Royal Victoria Marathon Report (Read 487 times)

Better Late than never....but no pictures just yet Race Report Royall Victoria Marathon This is such a great place for a wonderful marathon!!! We left for Victoria on Friday morning on one of the nastiest of Juneau days. Blowing and rainy. Great to get out of town. Picked up perky JJ and met the other gals (Sandy and Carolyn) at the airport and got to Seattle at around 11:00. With a six hour layover, we took a bus to Pike St market and got started on our vacation/marathon weekend with a couple of glasses of wine with lunch. The flight to Victoria was pretty quick and it was a 25 minute cab trip to the 2 bedroom loft that we rented. It was so beautiful with a roof deck and really nice rooms. Our one guy friend (Ron) was not able to get to Victoria because of even snottier Anchorage weather. So he came down on Saturday. I slept so well OMG…no kids, cats, dog, bears waking up dog…no snoring dh…I think I must have slept for 9hrs. Woke up with a whole day ahead of us to play in Victoria. Went for a nice and easy 3.5 mile run on Sat to see what the finishing mile looked like. And then we just walked around a bit. Trying to coordinate 5 of us is like herding cats. So we decided to go to the Expo which was OK but not that great. Pretty lame actually.Tried a muscle roller which felt great and only worked on my right calf. $70 with a small tennis ball thing. I passed. Got our shirts which were really nice techie shirts. Went to the Bengal Lounge for cocktails at 5:45 at the Empress Hotel (did I mention my running buddies are serious drinkers and runners?) I was planning to stay clean and sober that day but broke down for a 13 dollar cocktail. It was called “Million Dollar Legs” and I thought it could be an omen. Some people do High Tea but we opted for martinis. The “pasta feed” was amazing!!! Definitely worth the 35 bucks with so much choice of really great food and dessert. The last one I went to at Bizz Johnson was pathetic but I kind of like getting in the marathon mood and seeing all of the lean runners. If you do this marathon…you really need to have this dinner. Dick Beardsley was the key speaker and wasn’t that great an inspiration for me. But that’s just me. I got an OK night’s sleep that night and when I woke up at 6:15, I made a pot of coffee for the girls…and Ron… and figured out what to wear. Not that easy since I brought all sorts of outfits. The weather was purrrrfect so I opted for some shorts with a back pocket for some extra gu and my Ipod. It was about 45 degrees so I wore a jacket to the start. We left early to cheer out friend Sandi on for the HM start. With an hour to kill we painted ourselves with political messages straight from Alaska and then got ready to run. YIKES! A bit over 2000 runners took their place and then we were off. One of my friends was trying to qualify for Boston and I made sure to stay way behind her. I was not all that confident with my training and was hoping for 4.5 hours but would not have been surprised with a repeat of last year’s 4:47. Gorgeous route through streets and parks…some slight hills…nothing really to complain about. The route followed the coast for a bit and we saw sea lions and smelled that great ocean air. The turn around was at around mile 15 so by the time we made the turn back to city center we were already more than half way back. Ran with my friend Carolyn at about 10 minute miles for 14 miles before I decided to sprint out (HA) at a 9:30 pace. The first part felt really slow because I was feeling so darn frisky but I am so glad I held back. Lost 4 minutes at the 2 mile mark due to excessive coffee drinking and multiple folks at the porta potty. Oh well…wished it were a trail marathon and I could have snuck into the woods. Glad I wasn’t trying for a BQ. I was feeling awesome all the way to mile 23 and was thinking I could finish in 4 hours and 20 minutes when I got a calf cramp that almost made me fall. It wasn’t a charley horse and after I stretched it out a bit, I started running but was now a bit nervous about that. I slowed it down a bit and needed to walk every quarter mile or so. What a bummer but I was almost done so I just HTFUed, walked when I really couldn’t run and crossed the finish line in 4:33 minutes. That’s 15 minutes faster than my 1st marathon and if you take away the porta potty stop (which I did in my log because I can do what I want there) I finished in under 4:30. I felt great about my time and I felt really good about negative splits (2:17 at the half) even with the tight calf muscle. I learn something every time I run one of these! Next time (if there is one) I will get an even better base (40-45 miles/week) towards the last weeks, I liked starting out slower than I wanted but I think I could have pushed the first 14 a bit more. The size of this marathon was perfect for me and the crowd was wonderful. I LOVE Canada!

Great job on the marathon! Congrats on the final time and the negative splits. Sounds like a great trip all around with the sleep, food, cocktails, running...

Congratulations! Sounds like you really enjoyed yourself (minus the leg cramps of course!).

Man, that sounds nice! I think I need to do a martini the night before big races now, too! Even with the cramping issues your time is fantastic!

Thanks all of you. My dh was hoping I would have a bad experience and swear off the marathon, but that didn't happen and I think I may do another. Love the destination marathon since I live in Juneau where we do have one but it is really nice to get out of the crap weather. Sparky...another RAer there! It was perfect weather and perfect scenery.

WOW 300 marathons. I am on #2. Is he one of those maniacs? There was a guy there who ran 450 marathons. I am thinking of running the Juneau full as I usually do the half. Once great weather, all other times snotty cold and nasty! Why do I live here?

Great work! One of my friends was the 80 year old lady who got the new world record for running 4:36. If we do the right things we can have very long running careers! Enjoy some well deserved time off.

Great race report. I was also in the RVM. It was my first marathon. I live in Victoria so it was great to sleep in my own bed .Have my own cooked breakfast etc. I agree the expo was rather lame. But it is a beautiful run and yes the weather was perfect. My husband cycled along the route and refilled my water bottles as needed. He was a great support.The cheering crowd was fantastic. Glad you enjoyed Victoria The Bengal room has great food but very expensive. Next time try Milestones, across the street.They have a wonderful butternut sqaush pasta dish.