Not sure if it was something that I ate the past day or so, a bad gel or perhaps, one of the water stations that did not agree with me on the course, but, it was very unusual, as I usually consider myself having a cast-iron stomach ... As a result, I ended finishing the last 8K in time of 1:16:xx ... yikes ... having said that, besides puking several times, I did slow the pace and walk quite a bit, as well as stopping to chat with friends along the course over the last 5K, for a minute or two at tines .... Ooops ...
One of the benefits of having friends on the course, provides you with support and motivation to push on .. and, on the other hand, when you are having a tough day, it also allows you to take short social breaks, to allow the body, mind and spirit to recover, as well .. Afterall, with any time goals already out the window .. just finishing the race is the only concern, and the actual finishing time does not really matter, anymore .... Having said that, I ended up crossing my 28th Marathon in 4:00:05 ...
When I first signed up for the Ottawa Marathon back in the spring, it was to serve as two possible options ... the first being to either celebrate a strong Vancouver Marathon result, only 3 weeks earlier, or as another attempt to BQ for Boston 2013 .. As things did not go as planned in Vancouver, the latter option kicked in ... even that was skirted a bit, as I ended straining my calf/gastrocs/soleus muscle last week, and spent the most of the last two weeks resting and/or taking very short runs, and even considered DNS'ng in the race, if things did not improve dramtically ... Thankfully, with appointments with my RMT from Absolute Massage Therapy and my Chiropractor ... I was good to go .. though, in the back of my mind, my confidence for achieving my time goal had diminished a bit, as a result ... as I also realized that attempting to race two marathons in a span of 3 weeks, may have been a bit over ambitious, in hindisght ....
Anyways, the decision was to be on the start line this morning and stay just ahead of the 3:30:xx pace bunny .. How long that would be, depended on how long my leg strain would take me today, but, I had to give it a shot ....
Arrived at the race site early in the morning, played my musical port-a-potty musical chairs .. then met up with Jesse, Jes, Carm, Andrea at the meeting point in front of Starbucks @Lord Elgin, and also spotted ChrisL, and David Daze from RM, as well as a bunch of other RM and peeps from K2J Fitness, as well as having members from my Euro-sports Running Team along the course was nice
We all parted ways and headed to our respective corrals about 10 minutes efore the start of the race .. Once the gun goes off, I fell into a nice rythm and took in my fluids/gels on a regular schedule ... Hit the 10K mark @48:14 ... feeling good ... then we hit the Western Parkway and into Gatineau ... still feeling good at 21.1K @1:43:25 .... held my pace for the Gatineau portion, but lost touch with the 3:30:xx pace bunny at about 25K,, then upon crossing the Alexandria Bridge and heading to Sussex, the sun came out behind the clouds, and it felt as if the temperature jumped 3-4 degrees quickly at about 27K... and, suddenly, I started to feeling it, and, continued on, on Sussex ... by kilometer 28, the 3:35 pace bunny had passed me and, the rest of the race was just about race management and, trying not to do anything st*pid and injure myself by pushing too hard, as I knew my race was over at 30K when my Garmin read 2:34:xx ....
It was then somewhere between 30-32K that I started to feel a bit o nausea, and wasn't sure if it was caused by the heat, something that I had consumed at a water station and/or a bad gel ?? And, finally at the 34K mark, I did something that I had never done before in a race ... I stopped and keeled over and puked ... yikes !! walked a bit there after, then started running again ... Just a few minutes later, I passed Kelodie .. stopped and chatted a bit, mentioned that I had puked, and she responded ... ".. just take it easy, Andy, and don't do anything st*pid .." ... good words of wisdom, that girl has ... At about 36K, I stopped and puked again, as well at 37K and at 38K ... Passed Nick and his Kanata Crew at about 28K, stopped and chatted a bit, then carried on ... then a few hundred meters later, heard a voice from the other side of the road, and it was a few peeps from my K2J Fitness Group, and, of course, I had to go over and stop and chat with them .. those stops actually me a bit, by giving my a bit of rest, but were "time suckers" ... At about the 40K mark or so, and it was David Grant, so I stopped chatted for a few seconds, before he told me to "... keep moving, and don't stop ..." as I would likely stiffen up ... anyhoo, just 2 more kilometers to go and I would be done ...
You will never know how long those last 2KM's felt ... It was nice seeing the countdown signs at 400m to go, then 300m, then 200m, then 100m and all of a sudden the Finish Line banner, just ahead ... heard the Finish LIne Hosts (John Stanton and ??) commenting that ...".. we just passed the 4 hour mark, but, for some, their chip time may still be under 4 hours ..." so, I picked it up as much as I could, and crossed at 4:00:05 ...
Marathon #28 is now in the books ...
