Race Review: Ottawa Marathon

So the Ottawa Marathon is the final race review for Hubs 5 marathons in 5 weeks series. I have already posted some preamble about the Ottawa event (click here), and also about my own personal struggle with the 2008 marathon (click here), so for this review, I will focus just on how the race itself went, instead of my personal race experience.

Hubs and I took a coach bus with his fellow CAW members to Ottawa on Saturday morning. We were part of a group of runners and walkers called the Durham Racers, with a common mission of raising money and awareness for Cancer prevention. For his part, Hubs had agreed to run the Ottawa marathon in his work coveralls (Hubs works in the Paint Shop at General Motors).


As soon as the bus arrived in Ottawa we went straight to the race expo to pick up our race kits. In previous years, the race expo had been held at Carleton University but this year they relocated to the Aberdeen Pavilion, near downtown Ottawa. Although it is a beautiful building, I personally found this new venue to be step back from the previous expo location, as it was extremely crowded, and you literally had to push your way through the masses to get your race kit. The vendors were crammed close together and the building was extremely hot. We got our race kits and left right away.

We stayed at the Saint Paul's Residence Inn (university campus), which was located a short distance from downtown Ottawa. After checking in and taking a short nap we took a cab down to the Byward Market, an outdoor market which is a big tourist attraction in downtown Ottawa. Here are some pictures Hubs took of the area, including the lovely Italian restaurant, Vittoria Trattoria, where we had dinner. It was awesome, and I even held off having vino with my pasta (considering how the race went, I should have totally drank up!).









Race day morning started out a sunny 11 degrees and felt pretty cool. This years race was very well organized. There were ample porta-potties, the bag-drop was fast and easy, and they had racers organized into corals based on predicted start times. They even gave out Powerbars before the race started. On route there were ample aid and water stations. Half marathoners started two hours later, which is nice for marathoners, knowing the all of the fellow runners around you are running the full marathon distance.

In my opinion, the greatest highlights of the Ottawa marathon is a tossup between the awesome scenery and the fantastic spectators. Since is was such a nice day there were many spectators, both English and French speaking lining the streets. It was uniquely Canadian to hear people call out well wishes in both languages as you ran by. Awesome.

Hubs ran a great race and gained many positive comments about his coveralls. Here are some photos:

Hubs on the bridge that connect the provinces of Ontario and Quebec:




A disappointing result in my seventh marathon:






And Hubs finishes FIVE marathons in FIVE weeks!!! WooooHoooo!!!



BTW, Hubs ran the whole way in those coveralls, and the temperature when he finished was a balmy 24 degrees.

So my final verdict on the Ottawa race:
City and attractions: 10/10
Expo: 4/10
Course entertainment: 8/10
Medal: 9/10
Race T-shirt: 8/10
Spectators: 10/10
Course support: 8/10
Post race support: 7/10
Difficulty: 6/10 (10 being most difficult)

Despite my less than stellar race performance I am already itching for new races. It is the failures and the triumphs that keep me coming back! Look for more posts on what comes next. I can't wait! Thanks for reading!

So I now know what it feels like to hit the wall

And it sucks. Instead of hitting the wall they should call it getting run over by a Mac truck!!

The first half of my marathon went more as less at planned, I came in just over 2 hours at the half-way point. Around 26kms I started having issues with food, I didn't want to eat anything, and I literally had to choke down Gatorade.
Anyway things got worse as the race went along, and I had to run -walk from 30K on. The Sun started beating down, and even the bands and cheering weren't helping. Around 38K I was feeling dizzy and I went off to side to stretch. I continued to walk and around the 39K mark I chucked my cookies. Nice. The poor spectators with their lawn chairs and umbrellas looked repulsed. Welcome to the marathon.

What caused it? I don't know. I think I didn't give myself enough taper time. I ran a full four weeks ago, and then a half two weeks ago, and then the full today. I felt recovered, and my first half was fine. My second half was dismal. When I was sick, they tried pull me off the course, but I refused and stumbled into the finish line. I strangely felt better afterwards. Anyway, I finished in a disappointing 4:48:and change.
I am not going to see this as a failure but as a learning experience. The marathon distance must always be respected - I know I can turn this disappointing result into a positive.

On the up side, I did finish my seventh marathon and it was the toughest personally for me yet. I had never experienced this "wall" thing before. I have always been tired on the home stretch, but never questioned if I could even walk it out. Also Hubs finished his 5th of 5 marathons in a row. He ran this marathon in his Paint Shop coveralls to raise money for cancer research. He completed his run in 4 hours, 17 minutes. I will post a full race review later. Thanks for reading!!

My next marathon ....Ottawa

So I am running my seventh marathon on May 25th, the ING Ottawa marathon in less than two weeks. I just ran a marathon two weeks ago, the Nashville Country Music Marathon, but it didn't quite translate to the race I wanted in terms of a personal record (PR), so I am attempting my second marathon this spring in a four week span. I will post about the Nashville race experience later, but for now I will discuss the beast upon me, the Ottawa marathon.

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada is a beautiful city, and for you American readers, it is the capital of Canada. It is the epitome of a true Canadian marathon. I hold the Ottawa marathon near and dear to my heart as the Ottawa marathon was my very first marathon that I completed and I loved it so much that I came back last year to run it again (even though I hadn't trained AT ALL - not recommended!). So this will be the third time I have will have run the Ottawa marathon, and I have also ran Ottawa as a half marathon in 2005. The Ottawa course is simply beautiful. You run from the province of Ontario into the province of Quebec through the Gatineau area (Hull) before running back to Ottawa Ontario and running by Canadian landmarks such as the Parliment building and the famous Cateau Laurier hotel (I had the priviledge of attending a wedding there last year-nice!).

The race is a real hometown event with lots of spectators and entertainment along the course -even belly dancers! It makes you feel proud to be a Canadian. Last year while running, Hubs and I got to shake the former Canadian Prime Minister's (Jean Cretien) hand while running through the prestigious Rockcliffe area. How many American races can boast such things?

Although I love the Ottawa marathon, it has never been kind to me in terms of having a great race. First of all the race is always held the last week on May and it is notoriously hot. The course is not a hilly course, but there are flatter courses to run. The first time I ran Ottawa was as a half. I had trained really hard and I was sure that I would be able to run a sub 2 hour race and ended up running around 2:08 - I was disappointed even though it was a PR at the time. I also trained really hard for my first marathon, and I was fairly confident that I could run under 4:20, but alas the day was 34 degrees Celsius, and I ended up with a time of 4:37. Although I hadn't met my time goal I still cherished my first marathon experience -it was an amazing accomplishment! In 2006, I entered the race untrained and ended up finishing in an yucky 5 hour+ fashion, but I had a lot of fun during the race.

So needless to say, I want this year to be different. So far, my PB marathon time is a 4:16 (the Philadelphia marathon this past fall), and I know I can better my time. I do have a specific goal in mind, but I will keep that private for now, and I know I can accomplish it under the right conditions. Right now the weather for the 25th looks promising - a high of approximately 14 degrees Celsius - well below average - YES!!

So I am gearing up mentally for the big event. I hope that this will be the year I conquer the Ottawa course. Wish me luck and thanks for reading!