Hills for breakfast, hold the gnats

Sunshine and low temperatures, and LOTS of hills. I feel really great about how I ran my race, as confirmed by the intense pain I now have in my legs. ;)

On Friday, while cruising the expo, I chatted with a few people about the course and attended a talk given by Rod Dixon (amazing runner), during which I became less and less confident about my assessment of the hills. The following sentence from the website, "The Royal Victoria Marathon is a beautiful, seaside course with lots of mild undulations, but with a maximum elevation change of only 74 feet.," was looking more and more like a marketing department invention, so I signed up for the bus tours. Marathon bus tours can be depressing and I tend to avoid them. I am SO glad I took this one. Hills, hills, hills. Most of them really were quite gentle - though not all! - and I knew they would take a toll.

While running I counted 5 hills that made me say a bad word, 4 of which had to be run again on the way back to the finish. But because of the bus tour, I knew what to expect, and adjusted my goals, my effort level and my "state of mind." I will only say this last thing about the hills - even with all the hill running I do, the hills took their toll... However! I really could feel the strength from my training. I passed people on every single hill, even when I slowed down at the end!

I don't have Garmin mile splits to share, except to say that I was right on target (between 9:00 & 9:20) when I was not climbing a hill, until about mile 18 when things started to hurt. At that point I started clocking 10:00's and 10:15's. Before the start, I decided to hit "lap" every time I walked through a water stop (and "lap" again when I started running), and in the last few miles when I had to add some additional walks. So my mile splits will require a lot of math to figure out. But it gives me some data I will be able to use in the future.

Sorry this is such a disjointed report. I haven't gone to lunch yet and I keep pausing to chat w/ AuntieEm, who is here in our hotel room. So fun to see her!

I had a great time today! The last 5 miles were very difficult and painful (and slow), but I am extremely happy with how I ran today. This is a gorgeous course, with nice volunteers, and good course support. The expo was not great, but the speakers were. I'll come back with splits later if I figure them out... Off to get food!! Ouch! :D

More details about the race…

The course began on one side of the ornate, palace-like Parliament Building, and wound around through downtown Victoria and the "Inner Harbor" waterfront, eventually coming out towards the shores of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. But just before we arrived at the sea, the course made a detour into Beacon Hill Park, which was absolutely beautiful: huge trees, ponds, fountains, statues, and peacocks (though I only saw them on the bus tour). We ran two loops in the park (picture eye glasses) and came back out to arrive at the shore of the strait around mile 5. During this section, I did not look at the Garmin at all, a choice about which I am very pleased. Now I know exactly what an easy, warm up pace is when I am in the excitement of a marathon race day, and running up and down hills: 9:59, 9:54, 9:45, 9:04, 9:29.

Next, we ran along the water, downhill into a bay, uphill out of the bay onto a sort of headland, and down again into another small bay. Partway into the bay, the course turns inland to the charming town of Oak Bay. Here we ran a series of long gradual hills, with a shorter steeper hill at the highest point on the course. I still felt very strong through here, but I took it easy knowing I would see all these hills in reverse on the return trip. Oak Bay is a really charming residential area with lots of interesting homes and huge oak trees lining the streets. We came back to the seaside at about 17K; I don't remember what mile that was, but I was trying to do the conversions in my head (the course was marked in kilometers, Canadian you know) to avoid Garmin gazing. After a while, I just started thinking in kilometers and subtracting every K marker from 42: OK, almost to the halfway point. I had the pleasure of seeing the elites on their return, with a young Kenyan far into the lead. I was still only walking at the water stops, and hitting "lap" before and after walking so that I could know my run paces (not all of these are full miles because of the water stops coming in the middle of miles): 9:29, 9:09, 9:26, 9:14, 9:13, 9:13, 9:17. (Not bad considering the hills!)

Emerging back onto the shoreline, we ran up another hill to a headland, and back down to the actual bay of "Oak Bay," where the course was noticeably flat for a while! Past a lovely marina and parks. Then we ascended again and ran inland a bit, through a neighborhood of $10+ million homes, inland farther to the turnaround, and then retraced our course back towards Oak Bay. The turnaround came right after the 23K mark; that's about 14.3, but I miscalculated and thought I was at around mile 16. So when I glanced at the Garmin to get an idea of how I was doing, I became quite confused. About that time, I was also experiencing some dizziness (this has happened to me in marathons before), so I pulled back just a little and walked, thinking maybe I was in some kind of trouble. I soon realized my mistake, felt "stable" again, and kept running. I remember playing a game in this section, to see how many trees I could name. They were so beautiful and huge: oak, sycamore, blue spruce, cedar, and madrona were most common. The non-walking splits for this section were: 9:29, 9:07, 9:20, 9:26, 9:17, 9:12.

Eventually we had to return inland and retrace our steps back through Oak Bay village, the high point on the course. By the time I came back out to the shoreline, I had hit mile 18 and my legs were starting to feel rubbery. I could tell I was slowing down. Dang. The course does not return through Beacon Hill Park, however, so the last 5K follow the waterfront around the last headland and back around to the Parliament Building and the Inner Harbor. I am disappointed that I had to add so many short little walks through here, but at least I was still feeling positive and forcing myself not to let things fall apart too much. Keep moving forward! My mind dwelt on how lucky I am to have discovered a sport I love and to be able to enjoy it even when I am hurting. At around 40K I thought I might be hallucinating: there were about a dozen 70+ y.o. ladies in poodle skirts cheering us on. A couple of unwelcome short inclines near the finish, and I was finally seeing the finish line! There was my family. :) Last eight miles (in pieces): 9:50, 9:30, 9:51, 10:00, 10:15, 10:15, 10:02, 10:22, 10:43, 10:19

I believe that my legs felt worse at the finish than any other marathon I have run, but the comparison may be biased by that trick the brain plays of not letting us remember the worst. In any case, I was in a great deal of pain and shaking with weakness. The volunteers were wonderful. My family was wonderful, And there was AuntieEm - she was wonderful too! We all sat on the grass for a few minutes; Mr. Sno had to lower and raise me. Ouch, ouch, ouch! And I do it - for fun! LOL

Monday morning... I slept quite poorly last night, since my sore legs and abs screamed at me every time I moved. Before bed, we spent some time at the hotel pool and I went back and forth between the hot tub and the relatively cold pool. Perhaps that helped a bit, I don't know.

I feel great about how I ran and how strong I felt most of the race. I am pretty sure I could have stayed closer to (if not on) my marathon pace if the course had been flat or even less hilly. That's all right. I have no regrets. This has been a very happy weekend and a great race experience.

When I think of how awful I felt before my taper, how discouraged and self-deprecating - I am overjoyed about this experience and all I have learned. I cannot wait to start running and training again. I am looking at Newport Marathon for June 5, but honestly - must I wait that long to have another marathon? No! I cannot. I'll have a look around at my late-winter, early-spring options and see what might fit. Many, many thanks to Sean Sundwall, for getting me stronger with that training plan; I will continue to use those workouts as I pursue my goals.