THE BACKGROUND

On May 23rd 2010, I ran my first marathon, in Ottawa. It was followed ten days later by a small heart surgery and I did not run another marathon until 12 months later. Then I ran 17 more in the four years that followed. Some were done well, some not so well. Some were run in very bad conditions. I liked them all, no matter what, because marathons are the reason why I keep running. Without them, I would have moved on to other activities a long time ago.

On May 24th, 2015, this past Sunday, I returned to Ottawa to run my 18th marathon, exactly 5 years after my first one. Just a coincidence, as I had not planned on it. I decided to do this race because I ran Boston very poorly this past April. The reason I did so poorly can be explained by three factors:

1) I had run 2 marathons two weeks apart in the fall and it left me more fatigued than I thought could be possible. When the time to return to training arrived, I didn't have it in me and I put together a short 10 week training plan that consisted of no speed work and no taper. I learned that no matter what one's experience is, poor training can never yield anything good, especially at my age.

2) The conditions in Boston were some of the worst I had ever had in a race. I have Raynaud's disease and felt frozen deep to the bones for the entire duration of the race. This meant that my muscles never had a chance to relax, and by mile 16, I was sore all over. Especially my back and shoulders. Too early in the race for that. The last 10 miles were a death march for me.

3) I gave up mentally. Knowing that my training had been sub-par and feeling like a miserable wet dog, I stopped caring about my finish time and walked a lot. I finished in 3:48, my 4th slowest time out of 18 marathons. My most screwed up race. But Boston is Boston is Boston. No regrets, because it will always be an honor for me to be allowed to run there.

So not wanting to end my 2015 spring season on that note, I decided to register for the Ottawa marathon, 5 weeks after Boston.

MY RECENT TRAINING HISTORY

Last October, I ran a marathon in 3:31. This included a potty-stop and a shoe malfunction. I figure that with better luck, I could have had a 3:28 that day, so not too far from my 3:27 PR. The 3:31 race was done on the Pfitz 55/70 plan. The 3:27 PR was done on Pfitz 70/85, but it was my 5th marathon in the 12 months preceding that race and so I was tired. Again, with more common sense in me and less races in my legs that year, I think that I could have gone sub-3:25 that day in Boston (my HM PR indicates that as well).

This time around, I was riding on 10 weeks of lackluster training, a bad race in Boston, a few weeks of recovery, some time spent in Europe with almost no running, and a 64 mile week that should have been my one taper week before Ottawa. Now... I may be foolish at times in my racing, but I have enough experience to know that this is not being race-ready. So I decided to turn this race into a strong training run, with the intention of keeping my weekly mileage up (which has been consistently in the 60mpw these last 3 months). Come mid-June, I plan on revisiting Pfitz 70/85 and see what it can bring me next October...

Okay. So now, hopefully, you understand a bit better what I've been doing. I know that I seem to act erratically at times, but there is a big master plan behind all my actions.

ON TO THE RACE

I have been training recently with paces meant for a 3:30 marathon (but don't feel ready to run one just yet. I would need a few more weeks which I don't have), so I figured that a 3:40 marathon could be called a training run. I settled on 3:39 because it looks better than 3:40 on paper and for me, it means BQ -20.

I drove to Ottawa with my SO and DS the Saturday before the race. We met with a good friend of ours, and had lunch with him. Then, in the afternoon, my SO and my DS ran the weekend's 5k, part of many races to be held over two days in the city. Ottawa Race Weekend is the biggest running event in Canada (over 40,000 participants in all races. For here, it's huge) and they do a great job with it.

Both SO and DS do not run (or at least, they run very little, maybe 4 times a month) and since it was my DS' first ever race and he was not keen on the idea to start with, we decided that a sub-30:00 would be a victory that day. No pressure, just good fun for both dad and son. It turned out that they could have easily done better than that, but they were caught in a mass of ill positioned walkers and they lost a few minutes because of it. SO also stopped to help a young boy who had fallen. My son was slightly annoyed by it (they were running together, so he had to stop as well), but I think it was a good lesson for him. None of us should ever take ourselves so seriously in our running that we cannot stop to help another human being. They finished in 29:something, with DS saying that it was way too easy, but that he wouldn't mind doing it again. It was what I wanted to hear, so I call that a win.

My own race was Sunday morning, with a 7 am start. The weather people were calling for a cool morning of about 55F at the start, rising to 82F later in the day, and it's exactly what we got. At times cloudy, at times with full sun, it made the second half of the race much harder than the first one for the slower runners like myself...

Overall, I felt fine. I had injured my back the Monday before, but running with it didn't seem to be a problem. My stomach was fine. My nerves not so good, because I knew that my training had been crap. But my SO reminded me that it was only a training run and all I had to do was to come in with a 3:40 time. To which I replied dryly: "3:40 isn't THAT easy... Try it and tell me how you feel about it after". Then he quickly said apologetically: "It does not have to be 3:40, you know... 4:00 would be fine as well!". "4:00? Are you serious?! I've never run a 4:00! I don't want to run a 4:00 on my 18th race!" Poor SO...  Stuck with me...  He can never win with my pre-race mental state...  .

At 7 am, I was in my corral, the second one, and I had placed myself beside the 3:35 pacer. I like running my first half faster than my second one and I don't give a damn if it is scientifically proven to be inefficient. I know all about it, I understand it, but I still don't give a damn about it. I will run my way or I won't run at all and that is it.

Pacer 3:35 was a very serious guy and not into chatting, which I liked. They sang the national anthem, while all the French-Canadians around me kept talking loud. I wanted to tell them to shut the beep up, but I figured that that would put me in the wrong mood for the race and I bottled up my irritation. Later, the same group of disrespectful French-Canadian guys started making jokes, interacting with the spectators and acting like clowns on the course. This made me laugh and helped me relax and I suddenly thought how witty and full of life and creativity some of us (but not me), French-Canadians, are. Always the torn woman, insecure and conflicted about her roots... All in all, I thought it was pretty cool to have a race of this size which goes from Ontario to Quebec and back, with so many participants from our two solitudes. Racing brings people together and this is a great example of it. I also have to say that the spectators in Gatineau, Quebec, were pretty awesome. If you are thinking of doing a race in Canada, this one will give you a great taste of our people in general. People love to cheer in both French and English and they will make you feel like a star. Also, our names had been printed on the bibs and the spectators made good use of it. I always like that.

I kept up with Pacer 3:35 with no difficulty, until the 28th or 30th kilometer (about 18th mile, I think?). By then, my legs were bloody and covered with strange wounds caused by chafing (or something else... See other thread). For some reason that I still do not understand, it seems that I was running that day with my knees and ankles rubbing together. This has never happened to me before. What had started at mile 10 with a light burning sensation was by mile 18th a most uncomfortable, even painful, feeling. I did not want to look down, because I was afraid that it would push me into a DNF. The temperature had also started rising quite a bit and my running became more of an effort, so I decided that now was time to slow down to let Pacer 3:40 catch me. He did, but unfortunately, I let him go ahead and I missed my goal of 3:39 and finished in 3:40:24 instead, because I did not check my Garmin enough and did not calculate my last couple of miles well enough. That upset me at first, but then I thought, so what? Does it mean anything in the greater scheme of things? Absolutely not. So I'm happy with my 3:40:24. I crossed the finish line feeling strong and like I could run another similar training run next month. But I think I'll pass on that idea this time.

Here, at mile 14, you see the chafed area on my left leg.

The Ottawa National Art Gallery, one of my favorite places.

In this very unflattering photo of me, we can see how my knees are acting weird.

Another picture that shows the wounds on my left leg. I could do a close-up, but I won't, to spare the sensitive hearts among us.

Again, my knees are rubbing. Anyway, I beat the dude in black. Yeah! lol

SOME NUMBERS

My 18th marathon and 18th BQ

BQ -19

About right smack in the middle of all my marathons, as far as finish time goes

Was the 1492nd runner at the 10k mark and was the 1298th one to cross the finish line. So others fared worse than me in the heat

My family is not very camera happy. We rarely bring a camera with us and it's only on my insistence that pictures are taken. Usually, the only reason I take pictures is for my race reports. You will notice how my SO stands uncomfortably here and how I'm clumsily trying to hide my chafed and bloodied legs. (and yes, it's been a long winter here, as you can tell by my pasty white stomach)

My son is the worst amongst us. He despises having to pose for a camera, so he always makes some sort of clown face for us, even when we get upset at him and tell him to stop.

So I punish him by making him pose with me more than is necessary. That's my job as a mother.

Here he looks positively annoyed at me. My work is done.

My great shirt (back of it) and medal

Look! The maple leaf can even spin! (Yes... I'm easily impressed, I know )

My favorite post-race (and sometimes even pre-race) drink: a margarita.

As always, we had a great time in the national capital. Thank you, people of Ottawa. And thanks guys for reading!

Congrats on # 18 and another BQ!  Imagine what you could've done if that leg wasn't hurting. I think you have a good shot at your goal later this year.  Again, strong performance!

Always interesting to go back to one's roots and beginnings, though it seems like Ottawa has not been good to you between the heart surgery in 2010 and the chafing this year. Where are you going for your next marathon?

Another nice job!

Regardless of any performance concerns you have, back to back BQs with nary a slip is impressive.

oh and chafing like that... Odd

did you get any dirt, debris or crud on you that would act as an abrasive when you started rubbing knees?

Considering the heat and the chaffing, you did really well.  BQ -19 is excellent, even if it wasn't the best that you can do.  Nice pictures, especially considering the amount of pain you were in.

That chafing is so bizarre... it looks more like road rash to me, actually.  Very weird.

Anyway -- great race.  Congrats!!

Blue, I know, right... it does look like I took a fall while cycling. But I swear that my legs were perfectly intact going into the race. :-) Thanks!

Jay, Ginny, onemile, thank you, guys!

Baboon, you know what, if I had finished in 4:00, I'd be just as happy. I too feel grateful to just be able to participate in these things. But before a race, I always have a case of the nerves. I think they call it healthy stress. We would not PR very often if we didn't have at least a small dose of stress. Thank you!

Sly, no, no dirt or anything of the sort went on my legs. But if you read my last post in my other thread, I was wondering if it had anything to do with the hair spray and other crap product that was put in my hair the day before. The skin on my legs looked like it had been burned after the race. But now it's almost all gone, except for one area that was chafed more deeply. Anyway, thanks for your words!

Oski, Thank you! I'm afraid that you may be right. It does look like my hips drop way too much. Ugh... more exercises to do, more specialists to consult. :-(

George, yes, it felt great to be going back to the same course and reminisce. It felt like it was a lifetime ago, though it was just 5 years. My next marathon will either be Toronto in October, or Hamilton, early November. Probably Toronto...

Ric, cjones1 and Damaris, thank you for your kind words!

I posted my report on another forum and someone had this comment for me:

 

I believe your calf bruise is from what we call "crossover."  The medial (inside) part of the heel on your right foot is "kicking" your left calf resulting in the bruise.

 

It's interesting, because my right heel is where I had an extreme case of plantar fasciitis a while ago. I could not run at all for 2 months. The pain eventually went away, but I've always felt that my right foot was no longer landing the same way after this. Hmmm... it would make sense that that weak heel be the source of other problems...

Or your heel issues were a symptom of a different problem.    Hip weakness also causes a crossover gait.   (I don't mean to sound like a broken record here.....)