There are all kinds of useful things that I could be doing right now, but it's much more fun to blather on about yesterday's marathon while it's still fresh in my mind. The day or two after a big race is a good time to be a little self indulgent :)

So, a more detailed report than anyone besides myself is interested in:

As before, aside from the actual training, race prep actually got started during the several days before. No fried foods, no fish or seafood, minimal dairy, light meals in general, the usual drill. And no extra hydrating. There have been several times during my long runs this summer where I had to stop for potty breaks, not previously typical for me, and I'm pretty sure it's due to taking in too much fluid the day before. In a slight departure from tradition, I had my largest meal on Saturday around 2:00 (usually it's closer to 5:00) and then didn't eat much the rest of the day - last actual food was around 6:30.

F1 arrived at our place about 7:30 or 8:00 on Saturday evening and we had a beer and visited for a while, went off to our little beds around 10:30. Yes, I know, all the race advice guides say to avoid alcohol the day before. Well, long before I heard this we were in the habit of having that pre-race day beer with F1 and why stop now when it doesn't seem to be an issue?

Sunday morning I was up at 4:30 to have my energy bar breakfast (too early for some but I need that digestion time) and we left the house about 6:00. We parked under the downtown office building where I work, which is conveniently equipped with showers, dropped off our post race gear, and walked over to the starting area. It was a beautiful morning - the edge of daytime, a comfortable 14 C, calm (as compared to last year's wind gusts). Of course, the trouble with 14 C at 6:00 a.m. is that it's going to be a heck of a lot warmer at 9:00 a.m., and that was one of my worries. But it's one of those uncontrollable elements so I was mentally preparing myself to suck it up and deal, and thankful that at least we were going to have a good start.

The start area - what exactly was going on?!? We were all assigned to corrals and that shouldn't be much of an issue. And we arrived in plenty of time to get into said corrals. Had we only been able to locate and access them. But Wellington was blocked off at Simcoe, meaning we had to detour around Roy Thompson Hall, where we found signs directing us to the right corrals. Two gates, two signs. F1 and I said our good-byes to DH, who was in a different corral, and we went through our separate gates. Then came out into the same open area on the other side. People everywhere, including some non-runners carrying coffee who were squeezed into the starting line-up - what were they thinking? At this point I felt a little disadvantaged, since I wasn't wearing my glasses and was depending on the taller F1 to figure out where we should be. Which was further up - we think, based on the pace bunnies that we could see - and we tried to move up but didn't get far. It seemed like there were announcements being made, but we couldn't tell for sure, and then we did hear the starting bell and it was time to just make our way across the start line. Without a doubt, the slowest and most disorganized start I've ever experienced. Almost four minutes just to cross the timing mat.

Which in the end was perhaps not a bad thing. One of my concerns was starting too fast (the universal problem) and getting sucked in to keeping up with F1 for too much of the first half, thereby using up too much energy too early and not having enough left for the (predicted hot and sunny) second half. Well, it was just too hard for us to stay together in the tight crowd, and before long F1 had gone ahead and I was making my own way. It was still not full daylight, so even though I was hitting the lap button on my watch at the end of each km, it wasn't easy to see the times and so I had only an approximate feel for my pace. As it turned out, once the crowd thinned a bit, and it got brighter, I could see that my average was about 5:25/km for the first three km. Slower than the 5:15 average from Ottawa but I reminded myself that it was early days, that there was nothing riding on this race, no reason to panic and no need to try and recover that time.

All through the summer's training I had been trying out hydration/carb strategies, and about two weeks before the actual race more or less finalized my approach. Someone on the RR forum, who also suffers from rather mushy guts, had recommended GU2O. Normally I can't stand flavoured drinks, but tried the lemon-lime energy drink mix and found that my system tolerated it pretty well. And although gels are not my favorite, the strawberry-kiwi Carb Boom gels mostly went down okay. (Ruled out Power Bar gels after one try). My ideal was to make it through the race on water from the aid stations, energy drink from my bottle, and gels or sport beans if I needed them. Also salt tablets. Huh? Salt tablets? Since when?

Well, a couple of days before my last long run, while talking to a friend who does the Canadian Ironman every year, I mentioned muscle cramping. She recommended salt tablets, and at first I was really resistant to the idea. Salt?!?! Anyway, she had previously had all the same reservations, argued at length with her coach, but then tried them and became convinced. So I took a couple on my last long run, noticed no ill effects, and decided to carry some on this marathon. I know, I know - never try anything new. But, again, there was nothing riding on this race and so I was willing to experiment a little if it seemed appropriate.

And, in general, my strategy worked out quite well. Some pertinent details are included below, but the short story is that I started taking sips of my energy drink around 8 km, picked up water at the aid stations when it seemed like a good idea, and never felt either over- or under-hydrated. I haven't yet learned how to drink without slowing to a walk, but then that's not necessarily a problem.

Back to the run itself. As the crowd opened up I fell into a quicker pace, sometimes a little over 5:00, sometimes a little under. Looking at the data now at my leisure I calculate that km 4 to 20 were run at an average pace of 4:54. And they were really, really nice! The sky was cloudy, it was warm but not uncomfortable, I was enjoying the course and seeing the elite runners heading east, friends of DH and I showed up to cheer us on, heading east myself I got to wave to DH and a couple of other friends, plus someone from the RR forum. Not least, my stomach and GI tract were feeling okay, and the km were unrolling very smoothly. Yes, they were work -even a great run is work - but approaching the half/full split I still felt like there was lots of energy in storage. Not as much as at the start, but not down to a 1/4 tank, either. There was a moment as we came up to the split that I was sort of longing to turn and be done, but it passed.

In any event, intellectually I knew that pace was a little too fast to be sustainable, as was very evident to me at the 21.1 km timing belt where my watch time was just under 1:45. Too close to half marathon pace for my comfort and my race plan, even though it felt pretty darn good at the time. At that point I had been running for a couple of km with a guy doing his first marathon, and we were agreeing that the energy of the crowd and the flat course were sucking us into faster times than we'd planned.

It was also at about the 20 km point that the sun was hitting the course with pretty much its full force. The cloud cover had disappeared and I knew that we were heading into long stretches with very little shade. Based on the forecast, the actual temperature wasn't likely to get above 20 C, which isn't abnormally warm, and it really wasn't humid. However, let me say it again: I am a Weather Weinie. I am not a sun worshipper. I do most of my running in the early morning, and even training in the heat of the summer never really got accustomed to being out in late morning-midday-early afternoon sun. Last weekend the conditions were almost identical to yesterday, and I deliberately started my run close to 9:30 in the morning to approximate the last half of yesterday's race and get some more practice. But I didn't like it.

However, I had stopped feeling like a dork in my sunglasses. Explanation: I don't wear contacts, and my sunglasses are prescription. Carrying an extra pair of glasses on a long run would be (with my current gear) pretty inconvenient so I had to choose between regular glasses and sunglasses, and the sunglasses won. And was I ever thankful for that choice!

Okay, weather whine over. The ultimate point of all this verbiage is that I knew, intellectually, that I had to slow down. So I slowed for a drink, and started running again just that little bit more slowly. Maybe not quite slowly enough, since at 24 km my total time was just under 2:00, and that first feeling of fatigue was creeping into my muscles. So I had a salt tablet with more drink around 25 km and followed that up with a gel just before 26 km. Wasn't really keen on having the gel but was familiar enough with my body's signals to know that it was going to need a little more than what it was getting from the GU2O.

Anyway, at 26 km we were well into the Leslie St. Spit part of the course - not a bit of shade to be found, and it was kind of a tough slog. At least the course for that stretch was fully out-and-back, so you could watch the runners coming at you from the other direction, which was a useful distraction. I was kind of dreading the end of the Spit, because that meant turning east onto Lakeshore and running right into the sun, but you do what you gotta do, right?

Not surprisingly, with the increased sun I was taking more water and energy drink breaks than during the first half, and running a little slower, definitely feeling the distance. The average time for 27 to 36 km was 5:12, which included a few sub-5:00's and a couple of almost-6:00's. The latter were due to a salt tablet around 33 km, and some stretching between 34 and 35 km. I was very relieved to get past the 32 km mark without the seizing up issue that hit me in Ottawa, but was very mindful of how the muscles were feeling, and the stretching just seemed like a good thing to do.

By this point I started consuming more water than I had expected, but it was going down easy and felt good - no stomach cramps. Wasn't stopping at every aid station, but probably at every second or third - didn't really keep track. I would alternate water with energy drink, not with any real strategy, just trying to make sure that there was both enough water and enough carbs moving into the system. It didn't feel like I needed another gel, and I didn't want to have to take one unless it was really necessary. Fortunately, unlike Ottawa I never got that "exploding bladder" feeling, and although the GI tract sent out a few distress signals they were never strong enough to actually need a porta potty. That was a huge relief, but at the same time I knew from experience that it wouldn't take much to tip things in the other direction.

At the 36 km point my time was about 3:02, which was faster than the plan, and I was feeling tired. Not "completely out of energy" tired, but "man oh man that 6 kilometres sure seems like a long, long way" tired. It was tempting to walk for more than my water breaks but I mostly managed a slow trot for short periods instead. Probably no faster than rapid walking, but easier to transition into a faster pace as the slower pace restored some energy. By then the crowd was much thinner, and I was often running alone or almost alone rather than among a group, but I was kind of "leap frogging" with this one guy and that helped keep me going.

Had another salt tablet at around 37 km and then tried to just dig in for the last 5.2 km. It felt like pretty hard going but when I look at the actual time elapsed it's surprising - the average pace for that stretch is a little over 5:20, with the last few definitely being the hardest, at around 5:35. I guess sometimes the body takes over and the mind loses some of its connection. I remember being in the stretch between 38 and 39 km, and promising myself that when I hit the 39 km banner I could stop for an energy drink and walk a bit. Then I got a real boost not long before the 40 km point - two of the friends who had been there during the first half suddenly appeared, waving and yelling and cheering me on. I knew that one had an appointment mid-morning and had expected all of them to leave, so this was a complete surprise and it really fired me up - at least for a short distance!

The stretch from 40 to 42 km was probably the hardest of the entire race. Just past 40 km my watch said 3:24, and it suddenly occurred to me that at least for 2007, 3:38 meant a guaranteed entry to the NYC marathon. Well, that wasn't actually on my list for 2008, but if the rules stayed the same it would be an option, and it's always good to have options... Anyway, I remember saying out loud, "How badly do you want it?" and digging a bit deeper and keeping it going. Somewhere near the 41 km point I took a last energy drink break for a few steps, and a guy with a French accent ran by saying something like, "Keep it going, come on", and I managed to catch up to him and say "We're almost there", which was really true - I could almost taste that finish but knew it wasn't going to be easy...

The race ends with a very gentle climb - would barely notice it if walking! - up Bay St. and then a flat stretch on Wellington. Well, by that point the gentle climb felt like a hill, and I SO wanted to walk. But it was so close, and I so wanted to get there - the seconds seemed to be going in slow motion but I kept jogging until the turn onto Wellington. One of the volunteers said something like "only 500 yards to go", which sounded short but the finish line looked like it was so far away! However, there were lots of spectators, lots of noise, and banners saying "400 (300, 200, 100) metres to go", so I kept mentally saying that 100 metres was a short distance, and I just had to do 100 at a time, and then somehow the finish line was there and I was across, hardly believing it, tired, sore, but feeling oh so very good and so very triumphant / relieved/happy/anxious to find DH and F1...!

A much, much better finish than Ottawa. Lots of room to move around and no crowding. Someone handed me a space blanket, someone else had a bottle of water, someone else had the medal, then the chip return...all kind of happened in a daze. I did see the "leapfrog guy" come across a minute or so after me - he had been aiming for less than 3:40 chip time, and made it, so we were both happy and high-fived/shook hands. Shortly after that DH and F1 found me - it turned out they'd been at the 200 metre point but I was far too focussed and missed them entirely.

They'd both had good races and so we were all feeling great! Even took an official photo in which DH and F1 will look fabulous and I will look like something that crawled out from under a log, as usual :) There was food available but I really couldn't face it, they'd had anything they wanted much earlier, and so we wandered back to my office to shower and change and then go out for lunch. THAT was good - especially the large water and the large beer!

So, a very good day overall and there is much that I am happy with. But it's getting late so I'll write about that another time.