The journey to my first marathon

A few days ago, I ran my first ever marathon - Ottawa race weekend marathon 2012. Throughout my training regime I toyed with the idea of blogging about it. On my long training runs a witty phrase would come to me, but vanish by the time I got home. I never did write anything down, so this 'retrospective blog' is based entirely on memory. Unfortunately all the good witty phrases remain lost in the woods of those long runs. 

In the beginning...

I officially started training for this run in January 2012, however my journey started about four years ago in the summer of 2008. At that time I was a couch potato, who would get winded jogging to the bus stop.  I had no idea that I had let myself go. In my head I was still the fit university student inline skating 12km each way to his part time job - even though it had been almost 10 years since I'd even put on my roller blades!! 

 

One otherwise unremarkable day in July 2008, my wife turned to me and said - "I want to lose some weight, I am going to join a program and do it". I said something like, "ok, maybe I could lose 5-10 too. I'll join you for support. ". 

 

I weigh how much?

When you commit to losing weight, it's a good idea to have a starting point, that way you know what you are working with. I got on the scale and couldn't believe what I saw - 230lbs. I can not tell you how much this number shocked me, and stung me.  Up until that very moment, I had NO IDEA that I was fat.My mind flashed to Homer Simpson, and that that was how much HE weighed. Not me - I was thin, I was in shape.  Getting on that scale was an epiphany of sorts for me.

 

Nutritional changes

After the 'Scale epiphany', I started really concentrating on my diet and lost over 50 pounds by early 2009.  I was thinner, and looked healthier. By this time, my incredibly intelligent wife was pairing her new nutrition habits with an exercise program. It was working extremely well for her, and she looked, and felt great.  I was eating better, but not exercising, so I was thin but not in good shape - I just didn't know it yet. My wife sat me down and encouraged me to exercise. I am not going to lie, it was an awkward conversation. I got defensive and told her that I biked to work (true - almost 5 years ago).  Eventually I took it to heart and stated to hit the gym. I treadmilled, I elipticaled, I spun, and it was ok. I felt good, but going to the gym was a chore.

My first race

In April of 2010 my wife's work was holding a 5 km road race fun run. My wife was going to run it, and she suggested that I do it too. (the smart readers should by now be noticing a pattern here...).  I thought... Sure.  I started to concentrate on my treadmill running, and was getting faster at doing the 5km distance. That first race was like a drug. I had a cramp all the way through and didn't love the route, but by the end I was hooked. I started signing up for more 5km, and 10km races. And in October of 2010, I ran my first half marathon (21.1km). At the time there was "no way in heck" (trying to stay kid friendly),  I would EVER go further than 21.1 km. Flash forward a year to October of 2011, by then a total of 3 half marathon races, and several 10 k races under my belt, and I decided to register for Ottawa race weekend in May  2012.

The training. 

The training started in January.  I won't bore you with details of my training, but I ran A LOT and I stuck pretty close to the online training schedule.  I will, however, admit to some cheats. A bad week or two early on.  A couple of runs shortened, and one important run skipped because of injury.  Still I made steady progress, and continued to enter smaller distance races. All of my other race times were getting better. I sliced 8 minutes off my first half marathon time, and 4 off my first 10 km time. Now came the question, "what time should I target for the marathon?". I read a lot about it, and talked to people in the know, and I picked a time of 3:35. That time was 2x my best half marathon (1:40), plus about 15 minutes. According to my research, that seemed about right. 

The big day

The day of the race I was full of excitement, jitters and pasta. I got to the start line early and found my pace bunny, and before I knew it, we were off. Whoa, what's that?  What's a pace bunny you say?  Well, pace bunnies are very  helpful for racers trying to target a certain time goal. They are not bunnies, but actually people wearing bunny ears and holding signs with a time on it. Each bunny has a goal time, and knows where it needs to be when in order to achieve that goal.  If you stay with that bunny, you should finish at that time. That part, as it turns out, is easier said then done. 

We're off!!

Being about 20seconds per km slower than my current half marathon pace, I initially felt really good. I had energy to spare and things were going really well. I hit the 21.1km split with a 1:47:14 and felt awesome. A little bit tired, but that was understandable. Just do that again i thought. Maybe 28km in, I started to notice the bunny and most of his group speed up and pull away from me. What the...??? I checked my gps watch, oops I guess they aren't speeding up at all, but I am slowing down. Ok, no problem as long as I stay between 3:35 and 3:40...  Then, around 31km, I had to walk. I tried to avoid it as I have never walked in a race before.  The feeling to walk was overwhelming. I walked, only a bit, and started to run again. Then I saw the 3:40 bunny pass me. Oh no, couldn't catch him.  At 33km, I saw several of my family members including my wife and kids, my parents, and parents-in-laws. It was great to see them, and awesome that they came out.  I tried to ensure I was running, and not walking, when I passed them. That plan almost succeeded, but they were more spread out then I realized. I got caught in a walk by my step father. He didn't tell anyone though. 

The wall

By 36km in (6 km from the end) I was walking almost as much as I was running. I will take a brief pause from the story for a little pace comparison. Up until the 28 km point each km was taking me between  4min 55s and 5min 5s. At this point in the race I was taking 7mins or more to do 1 kilometer. One particularly rough patch had me taking 7mins 44s per KM. I kept seeing pace bunnies pass me. 3:45... zoom.  3:50... zoom.  At 40km I was walking beside the crowd, and  a spectator told me that I needed to run and he pushed me. If by chance you are the person who did this, don't ever do this again. It could have knocked me over, and it didn't help. I may have actually walked longer just to spite you. Although, truthfully I was looking for any reason to continue walking at that point, and I would likely  have found another reason if not for that one. 

I saw the 3:55 pace bunny and her posse and tried to catch them.  They were moving at a pace that I thought I could easily catch. I felt like I was trying to swim after a ship that continued to slowly pull away. I just couldn't catch it. At 200m, I saw a very scary sight. I saw a man lying on the side of the road, and paramedics giving him full on chest compressions. I heard myself say "ohmygod.ohmygod.ohmygod". I found out later that was running the half marathon, and he survived. 

The big finish

Eventually I saw the finish line. I saw the time on the huge clock. Yikes!! 3:57something. , go!!!  I crossed the finish line with a time of 3:58:08 and called my wife, my inspiration, and told her I had done it. I had to get off the phone early because I was having trouble holding my hand up to my ear. My arms were exhausted. 

The analyzing

So I did it, and I am thrilled.  I wish I had hit a little closer to my target time. Most of all, I wish that I didn't have to walk. While training for my next race, I will concentrate more on that wall then I did this time. 

So, that's my experience in a nutshell. I am already talking about my next full marathon. Maybe I'll see you there.