Marathon post

Ok, so it was not that bad at all. Actually, it was a lot of fun. Probably I could have gone faster in the earlier going, but who knows how that would have changed the last part, so no point worrying about it. Full results are here.

It was fun because the race went all through Toronto and I got to think about all the good times I've had in the various places I passed. Here is how it went:

The first 5k (19:24) along Sheppard were pretty uneventful. The wind was in our face, and I was trying to be conservative. I guess there were about 20 people ahead of us, but by the turn at Downsview station, we had passed five or six. I couldn't believe the pace some of those idiots were going at. They must not have had a fun afternoon. Our group was an older guy named David Thompson (finished in 2:48) and a guy who was breathing pretty heavy (not sure his name, maybe Dave Stephens) and probably Roman Chapulty.

The second 5k (18:29) started out up Allen Road. I took some Gatorade at the turn, but I tried to do it without the straw, and I immediately understood why the straw is required. I will always bring a straw to every marathon I ever run (even if I only do one more). The area up there is pretty barren. I remembered going to a job interview near there in the summer between first and second year. I remember walking from Downsview station and thinking, "man, this is way too far to walk, I wish there was a bus!" The job was supposedly "sports marketing" but was really just calling people and selling magazine subscriptions. I wonder why they don't just say: this is a job selling magazine subscriptions? Anyway, I had to stop thinking about how far it was because I was only 5k in. This section was faster but with the same effort, because we weren't in the wind anymore.

The third 5k (18:41) was more fun, or at least, the end of the second and beginning of the third. We passed through G. Ross Lord Park. It was cool, almost like a cross country race--I could have run on the grass, but I didn't want to slip and my hamstring was tweaking a bit. I pulled out the straw for the fuel at 9k and it was masterful. I should have named my straw. There was a long downhill just before 10k, and I broke the group on it--we had caught up to a guy in a Tom Longboat singlet and he sort of pushed the pace a bit through the park. None of them could run downhill very fast though. I just let it go--it was nothing like REAL downhill running, of course, so I guess that's why. But I relaxed and let them come back to me. I figured I'd rather have the company for a while longer, and they'd tired themselves out trying to catch back up. It was a race after all.

Turning onto Yonge to start the fourth 5k (18:46) heavy-breathing guy was gone and only one dude (Chupulty, I think) was left near me. I tried to let him do some work, especially since we were back in the wind, but he wasn't really willing, so I just cruised on alone. Now the course started to become familiar. I ran past Churchill street, where my uncle Joe had lived, and my uncle Frank as well. I saw Dave Fitzpatrick near the start line. That was great. He told me I looked really good, and I felt it. I was very relaxed at this point. Under the 401 and down to York Mills was a very fast K (3:30). Joe, Char and Sarah Jane were there at the corner, going crazy. That was fun. It was a good pick up for me.

Hogg's Hollow slowed things down a bit, but it was not really a problem. I hit the half in 1:19:20. The interesting thing was, that was the only time I really checked my total time. The rest of the race, I just kept checking my splits at every K, but it never got above 5k. I just broke the race down into smaller chunks and it worked really well. This fifth 5k was 19:21, as a result of the hills on this part. I didn't actually think of the Abbey girls going up Hogg's Hollow, but I guess I could have. Down toward Lawrence I thought of Derek Wagland and Buncic, who lived near there during high school. The second hill after Lawrence was fine. I got to Sporting Life and I thought again of Wagland, and Tony Shaunessy, who puked over the railing, down into the subway entrance, the last night of Grade 10, after we'd been drinking in Sherwood Park. Tony didn't feel good, so we decided that it would be a good idea to feed him pizza. It wasn't a good idea. Also, that night, I beat Marc and Ray in a footrace--they fell over the log at the fire. Marc insists, of course, that he beat me, but he didn't. Last night he tried to race me again, but I wisely refused. I take his insistence (and glee at the possibility that he likely would have beat me) as an admission of defeat in the 1992 Sherwood race.

I passed the theatre just north of Castlefield, and I remembered going to see a movie with Kevin Walsh in the summer after grade four or five. It was the first time I'd gone out with one of my friends or something. We saw some movie with Bette Midler and someone else. A comedy. I think we wanted to see Batteries Not Included, but it wasn't playing at the right time or something. Weird. At Yonge and Eglinton Joe, Char and SJ were there again. I gave Joe the six-shooters and high-fived Char and Sar. I'd walked home from there drunk many times in high school. Funny, THAT didn't seem far. I moved from 12th place to 11th here, passing the guy from Les Vainqueurs who always goes out too fast.

I hit Davisville station (my pediatrician's office across the street, and where I slammed the door to the car that signaled the beginning of the end with Laura and I) and more and more people were commenting on the straw. The straw is key. I am loving the straw. The 6th 5k (19:04) was tough, but it felt good because I passed another two guys. I worked through Forest Hill, remembering Paul Barry's first marathon, and how he didn't come to school for a week afterwards--Kilbarry road was an ominous reminder of that. Then, I ran down Spadina, across St. Clair, gave a nod to Churchill Park, aka Fantasy Island, home of many many high school workouts, including the post-season long run (we ran 10miles up there, around and around, in the snow), before hitting Casa Loma. My dad used to plow snow there, and I remember going to a magic show where the magician called me on stage and put my hand in a machine that he had used to chop carrots. It was sort of a saw-someone-in-half gig. Yeah, and flying down Walmer on the way to UofT for indoor workouts in the winter. I moved into 9th place (past a startled Steve Cochrane) at 30k.

30-35k, the 7th 5k (19:08) was miraculously still on pace. I took off my gloves, and traded them to Sarah Jane at Yonge street for Gummies. I timed the Gummies just right, starting to eat my first pack at 13k, cracking open the second at about 25k, and getting the third from SJ here. This part of the course was also reminiscent of high school, as we used to hammer down Rosedale Valley Road on our distance days. I was tempted to turn off and hammer up the hill behind Castlefrank, but I decided that I wanted to finish the marathon instead. I thought I could try and reel number 8 in at this point, but the wheels just wouldn't go. The still roughly on-pace 5k split here is largely due to my pushing to try to catch Alexander Makovec (from Vienna). My calf cramped up, only briefly, but enough to startle me into caution, and that was that.

The last stretch, 7.2k (31:01, for an average of 4:13/k) was frustrating because I felt great, other than the fact that I had to slow down to keep my legs from cramping up. I took Gatorade (straw=awesome) and I had to change my stride to get the cup, and that made my left hamstring tighten up. I kept moving though, focusing on bringing it back on-line. Not once did it occur to me that I would have to stop. I knew that I would make it, the question was just how fast. It didn't really hurt that much, but only because I couldn't really go fast enough to make it hurt--my legs would cramp up before that could happen. The same thing happened at the end of World Mountain Running Trophy, in Bursa, but only for 200m, not 7k!

The crew (Joe, Char, SJ) were there at King and University, and I managed to beat them back up to Museum. So I guess it was going ok. PQ's advice that the last K is extra long was probably good, as I was ready for it and it didn't seem like much of a problem. I've run around Queen's Park enough in my life to know how far it is. I saw McCabe, Sharlene and Darren on the way around, Tim (and I guess his mom and my mom, but I didn't see them) in the final stretch, and that was it. Per's first words to me were: "Man, you look too good."

Good enough, I think.