Mission Completed!!

What a great day out there on October 11th. The 30th Annual Royal Victoria Marathon was incredible! This was the largest race they had ever held with almost 12,000 participants in various categories. The city was buzzing, to say the least, and the trip was awesome.

Karen and I powered through the race beginning that balmy Sunday morning at 8:30am. We began our day with our usual routine of oatmeal and toast, packed up our gear and headed out to the 8 degree weather to meet everyone else at the start line. We decided to line up near the back of the pack since our official time wouldn't start until our timing chips crossed the starting mat.

It didn't take long to get warm that morning as we headed up our first hill and into the sun. The road became a sea of runners as far as the eye could see in front of and behind us. It was now time to put our training to the test as we settled into our run. My only issue was that I may have over hydrated in the morning, meaning I had to find a port-a-potty soon. The only problem was that the line-ups would slow me down. Other runners were also in the same situation.

At every 3-4km, they had volunteers manning aide stations. They handed out water, gatorade and power gels. With every water station, I weighed the pros and cons about taking another drink. In my mind, I figured I could wait an hour or so before I burst or I could hope that the sensation would simply go away. Little did I know that I would have to wait over 3 hours to relieve myself. In retrospect, I should have just waited the minute or two near the beginning.

Nevertheless, the run felt great. Karen and I managed to keep our pace steady throughout the race. We each experienced some high and low moments as we made our way up and down the rolling landscape. There were times when my legs tightened and I wanted to stop and give them a rest. But our strategy was clear, we had to keep running as long as we could and walk only as we passed the aide stations for a drink and maybe some food. So keep moving we did.

As time passed it was evident that this race would be as much a mental challenge as it is a physical one. The spectators, volunteers and supporters were amazing. The energy around us showed us why this is such a popular event to take part in. There were entertainers playing music, dancing, singing; there were people holding up signs of encouragement; and there were people calling out your name "You can do it Dan, you're the man!" How did they know my name? It was printed on my race bib along with my race number. What a nice touch.

As we hit certain distances along the way, I remembered my training runs. This is what it feels like to be at 30km, now just push past 35km and you're home free. At 32km I pushed past Karen. She was at a low point and didn't want to hold me up. So away I went, grinding out the last few kilometers. Up the hills. Down the hills. The course was rarely flat. Every time I got to the top of hill, I breathed a sigh of relief. At 37km I neared the top of one of the last long hills. I was so thankful. This part of the course I was familiar with since we had just run part of it the day before. One of the volunteers called out "Only 5km left Dan. Give me 5 solid kilometres. Promise me." I nodded as I came over the hill, taking nice long strides as I sped down the next 2km. My legs were pretty tight by now so even though going down hill felt much better than up, it hardly felt really good at all.

I was happy to see the water station at the bottom of the hill. I quickly grabbed a cup of gatorade and then a cup of water. No time to doddle, got to keep going. I chucked by cups and started moving my legs. Not even five strides, I heard a familiar voice. I turned quickly and to my surprise and delight, it was Karen. She had pushed through her low point until she regained her rhythm and somehow had managed to catch me. Wow! She's pretty amazing.

With only 3 kilometres left, I felt a renewed sense of determination. Somewhere in the back of my mind was a vision of me breaking up the last 3km running and walking and doing whatever was necessary to get finish it. With Karen by my side, there was no way I would even consider stopping now. As we approached each marker, the energy levels increased. The last few twists and turns of the course burned the legs, but brought us closer and closer to the end. And as we got closer to the finish line, we kept running faster and faster. As the finish line came into sight, we began sprinting. We passed others who were casually jogging their way to the end.

What a finish. And we crossed the line at the exact same time. It was so exciting with music playing and an announcer calling out our names. But I remember it only as a quick blur. Our official time - 4 hrs 23 min and 04 sec. After a few days of rest, I'll be at home, dreaming up the next crazy scheme for us to do.

Last Week of Training

Well, it's around the corner now - the Royal Victoria Marathon is only a week away! Training has been quite an experience. Leading up to the race, I have to admit that I'm a little nervous. I have my good days and my bad when it comes to running. I've had a lot of time during the training runs to experiment with running styles, food, pace, music, and a whole gambit of variables. Coming up to the last week it's a matter of hydration, rest and nutrition at this point.

Our training runs were great, but a few of them were gruelling. We steadily increased our distances until we peaked at 38km. At that point, it's as much a matter of survival as it is conditioning. It felt good when we started to taper those back down. The weather was nice most of those days. Never any rain, but we did have some extremely hot and cold weather. On the 4 hour runs, it's almost impossible to avoid getting caught in temperatures hovering around 30 degrees Celsius. We learned quickly that lack of hydration will almost always knock you on your ass. Thank goodness for a little something called Muscle Melt. GP Holisitic Health sells these epsom salts infused with essential oils that do wonders for your muscles after you're finished torturing them.

The goal now is to make sure we stay healthy before we leave on Friday. The chilly weather along with cold and flu season, don't make that task too easy. Tried running on Saturday, but 3 degrees Celsius with a stiff wind was a big deterrent. Still managed to get 11km before needing to get out of the cold. I had images of catching the sniffles this week and spoiling months of training. This week, I just want to eat healthy, stay really strict on the no alcohol policy and keep the exercise to a minimum. From there, I just have to hope that the training will take over and I'll survive my first marathon. I'm not putting any pressure on myself by setting time goals or anything like that. My goal is to finish and still be walking afterwards. Wish me luck.

July Marathon Training

Still managing to keep up with the marathon training. Karen and I were away on vacation and I was a little concerned that it may set us back a little in our training. Fortunately, we were able to fit in some decent runs during our European vacation. Started with a 5km road race in Hyde Park in London. The Serpentine Running Club in London was hosting their "Last Friday of the Month Run" and Karen and I were able to register before we left. Very nice group of people. Their club has well over 1000 members. The next stop in our vacation was Barcelona, where we were able to run along the sea wall next to the beach. Beautiful weather and gorgeous beaches made it easy to combine some training with sight seeing. Finally, we jetted off to Paris where we were able to fit in a 20km run through one of their parks.

Upon arriving home, our next big adventure was a hike in Grande Cache with our Rotary exchange student. We decided to hike leg 2 of the Death Race which entails 27km up and down 2 mountain peaks. Although it was only a hike, the strength training was great for the legs.

Following the hike, we were able to get some shorter runs into the week. Near the end of July, I experienced a bit of set back. Everyone was planning on getting a 30km run in on a Saturday morning. Within minutes, I realized that something was wrong with my stomach. I was able to muscle out 16km before I had to give up. A little food poisoning the night before took me out of commission for the next day, curled up in bed waiting for it to pass. It took another 3 days to start eating normally again and definitely no training or any exercise that week.

The following weekend, I tried again. Since everyone had done their long run the week prior, it was up to me to catch up on my own. The group ran 16km and I continued on to reach the 30km goal. If I couldn't do this, I would be behind Karen and the other marathon runners. I felt a little nervous when we started, but soon fell into my zone. I was able to pace myself and reached 30km in just over 3 hours. At the end of the run, I still felt like I had it in me to continue my run. So I decided to take my neices out for a short 2km run. They have been wanting to join me, but weren't sure whether or not they could keep up. With 30km behind me, this leveled the playing field a bit. Especially since I had just dropped in on them unexpectedly and they weren't ready to go. The legs tightened up a bit while I was waiting, but in the end, I managed to pull of an additional slow paced 2km. Not wanting to risk injury, I decided to stick with the program and finish on a high note.

So that's where I am as of today. I'm actually feeling like this marathon is definitely achievable. This coming weekend, I'll attempt another long 30km+ run in order to get back in sync with Karen. From this point on, our training will be more focused on the 2 of us. We plan to stick together during the race and it's time to see if this is going to be possible. In order to stick together, our paces will have to be in sync as well as our eating, drinking and resting patterns. With only 6 good weeks of training left, it's time to kick it into high gear.

Marathon Training Update

For the past few weeks I have been training on the treadmill, trying to increase my distance. I have a long time to train, so I'm not pushing it as hard as I could. I've been mixing it between longer runs to increase distance, and shorter but faster runs to improve strength and stamina. I've finally been able to get over the "treadmill boredom" by focusing on watching T.V. and listening to my iPod shuffle. Here are the results:

Short run: 11km in about 1 hour
Long run: 20km in about 2 hours

The days that I only run for an hour, I try to get some strength training by working my legs on the machines. I think that will be the key for me - bulking up the muscles on my skinny legs.

Today, we took a group from the GP Run/Walk Club out for a training run. It was cold and icy, but we all persevered through the winter-like conditions and felt great. We'll all be training for the Press Run on May 30th for either the 10km or 21km race. Karen and I are leading the training for the 10km intermediate running group. We started the training at 3.5km and will build from there. In 10 weeks, everyone in our group should be ready to run 10km.

My comment on running outside today is that it felt very different from the treadmill. The ground was hard, the air was cold, and the wind chapped by face and hands. Also, no T.V. to keep my mind occupied, so I had to settle for conversation with fellow runners. All in all, it was a great experience and I can't wait until next week.

Marathon Training

This is a tough one! Training for a marathon this year means that I have to commit to running on the treadmill for hours on end. I find the treadmill is as much an exercise in alleviating boredon as anything else. The built-in television is pretty awesome, but the commercial breaks seems to drag on and on.

So far I've been fairly consistent with my weekly training. Every week, Karen and I are doing a longer run at the gym. We're at the 2 hour mark and still increasing steadily. I found myself with a couple of busy weeks in a row, so I missed my mid-week workouts. Also fought off the start of a cold. Consequently, Karen kicked my butt last week by a mile over the 2 hours. I'll have to smarten up.

We took a trip to Drumheller to Karen's family, but still managed to find a treadmill at the local gym. Running for the first time without a t.v. made it really tough. I'm going to have to learn to run without those types of distractions soon. Can't wait until we can run outside.

The half-marathon in May in coming up soon and we are both more than ready. The goal is to pick up our speeds and make a good time. Feeling pretty good so far. The training gets much tougher from this point on. I'll keep you posted.