Because two just wasn't enough.

So the time has come for you to get my commitment papers ready.  Friends, colleagues, enemies alike, after this Sunday I believe it is possible for you to consider me truly insane.  This Sunday I completed my third full marathon in 5 weeks.  Madness, you say!  And I shall agree with you, as I rest my sore legs for the third time this season.

Originally this whole debacle started when I was invited by a friend in Calgary(otherwise known as Cowtown) to come join her at the Calgary marathon on May 26th.  When she asked, I had already signed up to run the Vancouver marathon on May 5th, but as I sat there in front of my computer screen, I thought, why not?  What's stopping me from running 2 marathons in a month?  The answer: NOTHING!  So like the nut that I am, I immediately signed up.  She ran the half, I ran the full.  I think her intention may have been for me to run the half with her, but why stop at half when you can go twice as far?  If you're gonna run, run far.

Then when I realized that these 2 runs were just far enough apart to not quite qualify me for membership in the Marathon Maniacs(a very exclusive club for whack jobs like me), I figured I needed a third race so I would qualify.  Enter the Edge 2 Edge marathon from Tofino to Ucluelet.  A race I've always kindof wanted to run but never really had the cajones to sign up for.  As it was held on June 9th, combined with the Calgary marathon it would qualify me for bronze entry into the Marathon Maniacs.  So naturally, I registered in early May.  I have not yet fully decided if I'm actually going to join the club-the membership fees are a little steep to start with and I'm pretty cheap sometimes-but just the knowledge that I now could if I wanted to is really enough for me at this point.

So how did each race go?  Well, gather round the campfire, friends, and I will tell you a tale...

The Vancouver marathon, May 5th, 2013.  This one was lovely.  I had run the new course last year and liked it a lot, and I liked it even better this time.  It's a great course full of nice, meaty downhills and not a lot of ups.  The weather this year was actually a bit too warm, but thanks to Vancouver's compulsory need for an exceptional number of trees, the course was quite shaded for a good chunk of it, so the bright sun really wasn't a problem.  I believe the cap on that particular race was around 10,000, and though they didn't sell out they came damn close.  They did a wave start again this year, and I think I've come to like these quite a bit.  They prevent the clogging you get with big races that don't have them and spread everyone out a lot better right from the start line.

As always, Vancouver is one of the best organized races I've ever done.  Everyone knows where they're supposed to be and when they're supposed to be there.  The only complaint I had this year was that the Skytrain wasn't running early enough for anyone that wasn't on the Canada Line to get the start on time.  While this was probably one of the genius decisions Translink decided to make, it still kinda reflects badly on the marathon, which is unfortunate.  This year they upped the number of water stations on the course, and I believe there was one pretty much every mile.  Which is a lot of water stations.  25 or so, if you're counting.  It actually helped a lot with the flow of runners, because not everyone stopped at every water station, which helped with the clogs that inevitably happen when people stop to drink.  Squish the cup closed and drink on the fly, kids!  It's a race, the timer's running!  Also, stay out of my way if you're gonna stop, or I swear I'll bowl you over.  If anyone wants a lesson in how to drink on the fly in a race, just ask.  Hell, I'll do a Youtube video if it'll mean I don't have to nearly slam into your back the second you grab that cup of gatorade.

The lunch bags post-race were lackluster yet again, but that seems to be the name of the game of late.  A few years ago you could get chocolate milk, candy, even pudding post race.  Now you're happy if you get some sort of topping to go with your dry bagel.  I just ran for 42 km.  I was sweating that whole time.  There is absolutely zero moisture left in my body.  How do you expect me to work up enough saliva to swallow a bagel with no cream cheese or other kind of topping?

The spectators in Vancouver were, as always, excellent.  Lots of people came out to cheer on complete strangers, and I thank you all for that.  Especially those of you that were ambitious enough to make signs or even dress up.  This year, the marathon teamed with the Starbucks stores along the route, and anyone that wanted could go in and pick up a free signboard to decorate and hold up along the route.  It was the first year they've done this so I think it probably wasn't very widely publicized, but I definitely saw a sign or two that cake from a Starbucks.  Next year, if more people catch on, it's gonna be amazing.  Special thumbs-up go to those 2 guys who were at the start line, along the course a couple times, and at the finish line dressed as the grim reaper and Darth Vader.  They had signs that said "may the course be with you" and "the end is not near".  The second sign flipped near the finish line to say "the end is near".  Good job, fellows.  And a very special whack of the cowbell to the guy with the afro dressed as Will Ferrell who was rockin' the brown v-neck and tight jeans, and enjoying that cowbell just a little too much at about 4 points along the course.  More cowbell to you, good sir!  Please come out again next year, the runners appreciate you. 

Also, if anyone is interested, there is a "Bare Buns Run" on the nudist beach every year, as advertised by a rather aged fellow wearing nothing but a sandwich board out at UBC.  Not sure exactly when it was, because I was too busy trying to wipe that particular image from my memory to notice what the sign said.

My finishing time in Vancouver was 4:25:17, which is not a personal best.  But you know what?  I don't care.  I finished, and I finished strong and feeling pretty good.  And that's good enough for me, thanks.

Calgary Marathon, May 26th, 2013.  Or marathon #2, as I like to call it.  I wasn't really expecting much in the way of happiness from this race, because it was my second in a month, and it was a good 1,000 m of elevation higher than what I normally run at.  1,000 m might not sound like much, but consider that at 7,000 m you can survive for as long as you like and not die, whereas at 8,000 m you've entered the death zone and will literally die of asphyxia if you spend too long there.  So yeah, 1,000 m makes a difference.

That said, I had a pretty good race.  The course in Calgary was really twisty, and I kinda liked it because I couldn't see how much farther I had to go.  It's always better when you can't see that you still have 20km left still.  It had a few hills, but nothing severe, and it wound through a good chunk of Calgary.  The course for the full followed the course for the half until around  10 km, where it split off and headed south for a 20+km detour that would make it full marathon distance.  Both races started at the same time, and there were a lot of people running the half, so it was quite crowded until we split.  After that it was gravy, though.  Nice and open and empty.  My only complaint was that a lot of the roads were still open to traffic going both ways, so it was a little scary running along with cars zipping by at 50-60km/h.  Well, maybe not my only complaint.  The roads in Cowtown are slanted, and they had us running down the same side of the road for pretty much the whole race.  Two weeks before at a game of ultimate frisbee I had tweaked my knee and aggravated my left IT band.  Well, the slant of the road didn't exactly treat my poor knee very nicely.  I will say that I was still able to walk afterwards without limping too badly, though my friend's 4th floor walk-up apartment wasn't particularly pleasant.  I almost had to have a rest going up those stairs the first time after the race.

Cowtown was, by comparison to a lot of the races I've done recently, quite small.  1,300 people registered for the full marathon.  I wasn't sure just how good of a race it was going to be considering it's size, but it turned out to be really fun.  Of all the races I've done, the spectators in Calgary are the best I've seen so far.  Because it wound through residential areas, people actually came out of their houses and sat on their front lawns in chairs and cheered us on.  And they did it well, too.  I was very impressed.

I also made a friend during the race, and that's the first time that's ever happened to me.  A fellow came up from behind me and we started chatting.  He asked me about my shoes to start-I was wearing the New Balance barefoot road shoes.  We ran together for a good 3-4 km before he accidentally dropped one of his energy gels and had to stop.  I kept going, of course, because nothing stops a runner during a race if they can help it.  It was a novel experience, this talking to a stranger during a race, but I quite liked it.  I just wish I had managed to get his name, so I didn't have to refer to him forever as tall ponytail guy.  Oh, and another guy liked my footprint tattoo.  He was running completely barefoot, the nut.

But the best part, and I mean it when I say this, about the Calgary marathon is the medal.  Now, the medal for the half marathon and the shorter race-a 10K I think-are just regular medals.  The medal for the full marathon, however, is a belt buckle.  YES!  I kid you not.  And honest-to-God, larger than life, Calgary cowboy belt buckle.  It comes on the usual fancy ribbon, but has the attachments so you can take it off and actually wear it as a real-live belt buckle.  It's awesome!  My friend and her boyfriend were nice enough to take me to the nearest Lammle's to actually purchase a belt that I could attach it to, seeing as finding one of those in Vancouver would likely be like trying to spot a real cowboy during stampede week.  And this thing is monstrous, too!  I think it probably weighs in at a good 2 lbs or more, and it's so big it almost doesn't fit my pants.  But I made it fit, because I earned it, dammit!  And I shall wear my obnoxiously large belt buckle with pride.

Final finishing time in Calgary was a spectacularly even 4:29:00.  Which ain't bad, methinks.

Edge 2 Edge Marathon, Tofino to Ucluelet, June 9th, 2013.  The last of the marathons.  Well, for now, anyways.  This race is kindof unique, or so I like to think.  First, it's way the hell out on Vancouver Island in basically the middle of nowhere.  Second, it's one of the few marathons left that allows relay teams.  While I used to hate the relay teams, I've grown to love them over the years, because I get a certain sense of satisfaction when I pass them.  Yeah, you were in front of me, but I'm going 4 times as far and I just passed you.  So there.  And third, it's teeny.  The full and half  marathons are capped at 400 participants, and the relay is capped at 60 teams.  That means if every event sells out completely, there will still only be 1100 people in this race.  It feels exclusive.  I like it.

The course basically follows the highway from Tofino to Ucluelet through the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, with a short deviation so we get to run along Chesterman Beach near the start.  Running along the beach was actually pretty trippy, too.  It's hard-packed sand, so no worries about tweaking an ankle, and it's pretty.  And when you've got nothing to do for 4.5 hours but look at what's around you, a little pretty doesn't hurt.  Because the highway is the only road into Tofino, it's still open during the race, so again it's a bit scary with the traffic rolling through.  But there are signs on the road and everybody for the most part seemed to slow down quite a bit for us.

This race was also unique in the fact that there really weren't any spectators on the course that weren't at the beginning or the end.  At one end, Tofino, people came out and watched you go by from their lawn chairs.  At the other end, Ucluelet, the same thing.  But there're really nothing in between those 2 towns other than trees and a lot of rolling hills.  No one lives in the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.  So there's no one to cheer for you on your way through.  Well, other than that one wicked girl who parked at the admin building for the park and woohooed every single person that went by-good on you for that, dear!  So really, other than her, it was just a nice long run all by yourself.  There were other people on the course, but for the most part it pretty much felt like you were just running alone along the side of the highway.  Maybe not a great experience for a first marathon, but rather nice and peaceful for a 10th.

I was expecting to be one of the last people to cross the finish line at this race.  Based on my previous experiences racing on the island, I've learned that there are a ton of really fast runners there, so I figured this race would be no exception.  But that wasn't the case.  This isn't to say that I placed anywhere near the top or anything, but it just means that I wasn't last, like I expected.  In fact, I even passed a lot of relay teams, which was also unexpected.  I was running 42.2 km.  The relayers were doing less than 10 km sections.  Ergo; less distance, more speed, right?  Apparently not.  Makes you feel pretty good about yourself when you can run faster over 42K than someone else can run over 8K.  I also figured I'd be slow because a huge section of the course covers rolling hills, which are the enemy to a distance runner.  But they didn't really seem to bother me that day.

On a side note, my dashing husband decided that since he was following me in the car, he would find himself a nice big hill, park at the top, and use the car speakers to blare "Eye of the Tiger" next to the course while he was waiting for me.  The hill he picked just happened to be the steepest and longest on the course.  It was awesome.  He even got a few compliments on his song choice.  This, dear friends, is why you need a support team.  To do awesome things like that for you.  For the record I did do a little boxing on my way up the hill, and raised my arms in victory when I reached to top.

I commend the organizers of this race, because Tofino and Ucluelet are both really small towns, and finding enough volunteers to actually host this race every year can't be particularly easy.  And the volunteers did very well, especially considering the nature of the course and how spread out it is.  The route was very well marked and some of them must've been out there for over 10 hours.  Really, there would be no races without the volunteers.

My finishing time at the Edge 2 Edge was 4:33:40, which, while not spectacular, is pretty good considering it was my third marathon in 5 weeks.  It's better than I was expecting, anyways.

So how was it running 3 full marathons in 5 weeks?  Rather a lot easier than I was expecting, actually.  Apparently running them that close together doesn’t allow you time to lose the endurance you’ve built up.  In fact, I’d say if I really wanted to, I could probably run another in a week or so.  But the Kusam Klimb is coming up so I guess that’ll have to do.  I was expecting to be completely worn out by the third one, and I wasn’t.  I hesitate to say this too loud, but the Edge 2 Edge actually felt fairly easy compared to Vancouver.  Could there be an ultra in my future?  Perhaps…

While I may not feel completely worn out now, my legs-particularly my knees-have been doing a little complaining since the last race.  My right knee has swollen up a little and I can’t bend it past about a 90 degree angle without getting some grief from it.  But I figure it’s probably owed a little rest, since I’ve been working it so hard.  Or I’m getting old.  Nah, it’s definitely the first one.

Just in case you were wondering, these three races bring my full marathon total to an even 10.  That's right, we're in the double digits now.  For those that are counting, that's 422 km.  If you add up all my finishing times, I've spent 41 hours, 56 minutes, and 11 seconds running over the past 7 years, and that's just counting the full marathons-not the half marathons, 10k's, or training runs.  Oh yes.  And yet somehow, my husband still trusts the 59 cent app he bought on his iPhone for training advice over me.