So on with the stories. My official finishing chip time was 4:31:22. So not the 4:15 I was hoping for. And I wanted that time. Bad. Really, really bad. I trained, and I thought I could do it. Then somewhere between 21 and 30 km, it all fell apart. That’s actually exactly where it fell apart last year at the Vancouver marathon. I’ve decided now that I just really don’t like this course. There’s something about it that just rubs me the wrong way. I’m not a huge fan of long, semi-straight stretches, and this course is full of them. There’s also a really long stretch of road right at the end that takes you out of downtown and all the way out to UBC and back. And I swear it’s the longest stretch of road in the world. It just keeps going and going like the Energizer Bunny on steroids. And the problem for me is, I see that it keeps going, and all I can think is that I have to turn around and come right back. It’s awful, especially for it being the last 12 km of the course. Pure torture. So I think I need to expand my horizons in the way of the marathons I run. I think maybe Calgary next year if I can work it. I could use a new belt buckle…There’s also been a lot going on in my life lately. Glen and I have put the house up for sale and are planning to move back to Alberta by the end of July. Glen’s been out of work, and my own experience at work lately hasn’t exactly been stellar. And on Friday I could feel a sore throat starting, so I started popping Cold FX like they were candy. It’s held the sore throat at bay, but I can feel it spreading now. So I’m getting sick. All of this probably contributed in some way to the demise of my 4:15 dreams. I guess it just wasn’t my day. But enough of the excuses. Someday A I’ll get there. Someday.
Moving right along, I was doing very well until about half way. I was actually ahead of my nemesis, the pace bunny. Only this time it was the 4:15 pace bunny. I was ahead of him! I can’t tell you how happy that made me. But somewhere in there he passed me, and I just couldn’t catch him. Damn you, pace bunny! Damn you! The hills this time were killer. Every hill after half-way felt like a mountain, and I just couldn’t maintain my pace. I had to slow down almost to a walk. But I didn’t walk. I may not have done stellar, and I may have disappointed myself, but I didn’t walk. And it would have been all too easy after the 30 km marker. Oh, to have just walked for a minute or two! No! I would not walk! I knew at that point my goal time was shot, but I had to salvage my dignity somehow. So I kept running. Many know my creedo is that you can’t say you’ve run a marathon if you stop to walk during it, and I stand by that. I may have bombed when it came to time, but I still ran the marathon. So while I might be disappointed with my time, I still have a time. I still finished. Which is more than I can say for a large chunk of the population that will never even try. So despite all that, I’m satisfied, thank you very much.
Not a lot of runners from Campbell River made the trip across the straight for this event, but I still managed to see a couple of them. The coach caught up with me somewhere around 34 km, and I’m pretty sure he lied when he said he thought the 4:15 pace bunny was behind me. Nice try, Mark. I appreciate the thought. I give much love to Marian, though. I was on my way back from the turnaround at UBC when I hollered at her. Despite being at the end of my rope I still yelled. And she waved back and hooted in her typical Marian fashion. It wasn’t much, but it kept me going for nearly 4 more kilometres. So thanks, Marian. I hope your race went better than mine.
So now on to the tidbits we all love so much.
The Lulu girls. There were a lot of people out on the course wearing gear from Lululemon. In my own personal experience, the people that shop at Lulu for running gear aren’t generally very hard-core runners. Not that you have to be to enter a marathon. Actually, I’m probably just projecting my jealously on them, since I don’t look nearly as good in the clothes as they do. I tried my hardest to keep ahead of these two girls wearing identical shorts from that store in different colors. I can’t remember now if I came in ahead of them or not. But I hope I did. I can’t really explain why, maybe it’s the jealousy thing, but I just felt the need to keep ahead of them. Though it could have been the perkiness of their stride. After 30 km, perky gets really, really annoying. If you have a perky stride, don’t run next to me in a marathon. I’m likely to shove you into a thorny bush along the course.
Sponges. Seriously, who did a girl have to sleep with to get a sponge out on the course? There was a serious lack of sponges at this race. The last 2 years in Vancouver there’s been an abundance of sponges at some of the water stations. This year, I came across only a single sponge station that still had any left. And you bet your arse I took it. And it felt good. This year I was really needing the sponges, too. It was dry this year, and the sun kept peeking out, so I was actually getting pretty sweaty. So I needed sponges. But seeing as there were none, I had to resort to using the water station cups and just splashing them into my face. It didn’t jive so well with the sweat and the contact lenses. But it was better than nothing, I guess.
Hat guy! If you’ve read one of my recent entries about the Comox Valley half, you’ll know about hat guy. Well, he was back again this year! He was actually behind me quite a ways, but he was still there in all his hat-wearing glory. Someday I’m going to get the nerve to introduce myself and find out what his name is.
The wounds. Many of you are familiar with my experiences with wounds sustained in the quest of a marathon medal, and Vancouver was no exception. Sometimes the wound is as simple as some thigh chafing from my shorts, or as big as the now permanent scar I have on my chest from making a poor sports bra decision (see my 2007 blog entitled “42 km is really far”). Well, there was still chafing this time, but there was no broken skin. I also somehow managed to get some chafing from a sports bra that I wore in the last marathon I ran, and that time it didn’t chafe at all. This year, the most impressive injury I sustained was a blister on my right big toe that’s roughly the size of Philadelphia. It’s huge! And not only that, it even bled a little. So it looks even more impressive. I also have the marathoner’s walk going on, but I expect that to get better over the next couple days.
New management. I think there was a change in the organizing committee for this year’s marathon, and they made some changes I wasn’t particularly happy with. Previously, they had hosted the expo and race package pick-up at the host hotel, where we usually stay. This year they set up big tents near the start/finish line, which made the expo very crowded and somewhat difficult to get to. It was very convenient when it was at the hotel, but this year we ended up driving around trying to find a parking space for about 20 minutes. There was also far less food at the finish line this year than previously, and there were no bags to carry it in. They also handed out the shirts at the package pick-up instead of at the finish line, so they don’t say “finisher” on them. Which is okay, I still get the shirt, but there’s something to be said for the pride of wearing a shirt that says “marathon finisher” on it. But my biggest complaint is with this year’s medals. It’s not that they changed the logo on the medal, though I did like the native art they used to put on them. It’s the fact that this year’s medal has no date or year on it! That was the unique, exciting part of the medals, you could only get them that year. Even if the design didn’t change, at least the date would be different. But these ones could be from any year, really. And it sucks! I’m running 42.2 km! The least you could do is make the medal unique enough that if I come back to run again next year I don’t end up with exactly the same medal! I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty cheesed about that.
Newspaper coverage. Normally I like staying the night after the marathon to recuperate, but also so that I can get a copy of the newspaper the next day to see my name in print. But alas, the year, my name was not in print. In fact, there was very little coverage of the marathon in the papers this year. The Province had a couple pages, which was nice, but the Vancouver Sun had a single picture with a caption. That’s it. No accompanying article, no list of the winners, just a single picture. Yet there were nearly 2 pages devoted to the Vancouver Canucks, who I might mention, actually lost that weekend. Vancouver is a running city. They host one of the largest marathons in Canada, and yet all we rate is a single picture? Thousands of people trained for thousands of hours, shedding their sweat, tears, and even some blood, and yet they barely rate any newspaper coverage? Shame on you, Vancouver newspapers, shame on you.
So that’s all my stories about this year’s Vancouver Marathon. My next adventure has yet to be planned, but I can’t lie that I kinda hear the waves on the Chesterman’s in Tofino calling my name…
