Wednesday, May 30, 2007

I ran the NCM on May 27th 207
Here is my race report, there are some pics below from Bill Johnson:
Morning up at 4:45 and rammed in my normal breakfast, had a difficult time finishing my normal breakfast. Parked at World exchange and made the short walk over to the starting area.
Weather was cool and overcast at the start of the race, I saw the start of the wheelchair race, there seemed to be under ten racers, don’t know if that is normal or not. Then it was off for a very quick warm up on Laurier up over the bridge to get the heart rate up and then it was back to the starting corral to get ready for the start. My plan was to look for the 3:10 pace bunny and stick to him/her like glue. What do they say about the best laid plans… there was no 3:10 pace bunny that I could find! Oh well, I would just have to become my own pace bunny.
We are off, up Elgin with 3100 of my closest running friends, 1km in at 4:25 and downhill to 2km was a little fast @ 4:16. At 2km I met up with Bruce from Oshawa, he mentioned that he was shooting for 3:10 as well, and suggested we team up and work together. I am glad I met Bruce because it was great to have someone to run with for 40km and keep you on pace.
The rest of the race went well (thanks to Bruce keeping me in check). 10km in 44:35, 21.1km @ 1:33.34. Our plan was to average 4:30 pace which we did well (with the exception of a couple of up hill sections) for the first 28km, after 28km it is a deceptive climb basically to just before Dow’s lake (35km). This is where I blew up last year when I messed up my nutrition. So I focused on maintaining my pace and taken care of my nutrition before hand (Gels at 9km 18km, 27km). The section went well and I felt strong for the finish. At 36km-ish the half marathoners came onto the course and the final 6kms were quite congested but I made it through sticking to 4:30’s until the last 1km were I opened it up(as much as you can after 41km’s J) Coming down the finishing chute with all those people was fun as there seemed to be more people cheering because the ½ and full were finishing at the same time.
After I crossed the finish line I saw my mom and dad and Jen and Keir who were waiting around in the rain!
Ended up @ 3:08.58 so I was very happy. I ended up qualifying for the Boston Marathon and was 196 out of 3115 people, not a bad day.
Lessons learned:
Really focusing on even pacing worked very well for me
Eating more(even when I didn’t want to) helped me stay strong near the end
Never race by Heart Rate, HR can be influenced by other factors.
Thanks to Bruce who helped me through the 42km’s.
Thanks to my wife and son for dealing with the longs runs, running challenges, and all the other things that go into marathon training.
Thanks to Mother Nature for the perfect weather for running, cool and overcast.
Lastly thanks to all the staff and volunteers that help the racers have an enjoyable race experience.

1 comment:

Pascale said...

Way to go Ewan - you're my running hero! And way to go Jen for waiting around in the rain when pregnant. I would have been at home with my feet up muttering under my breath. LOL.

I'm up to 8km runs but a loooong looooong way off from my goal of another 1/2 marathon. I don't think I'll ever run a marathon again, but I did really like the 1/2 distances, so maybe I'll get there eventually.

We're coming to Ottawa/the Cottage in July, really hope to see you all then!
Pasc & the boys xx