Ottawa Fall Colours Marathon

I hope everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving weekend.

I was in Ottawa this weekend and ran the Ottawa Fall Colours Marathon. I actually had not really planned to run it but needed a long run to train for New York which is coming up in a month. I figured it would get me out for a long run if I registered. I had been doing the minimulist training which is not the best in my experience. I deliberately ran slow since it was meant to be a training run. For those unfamiliar with marathons - they are all the same distance - 26.2 miles (42.2 Km). So it s a bit of a distance.

Thank goodness the weather was perfect, unlike Chicago where the marathon was cancelled. There was a bit of chill in the air while wating for the start but as soon as we started, it was perfect. Slightly overcast. About 17 degrees C. And as promised by the name - the fall coulours were spectacular.

I started the race too fast and deliberately eased off. The field was small with perhaps only 700 runners if you take into account the other distances being run (there was a 5K, 10K and half marathon all being run at the same time although I am not certain which races started at the same time). The first half flew by quickly and easily despite a rather nasty hill right near the start. I finished the first half in 2:07 which was a bit fast for a training run for me.

The race for the full marathon was 2 loops so after the first half, it seemed anticlimatic to start the second loop. And the number of racers on the course really thinned out. There were only 101 people in the full marathon. It was truly a solitary run from the half way point. I slowed my pace to about 7 min per Km from the 6 min I was doing for the first half.

At about 32K, my body was telling me "enough" so I really had to kick in the will power just to keep moving forward. I began walking for long stretches. I had calculated that I could actually walk the full last 10 K and still be OK for the 5 hour course time limit. Perhaps that was the wrong calucation to do because I started walking more. I repeated the "pain is temporary - pride is forever" line more than a few times to get through.

Eventually I finished. My time was 4:45 which was slower than I had intended but I am still proud of having finished an awesome training run.

But running the marathon was not the stupidest thing I did yesterday, I got in the car and drove for 5 hours after the run. Bad idea to run a marathon then sit in a car for that long.

Today I am having a fairly productive day in the office preparing for the week. Although I do notice I am less eager to hop up and go get things. Something about desk work is appealing today.