Anyways, on August 25th I ran the Edmonton Marathon - well, the half marathon. Below you can find my account of the event, my trials tribulations while overcoming an injury and about all of the cool people I got to meet.
I registered for the half marathon in Edmonton in early spring. I wanted to run a race later in the season that would allow me to get a better time than my earlier half marathon and subsequently a better corral placement for Disney in January. Well, that was the plan at least!
I arrived in Edmonton early on Saturday morning for packet pick-up. I drove. Driving in the city centre of Edmonton, to me, is like trying to find ones way around a different planet. I had my GPS yelling at me to turn this way and that way and constantly came up against one way streets, construction blocking the most obvious paths and a farmers market in the heart of down town. Had I not been pressed to arrive at 9:30 to meet with a fellow runner, I would have ditched the truck and walked to the host hotel and convention centre instead of fighting my way through the city. After three different loops around the downtown core and two trips out of the city on the various one-way express ways, I did eventually find the place I was looking for. I did have to go in the exit ramp of the parking garage to turn myself around so I was facing the right way to get on to the entry ramp... but that's another adventure in and of itself!
The expo was small, very small. The bulk of the expo consisted of a running room 'booth' with gear and event shirts for sale. There were other, significantly smaller booths as well, most were promoting other races (i.e., the Vancouver marathon), travel packages (i.e., run the ING New York Marathon - guaranteed spots if you travel with us) and 'run food' samples (i.e., power bar pieces).
Anyways, I grabbed my race bag, bib and shirt and sat down to chat with a few fellow runners - some of whom I had met online through various run groups but not in person to date. What better place to meet fellow run geeks than at an expo right?!? We had a lovely time chatting before parting ways for the day to begin our pre-race day rituals.
Sunday morning started bright and early - 4am. Well, I guess it is safe to say it definitely wasn't bright, but it was still pretty darn early! I was packed up and ready to check out of my hotel and head down to the Northlands for race morning. A pre-race oatmeal and water and I was set to go! I made it down to the race grounds shortly after 5am and was one of the first ones there. The early start marathon was beginning at 6:30 so a few of the slower runners were also beginning to show up. I had no idea what to expect in terms of parking and figured it was better safe than sorry. I do wish someone had told me there was no need to rush... but whatever... I was there, and I was ready and, I was definitely staying camped out in my truck to avoid turning into mosquito bait!
I hung around and just relaxed until the sun started to break the horizon. A truck pulled up next to me with a man preparing for the slow start (for those expecting to take longer than 6h to finish the marathon). I joined him and headed to the starting line. It was quite a nice morning. It was cool in a t-shirt and shorts but definitely comfortable. I had the wonderful pleasure of being the loudest cheerleader for the start of the early race. Along with the medical supervisors and a few race volunteers, it was a pretty small cheering section.
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| Photo: from the Edmonton Marathon FB page |
By 7am the marathon crowds were beginning to appear in droves; first in tens, then by the hundreds. I met a few really nice runners while waiting for the marathon start. One girl, Kim from just north of Edmonton, was running her first ever marathon. We chatted for quite some time. She was really excited but also extremely nervous. It was fun to see her later on during the race, while we were running ours, and to be able to cheer her on! I also met dozens of others from all over the province. Two other girls were running their first ever half marathon. It was kind of fun to be able to help answer questions and ease their fears and nerves about the race. I also saw them on the course after the switch back - it was fun to give them some high fives and check in with how they were doing. I am sure they will be back, the definitely looked to be making out okay.
At 7:30 the marathon started. Hundreds of runners dashed away from the start line and out of the gates of Northlands Park and began their course through the heart of down town Edmonton. Pace bunnies with sign posts and pink rabbit ears were scattered amongst the sea of runner, bunny ears and signs bobbing up and down like a bird floating on the water. As soon as the last of the marathon runners were out of sight, runners for the half marathon were called to the starting gates.
Our starting gates were PACKED! Even then, packed would be an understatement. I couldn't get anywhere near where I had anticipated starting. In fact, I was probably in the last 1/4 of the starting field and next to the 2:30 pace bunnies. Definitely not where I wanted to be. Oh well! After the signing of the national anthem and some casual chit-chat with those around us, the gun went off and it was time to get the legs moving. It took me a whole minute and a half from my position in the starting gates to hit the start line (I have a real hate for the use of gun time over chip time when it comes to race placement...). From the start line, it was a hard and very fast right out into the city. I was definitely starting too hard but I did want to make up a bit of ground early to get past the slower runners and run/walkers. I did catch up with the 2h pace bunnies by the end of the first kilometer so pulled back and just let things happen.
The course was great! The volunteer marshals, the police man blocking the streets and random passers-by were all very supportive and cheered everyone on.
My first 10k where pretty quick. I was on pace to set a pretty substantial PB and my knee was feeling good despite having very little in in the way of distance training since hurting it nearly a month earlier. The this part of the race, we had the elite marathon runners and half marathon runners coming back at us. It was an amazing atmosphere as runners on either side of the course were yelling words of encouragement to one another.
At this stage in the race, the suns rays were also beginning to hit the ground with their full intensity and the temperature began to rise from a balmy 10C to 20C fairly rapidly. I must say, I was thrilled to see the residential section of the course was well treed - the shade was definitely a welcomed relief. Running the entire length of the course in full sun, even mid-morning would not have been very fun!
The turnaround for the course was around the 11km marker. I turned around and felt that I was somewhere close to the the middle of the pack. Another 5 or so kilometers brought us back into the hear of the city where Sunday morning commuters were inching through gaps in the runners cautiously under the direction of police officers at every intersection. Off in the distance sirens were wailing. At one stage a group of us were stopped to let two fire trucks and an ambulance through the race course. If there is one good way to get your anxiety levels up, this would have been it!
As I neared the water station around kilometer 17 my knee began to tighten. I knew it was time to pull off the throttle and give my legs a break. Knowing that this was just the beginning of my fall race 'season' and my first race in a month and a half, I knew there was no sense in pushing too hard. While I wanted to finish with a solid race under two hours to use towards my corral placement in Disney World, finishing in one piece and being able to run all of my other races over the coming weeks was more important.
I had just reached the water station and watched a girl collapse hardly but a few meters in front of me. If my tight knee wasn't a good enough indication that is was time to pull back a little bit... seeing something like this definitely was! Thankfully the water station was full of volunteers and also had a medical team stationed there. The girl was definitely in good hands.
Hardly but another kilometer up the road however, I came across another girl my age who was throwing up like mad. An older man and I checked in with her to make sure she was okay. After waving off help, we decided it was best to take action and alerted a bunch of course marshals and volunteers as to her condition. While I am all for pushing yourself to your limits... I'm not a fan of the 'run so hard you puke' club or the 'run through injury to get a good time in this race and never run again' club. I have my limits, that's for sure! I'm crazy and I can push myself extremely hard, but I know when it is time to take a step back... clearly the girl throwing up and the girl that collapsed have yet to find their breaks!
The last stretch of the race for me was really tough. I knew I was falling off my pace faster than a cheetah going after its breakfast. It was really disappointing even though I knew I had made the right decision to pull back. A walk break here, and a walk break there allowed me to really pay attention to what was going on around me in the race instead of just barreling through the crowds to hit the finish line.
This was probably my toughest race mentally because I knew I could do significantly better. Having a bit of fuel to burn lead me into a 500m sprint to the finish line in which I passed another 50+ runners. Hearing the cheer of the crowds was definitely a nice driving force and made me want to run harder. While my finish was strong, and the last half of my race disappointing, I felt like I didn't want to disappoint the crowds waiting in masses at the finish line. That was one whopper of a sprint and it was the only time I heard my name called on the course by someone other than the announcer on the microphone (which happened to be John Stanton!). Thank you to whoever it was that tried their darnedest to say my name - man that was some seriously good motivation!
After crossing the finish line and receiving my metal and finish line photo (hahaha, I looked so winded!), it was on to the food line.
The race over all was pretty low key. The webpage was a far cry from the webages of any other marathon out there, and the information was limited... but boy was the food great! Water, juice, bananas, apples, oranges, muffins, granola bars, your choice of sandwich/wrap, chips... sheesh... I'm usually lucky to get an orange slice. I was pretty darn happy to be getting a lunch! One less stop required by this girl before hitting the road for the long drive home. Additionally, while waiting in line for food, I got to meet up with a fellow digital runner. How awesome is that? We met initially as part of our training for the 'Dopey Challenge' that we will both be running in January through a forum online. Little did either of us know that we cross paths quite frequently and had just never met! Well, now we both have someone to talk 'run geek' with. What more could a girl ask for!?!?
My thoughts on the race: I will definitely be back and would definitely consider this race to qualify for the Boston Marathon. While not totally flat, it is pretty darn close. What hills were on our course (and thus half of the marathon course) where hardly but a few meters in elevation and had a pretty generous slope. I really enjoyed the course! The volunteers were great although I feel like there could have been more water stations. We had 3 very busy stations and I feel like maybe one more would have been good.... maybe it was just from my lack of training but I ran out of water en route and felt uncomfortable with the distances between stations. I don't usually take water for anything less than a 16k run so it was odd to me that I would go through my 2 whole little bottles when I usually hardly ever take a sip (even for a half or full). Other than that, GREAT run and GREAT race!
Well done Edmonton! I am already looking forward to hitting the course for the full marathon next year! Can't wait!
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