now almost obliged to run this course again at a later date, so as to not have to go to my grave with this finish time. Still faster than Oprah, and it is a very pretty course with some very nice tree-lined sections (and a castle!) but it is a "read the fine print" course, or more like "look at the course elevation". They do sell it as a net "downhill" course, and it technically is. There's a first uphill at about 5k. That's no big deal. The nasty little truth is the fact that the last 3k is a long slow leg-sucking uphill that makes you question your will to live.



The end:



So there it is. Let the offseason begin.

Peace.