Little Illusions

Posts Tagged ‘Edge to Edge Marathon’

Distance: 42.2k baby!

Time: 5:29:04 (official time)

Just a warning: this race was epic, and so is this post. It’s epically long. Feel free to grab a coffee or a snack before you settle down with this bad boy. Enjoy!

Before The Race

I woke up without the alarm at 5:50. I thought I had set it for 5:45, so I wondered why it didn’t go off. Turns out I had set it for 6:45. Oops! If I had slept until my alarm, I would have had 5 minutes to get ready and out the door to catch the shuttle bus to Tofino. There were later buses, but we were concerned about the later buses being full, so we opted to take one of the earlier ones. I woke Lil up, who also wondered why she her alarm hadn’t gone off. She had set hers for 6:50 (she told me she was last night, which might be why I set mine for 6:45). In any case, we were up on time, and had lots of time to get ready.

This paragraph is about breast pumping, so if that’s TMI, skip ahead. I brought my pump with me, and I’m honestly surprised at how I had to remind myself to pump during this trip. I think I got a plugged duct on the right side on Saturday, which made my breast hard and painful. I eventually fixed it, but I definitely didn’t want that to happen during the race! I spent some extra time this morning with the pumping, trying to make sure I emptied as much as possible. In fact, I spent a bit too much time, and ended up feeling a bit rushed just before we left.

Fortunately, I had laid out all my gear the night before, because I could definitely feel the nerves this morning. I had a cup of coffee and a bowl of oatmeal, which is my usual pre-race meal. Lil was bringing a bag with some stuff, so I added a couple bottles of Gatorade, my sunscreen, and my belt to the bag, complete with my Gu, lip balm, ID, Kleenex, and 4 emergency Advil. I also made sure I had my iPhone and armband/headphones with me (Can you guess what I forgot? The answer is coming up.). Because it was chilly and a bit foggy, I wore my running jacket, although I planned to check it before the race.

We left somewhere around 6:50, to catch the 7:00 bus at the museum. I drove the car to the main road, and parked across the street from the museum, where a few runners were already waiting. The bus turned onto the road just as I was locking up the car, and we made it by dashing across the road. There was plenty of room on the bus, and we found an empty bench. The shuttle buses were old school buses; it had been years since I was on one of those.

The bus ride was a bit strange, for a few reasons. First, we were both really starting to get nervous about the race. For me, until I was on that bus, the marathon was still something I was “going to do”; once I was heading to the start line, it became something I was “doing”. Second, Lil gets motion sickness, so she had to sit in the window seat, and I’m sure her trying to keep the nausea at bay was taking some concentration. Third, we were driving along the race route, only in reverse, so I was trying to note all the downhills (i.e. uphills during the race). I did remember to take a couple of pictures of us on the way.

Sooner than I thought, we arrived in Tofino, although it was really about 7:45. Neither of us was familiar with the area, so we followed the other racers to the start line. I drank nearly an entire bottle of Gatorade on the ride down, so I had to use the bathroom. We joked a bit with the other racers in the line, and then sat and waited for the race to begin. The sun had just begun to shine, making true the weather reports for a warm, sunny day, although at that time the air was still chilly and the wind was biting. As the sun brightened, I realized that I FORGOT MY SUNGLASSES. I was beside myself, especially as the sun got brighter and brighter. I couldn’t believe I forgot something so important! The only reason I could think of was that it wasn’t very bright out when we left the hotel. My one saving grace was that I wore my visor; it would keep the worst of the sun out of my eyes, although it still promised to be bright out.

I think we had a bit too much time to wait, which made us a bit antsy. This was my first marathon, but it was Lil’s first race. We chatted while we waited, and took some pictures. I put on sunscreen (at least I remembered that!), and we met another racer when he came over to borrow some sunscreen. He told us that he was running the race because he lost a poker game (he was supposed to do the Vancouver Sun Run, but it was on Mother’s Day – Awww!). His buddy was supposed to join him but never signed up. We also met Lil’s co-worker, who hitchhiked to the race because the car he borrowed broke down. He was an experienced long-distance runner, so we didn’t expect to see him during the race.

Eventually, we lined up for the race start, at the back of the pack. Once we got to the start, I was less nervous. I guess I felt like I reached the point of no return. It really felt like any other race. I don’t remember if a gun went off, or if someone yelled “start”, but we were off!

The Race

The first few kilometres were really easy. Lil and I decided earlier to chat for a while at the beginning, and then put on music when we needed to. I wasn’t using Runkeeper because my battery would not have lasted through the race; also, I think it needs 3G for the GPS to work properly and I didn’t have a signal for most of the race. Lil had her Garmin, and set it up so we’d know the time, pace, and distance. She didn’t wear her heart rate monitor. I was worried we would start too fast, because I always seem to, but we kept the pace around 7 minutes/km. The first 10k were on a cycling/foot path beside the highway, except for the part on Chesterman Beach. We were near the back of the pack, which I expected, but we weren’t last, so Lil was happy. We just cruised along, chatting about I don’t even remember what, just random stuff. It was still cool, but not cold, and my visor was keeping the sun out of my eyes.

At about the 5k mark, we crossed the highway and went to Chesterman Beach for about a km and a half. Just before we hit the beach, I had to stop at the portapotty (too much Gatorade!) and I was a bit annoyed to see people passing us. There were two people ahead of me and they seemed much slower than they probably were. Lil debated about whether she should pause the Garmin or not, since we weren’t moving. I think she decided not to, since the clock at the finish line was still going. By the time I got out of the portapotty, the pace cycle was waiting for us. We managed to catch up on the beach, though.

Chesterman Beach was, by far, the prettiest part of the course. The tide was out a fair bit, leaving hard packed beach to run on, which was nicer on the knees than pavement, but it was hard enough that you didn’t sink. The view was spectacular! The ocean waves, and nothing else on the horizon but ocean until it met the sky. I should have stopped to take a picture, but I didn’t, and Lil had checked her camera. We both commented on how great the view was, and how it was worth doing the race just to run on the beach.

Too soon, we were back on the road, only it wasn’t much further before the cycling path ended and we were running right on the road. We were facing traffic, but the shoulder was pretty narrow, so we couldn’t run two abreast for very long. It was at this time that we decided to turn our iPods on, but not too loud so we could still hear the traffic. Speaking of traffic, most of the cars going both ways either honked or whooped out their windows as they passed. It made the atmosphere more jovial, since spectators weren’t allowed on the course.

We ended up stopping at the next two portapotties along the course, as well. Lil had to use the second one, and I had to use the third. I probably should have used the second one with Lil, but when we got there I didn’t have to go. I did feel a bit ridiculous by the third stop, and I told myself that was the last potty stop for the rest of the race. And, surprisingly, it was, for me. I think the third stop was at about the 13k mark, and after that I ended up running a bit ahead of Lil. Only a few paces, but enough that we couldn’t easily talk to each other. It’s funny because I was asking Lil about time and pace a lot at the beginning, but once we separated I didn’t worry about any of that.

As the run progressed toward the 20k mark, I started pulling further and further ahead of Lil. I didn’t even know I was doing it, because I was listening to my music, and for a couple of songs, I must have paced myself with them. I just remember looking behind me every so often and Lil was right behind me, and then she wasn’t. I could still see her, but she was further back. I felt bad about leaving her behind because we were supposed to stick together, and I wanted to make sure she was okay, so I slowed to a walk a few times so she could catch up. I also waited for her at the water stations. She said she was getting sore, but she was okay.

Also at this point, I remembered seeing a hill on the elevation map that looked like a doozy. I think I was actually worried about this hill off and on until I got there. Once we reached it, just like most things that are dreaded in life, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Hindsight being 20/20, this hill wasn’t even the worst one of the course. We just walked up the hill like we had planned, and kept going. I should also mention that until this point, I had probably run about 85-90% of the time, only really stopping at the water stations to have a drink, and we stopped for Gu breaks about every 45 minutes.

I distinctly remember passing the 23k mark of the course, because it meant I had gone further that I ever had before at once. I was pleasantly surprised that I was still feeling strong and pretty good. My hips were just the slightest bit sore, and my right arch was achy, but it was nothing I couldn’t push through easily.

As I passed the 26k marker, I was absolutely confident that I would finish the marathon. Up until then, I thought I would, but then I knew it. This was also the first point of the race when I started to pass other racers. Until then, I barely saw anyone else, and they were usually pretty far ahead. One of the differences between a larger race and a small one like this, I guess. I think around this point things started to get more difficult for Lil, though. As I had promised, I stopped at every water station and waited for her, but the waits became longer and longer. Just as we left the water station near the 29k mark, Lil commented that she had heard that the 25-32k zone was the hardest to get through. I was still okay, but I was getting more sore. I was starting to worry about Lil, though. Her mood had changed completely. I briefly tried to cheer her up, but I sensed I was just annoying her, so I stopped. When we started running again, we got separated, and when I looked behind me, I couldn’t see her.

At the final relay point, right around the 32k mark, I stopped again to wait for Lil. Just before this stop, we had to cross the road so we were going with the traffic, and I couldn’t see Lil. I was actually getting worried that something had happened to her, when I finally saw her. She was hurting, and she said she was pretty much going to have to walk the rest of the way, except for the downhills. I was also pretty sore, but it actually was less painful to run than to walk, and starting up running after a walk break was awful. I felt bad, because I wanted us to finish together, but Lil encouraged me to go ahead so I did. At least I would get to cheer for her at the finish line.

At this point there was only about 10k left of the course, and it was about 12:45 (we started at 8:30). I tried to psych myself up for the last leg by telling myself that it was only 10k left, and I run 10k all the time. It actually kind of worked, although my body still knew that even though I do 10k runs all the time, they’re never after doing 32k first! My whole body from the waist down at this point was sore, and my right arch was distractingly painful. I had also developed a large blister on the inside of my right big toe, and the only way I could land on it without wanting to cry was to “tuck” it on top of my second toe and land “just right” (in hindsight, this probably accounts for at least part of why my arch is still sore).

I knew that even with the pain, the hardest part of getting through this last stretch would be mental. I had to tell my body to ignore the pain. I was surprised that I wasn’t remotely out of breath at this point, and I didn’t feel tired, just sore. In fact, I was barely sweating anymore (not from dehydration; I stopped and had a Gatorade and water at just about every stop after the first one, and I had my belt with me). I ended up resorting to the same thing I did during the last 3k of the half marathon to help me get through. I started counting down the number of songs until the end, with an average of two songs per kilometre.

This last stretch felt almost as long as the rest of the race. Much of the first half had passed in a relative blur, but this last 10k was rough. The one nice part is that we were off the road again, on another cycling/foot path (I think another reason my arch got so sore was all the time running on the shoulder of the road, since all roads are on a slight angle from the centre line. The shoulder was too narrow to run off the road, so I was on a slight incline on the right side for over 20k.). The less nice part is that almost the entire rest of the route was hilly. I walked up most of the hills, but I’m pretty sure I ran all the downhills and straight parts until the end. There was one hill, around the 38k mark that made me want to cry. I couldn’t see the top of it, and I was so sore.

Around the 35k mark, one of the guys at the water stop said, “it’s all downhill from here!” I think he was joking, and I bet he thought he was funny, but by the 40k mark I wanted to punch him. At the 37k mark, the water stop was set up with a balloon arch and some kid had drawn chalk paths along the sidewalk. There was another kid blowing balloons, and I got choked up for a moment, thinking that I only had 5k to go. It hit me that I was actually going to finish this thing and the enormity of what I had already done got the best of me. I pulled myself together because I knew I couldn’t afford to lose it yet.

I finally got into Ucluelet at the 40k mark. With only 2k left, I decided to run the whole rest of the way, if I could. I was sore and just wanted to be done. I was also getting cranky for the first time the whole race. This last stretch was the worst because, in order to get in the last 2k, the course kept weaving through the neighbourhood. For the last kilometre, I kept seeing another turn and thinking, okay almost there, but there was just another turn, not the finish line. There was even one last water stop at the 41k mark, that I didn’t bother to stop at. I just wanted to stop running. Finally, around a corner and at the bottom of a hill was the finish line! The clock was reading 5:28:something and I wanted to make sure I got in before 5:30:00 so I sped up just enough to make it. Someone handed me a bottle of water and put my medal around my neck, and I cried a little. The announcer said my name, and for just a moment I felt like a rock star. I did it!

My elation was a bit subdued though because I wanted to wait for Lil to get in. I drank my water, forced myself to stretch, and walked up the hill a bit to wait. About 12 minutes later, she came down the hill. I mustered up enough strength to cheer for her as she approached the finish, and made my way towards the chute. Her time: 5:42:03. I wasn’t sure how emotional she would be after finishing, but she didn’t seem to be crying. At first she didn’t seem very happy, but I think she was just really sore. After we sat and rested for a few minutes, we were happier, and we took some pictures of our new bling!

 

After the Race

After we got back to the car (finally!) it was only a few minutes to drive back to the hotel. I originally was going to have an ice bath, like I usually do after long runs, but I was so cold from the wind, and from the race itself, that I thought an ice bath might push me over the edge to hypothermia. Plus, it was about an hour after the race, so I’m not sure it would have been very useful. Instead, I peeled off my sweaty, dusty running clothes and had a warm shower (not too hot). It was hard to get into the bathtub, since I was pretty sore already, and the tub sides were high. But once I had a shower, I felt much better; and I was starving! I ate the leftover pasta from the night before while Lil had a hot bath.

After Lil was out of the bath, we decided to look for dinner. We briefly considered going for Chinese (again) but then Lil suggested the Black Rock Resort, where the pre-race dinner had been. She worried that they wouldn’t let us in with our hoodies and her sweatpants, but they didn’t bat an eyelash; must have been all the runners in town. Anyway, the restaurant didn’t open until 5:30, so we sat in the lounge to have a drink and appies. We were the only ones there, so we sat at the window and marvelled at the view.

They had my favourite beer ever, Phillips Dark Chocolate Porter, so I had a pint of that, while Lil had a girly drink that I can’t remember the name of. It was pretty though! We also shared some goat cheese that came with fancy toast. It was really good, and paired well with the beer. Afterwards, we headed to the restaurant, and were the only ones there, too, at first. I wondered if all the racers had already headed home, or if they were all napping and would come out later. It was nice to have dinner in the relatively quiet restaurant, enjoying the view and our dinners. Lil got the chicken, and I got the beef tenderloin. I rarely eat anything steak-like, but this one was as good as it looked.

Because we had two pints of Haagen-Daz waiting at the hotel, we didn’t get dessert. Instead, we got into our jammies, lounged out on the sofa bed, and watched TV, while I had one of my little bottles of champagne to celebrate. I let Lil choose the program, so we ended up watching “Wipeout”, which was perfect because it required no thought at all. We both ate ice cream straight from the carton, and traded flavours when we had enough of the one. Lil was ready for bed by 8 pm, but I wasn’t quite sleepy yet. I laid in bed and Twittered for a while until my eyes were heavy and burning. I had no trouble sleeping that night!

Today was the second day of mostly driving. We left the hotel in Campbell River just after 10 am, and headed to Courtenay for my sister to pick up her bus ticket to Port Hardy for Monday. While we were there, we went to the grocery store to stock up on Gatorade for the run tomorrow, and I bought some fruit and yogurt for snacks. My sister picked up her second tiny water bottle to take on the race, and then I got a huge coffee for the drive to Ucluelet. I must not have put the lid on properly, though, because I spilled coffee all down my shirt and onto my new probably-too-short-but-I’m-wearing-it-anyway lululemon skirt! I really hope it doesn’t stain.

We made a quick stop in Cathedral Grove park, to take some pictures of us hugging trees! I also took some shots of the canopy above us, since the sun created some great lighting.

We were going to stop in Port Alberni to pick up something from Subway, but we couldn’t find one, so we kept going. It actually didn’t take that long to get to Ucluelet, but the road is winding and I had to go pretty slowly through some spots. I think at one point each of us commented about how happy we were to not be running along that road!

Finally, just before 3 pm, we got the the T-intersection with the turnoff to Ucluelet or Tofino. I had thought about going up to Tofino and driving the highway, to see how it is, but I was just too sick of driving, so we didn’t.

Ucluelet is a tough village to navigate. I went past the turn for our hotel, the Water’s Edge twice before I pulled out my iPhone map to find it. It is quite a bit off the main drag, but there was no sign, which I thought was strange. Eventually, we found it, and it’s actually pretty nice. It has a nice living-type area, with a pull-out sofa for one of us to sleep on, and another bedroom. The kitchen area is all set up for us to make meals (if we wanted to) and the bathroom is a good size. We even have an ocean view, which you can’t see in the picture because we were just getting ready for bed.

After checking in, we headed back out to pick up our race packages and get something to eat. Again, we passed by the community hall a couple of times before we realized what it was, because there was no sign facing the road. Again, we had to look up the address on my iPhone map. We got our race packages, and then I asked about the dinner. The person at the table told us that we had to go the resort that was hosting the dinner to pick up our tickets, and that the volunteers wouldn’t be there until 4:30.

We decided to see if we could find the resort before heading back to the main strip to get some food, but of course we couldn’t find it. I was getting cranky so we went to the Co-op and got sandwiches. We then looked again for the resort and finally found it; even my iPhone gave us lousy directions and we had to crawl down the street, squinting at address numbers until we got there.

When we arrived, we had to look around for a bit to find the table where you could pick up tickets. I went there, and my name wasn’t on the list! I know that I had been added at the last minute, and tried to explain that I got the ticket through the hotel, but they knew nothing about it. They seemed somewhat apologetic, but they mentioned several times that they were sold out, so they didn’t really try to see if my name got misplaced. I wondered if they thought I was making it up to try and sneak in! In any case, as well as not having my ticket, they didn’t have one for my sister, so we headed back to the hotel to hang out before looking for our own dinner. On the door there was a note saying that they had a ticket for me for the dinner, which meant someone must have called after we left the other resort! GRR.

We went to this cute little place called Roman’s for dinner. It was a small pizza & pasta place, and we thought it would be a good place to get pasta. And it was decent, probably on par with Romeo’s in Victoria. I got a pasta penne and my sister got the lasagne. Neither of us could finish our dinners, they were so big. After dinner, I stopped and bought a couple of teeny bottles of champagne for tomorrow (Lil doesn’t really drink and I can’t drink a whole big bottle alone), and we bought some ice cream, also for tomorrow.

Now, just before I go to bed, with all my gear laid out on the kitchen table, coffee all ready for me to push the button, and darkness setting in, I think about how this time tomorrow, I’ll have finished a freaking marathon! I’m excited but it still doesn’t quite seem real yet. Maybe it’s from all the driving, which hasn’t given me much time to just think about the race tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll be nervous tomorrow, especially since we’ll be sitting on a bus for 45 minutes to get to Tofino, travelling along the route in reverse. For now, it’s bedtime.

I left this morning for my first marathon on Sunday! I meant to leave at 9am, but with last-minute stuff, and filling up the tires on the car I didn’t leave town until 10 am. I was worried that I might not make it to pick up my sister at 3:30 but I was only 30 minutes late. What seemed to take the longest was the drive from Victoria to Nanaimo. I obviously didn’t eat enough breakfast, so I was hungry about an hour into the drive. I was going to wait until I got to Parksville to stop, but I was too hungry.

I only made one more quick stop before getting to Port Hardy just before 4. After picking up my sister at the airport, we headed back to Campbell River, where we’re staying tonight. The hotel is nice, but nothing special.

I saw three interesting things on my drive today:

• a deer sitting in the middle of the northbound lane. I think it might have been injured, but I’m not sure. I did have to change lanes to get around it. There was a truck nearby that may have been animal control?
• an eagle landed on the road, presumably to pick something up, so the car ahead of me had to swerve around it and I slowed down as it flew right in front of my windshield
• a large rock on the side of the road that had “Canada Rocks” spray painted on it.

I didn’t really have time to take pictures because of the time crunch to pick up my sister on time. Tomorrow will be more relaxed and I will stop to take pictures if I see anything noteworthy.

Distance: 4.82k Monday, 4.82k Thursday, 7.36k Yesterday

Time: 34:18 Monday, 32:34 Thursday, 52:34 Friday

Monday’s run, just the day after the Times Colonist 10k was just a bit of a recovery run, so I wasn’t going for speed. Good thing, because by the time I got out, there was a full-blown wind warning outside. The good news is that it was a headwind on the way out, so it was a bit easier coming in. The bad news is that it was a virtual wall of wind in places, which really slowed me down. It didn’t bother me as much as usual, probably because I knew it was windy before I set out, so I wasn’t trying to be too fast. I almost didn’t go at all, but I’m going to be running from Tofino to Uclulet in 6 weeks (!), and what are the chances that course ISN’T windy, right? I wore my husband’s kind-of-broken-but-not-really headphones and the wind caused them to blow around so much the volume kept going up and down, which was annoying. I also had to hold onto the cord to keep it from getting snagged.

In contrast to Monday’s run, I did try for some speed on Thursday. I was considering doing 8k rather than 5k, but I was too tired. The first two km were tough, and it took me a while to get into a groove. It was absolutely gorgeous out, which helped. I was actually thinking I would have another 34 minute run, but I managed to get it together at the end to finish at a decent time. This run also put me over the 100k mark for the month, for the first time. Yay!

Yesterday’s run was another really windy run, except this time the headwind was on the way back. I decided to do an extra half loop, because I didn’t do the extra one on Thursday, and I should have just sucked it up and did it then. The wind was so strong just after the turnaround after the bridge that it just knocked all the energy out of me. The first two km were the only ones under 7 minutes, and I felt like I dragged myself back to the car after finishing the half loop. My time was discouraging, but I have to remind myself that I’m not going for time at the marathon; I’m just trying to get it done. It will likely be windy at least part of the way, so I need to be able to run in the wind without it taking all of my energy.

It also looks like I’m going to be getting one more practice race in before the marathon, too. Instead of doing the relay for the Oak Bay Kool 1/2 Marathon, I’m going to do the whole thing. It’s not a distance I haven’t done before (once), and it’ll be a good dress rehearsal for the marathon, since it’s smaller than the Times Colonist 10k, with a cap of only 750 runners. I’ll also get a shiny medal for finishing!

 

Distance: 5.16k

Time: 35:52

This was the slowest time for a run I’ve had in a long time. There are many things I could potentially blame, such as the cold, windy weather, or my (still) sore knee, or my still having a bit of a cold. But all those things were there on Sunday, and I got my best time. So, I’ll just have to blame it on running slowly. In spite of the time, this was one of the best runs I’ve had for several days. There’s no single reason why, but I felt better after this run than I have in a while. My knee was sore, but it actually got better the longer I ran. My foot pain from Sunday night vanished, despite wearing my old runners, and my toe pain on my left foot (which I haven’t really talked about) was gone, too. I think most of that pain was due to pulling the laces on my shoes too tightly. I loosened the laces for today’s run, and my feet feel much better. I had actually thought it was due to the shoes being too narrow, so my new shoes are wider, but I think I can tighten them up a bit, once I start wearing them.

I think part of why this run felt so good was because of where I was mentally. I’ve had a lot of stress the past few days, worrying about getting this job, and about getting enough hours at work. Although I was hoping to be working today, I decided to let it go and just enjoy the day off. I also wanted to really enjoy knowing I have this job, because even though I’ve known about it for a week, it didn’t feel real until I found out my schedule yesterday. I kept worrying that something would happen and I wouldn’t get it. Now that I have a schedule, it finally feels real to me, and I’m letting myself be happy. Also, I had to leave a lot of stuff up in the air pending this job, because I didn’t know if my schedule would change, like the Times-Colonist 10k in April. So, I got to go on my run without the burden of all this stress weighing me down.

Oddly, I’m not worried about the Edge to Edge Marathon in June, although I probably ought to be. I’ve already booked it, and I don’t know yet if I’m supposed to be working. I just have a feeling that it’ll work itself out. I think I’m less concerned because it’s still 3 months away, so I have time to figure something out.

Again, I’m hoping to be called in to work tomorrow. But if I don’t, I’ll probably go for another run. Maybe this time I can go a bit faster!