Notes
Woke up feeling a lot better today. Weather was pretty good as the wind turned out to be a pretty much non factor. Went with shorts, gloves, a long sleeve and t-shirt over top. Felt like this was the right decision as I never got too not nor cold during the race.
Did the slightest jog of a couple hundred meters before the start. Legs were feeling pretty good. Also took a GU 15 minutes before the start. There was no 3:05 nor 3:10 pacer so I was little worried going out too fast. I decided I wanted to go out at 3:05 pace and then fade in the back half. Lined up pretty far back around where the 3:15 pacer was. As a result the start was really congested and there was no way for me to go faster that the pace I started at without wasting a bunch of energy. The first 2K was uphill and into the wind that did exist as it was mostly from the north. I felt really relaxed but at the same time disappointed to see the pace so slow. I was taking manual splits at each km marker to make sure they were accurate.
As we turned west on Bloor with my legs now warmed up and now having some more room, my pace immediately improved. The next few kms on Bloor and down Bathrust were definitely on the fast side but I was still feeling extremely comfortable so wasn't too worried. By 9K on Lakeshore I finally settled into my goal pace. The wind from the west was pretty non-existant so this allowed me to hold back and stay relaxed.
From 9K to 20K, the kms ticked by pretty smoothly adn I never even really entered tempo zone. The inclines on Lakeshore were pretty easy as I rolled over them without much need for recovery. I took my first GU at 12K without problem as my breathing was still pretty relaxed. Took some water at 15k to be safe and then took an Endurance Tap at 20K. The Endurance Tap was a little harder to consume than the GU but I really wanted to have some pure sugar at this point in the race. There were some faster kms within this stretch which allowed me to hit the halfway point well under pace but I don't think I could have felt better hitting the half/full split.
Once we split from the half runners I noticed a pretty much immediate energy drop. Most the runners I had been running with disappeared and the streets became more desolate. The stretch along. Queen's Quay heading towards corktown just past the halfway mark felt like the longest km of the race to that point. I really focused during this perios on maintaining pace and for the first time the race felt more like a tempo. KMs 22-26 mostly along the Bayview out and back were very consistent which was extremely encouraging as this was the stretch I feared the most. Km 27 was a bit uphill and into some northerly wind and ended up being my slowest km since KM 2. I think I may have overcompensated for this in the following km as it wasn't soon after that I really started suffering.
Heading east along Lakeshore was really tough with the wide open street and not that many people to run with. I felt some wind from behind me so really started fearing the kms coming back home. Kms 29-31 seemed to go on forever and I found myself working really hard just to maintain 4:23 pace. KM 32 headed north and east towards the beaches on Queen and this was the first km where I felt my pace drop and knew I wouldn't be able to rebound. Legs were starting to feel really heavy and although breathing was under control I just felt exhausted like I wasn't able to increase the effort. My feet had really started aching around 25K but weren't necessarily getting worse. The only other discomforts/pains I had up to this point was some hip flexor tightness on left side around the halfway point and a bit of side stitch about 10K into the race. I had a bit of water at 25K, a GU at 28K and some more water at 31K. I felt like I was sufficiently fueled; the main problem was that my engine was dying.
I worked really hard in kms 33-34 along Queen to maintain my new pace around 4:31. At this point I didn't want to slip much below 4:30 pace as that is 3:10 marathon pace. The support in the beaches is mostly what kept me going with people lining the street calling out my name. Km 35 heading back to Lakeshore and luckily the wind wasn't as bad as what I feared. The wind that I did feel was almost a welcome relief as it kept me cool. Despite this my pace did drop as my legs were just feeling incredibly heavy. My stride length was dropping and cadence was soon to drop too. I had actually increased my cadence from 184 to around 187 after the halfway mark in order to maintain pace but by now I just couldn't get my legs turning over at the same rate and power was dropping. At 35K I figured I had at least 37 minutes to finish the race and get in under 3:10 so my goal was just to complete every km under 5:00. Just treat the rest of the race as an easy run. This really helped to keep me positive. KM 36 was another 4:34-4:35 but felt like it went on forever. I took my last Endurance Tap at this point (it was really hard to open) but once open I consumed it pretty easily.
Km 37 was another tough one but was still able to hit a sub 5:00 with time to spare. Km 38 was a bit into the wind heading north and resulted in another pace drop. Legs were just feeling so heavy but I knew I was banking time and getting closer to the end. Km 39 was going over the Eastern overpass which actually wasn[t too bad going up but coming down my quads were burning. The Endurance Tap had kicked in by now so I decided to make it to the end without stopping for any water or gatorade. I had settled into mid 4:50 pace and was happy to just keep this pace to the end as the last thing I wanted was to blow up. I knew I had a time that I would be happy with if I could just jog easy 3 kms to the end.
By 41K I knew I definitely had it but I waited until about 400m left to try to pick up the pace. I had been passing people the entire race until after km 40 when people finishing strong finally started to pass me. I was just suffering so much at this point that I didn't care and just wanted to make it to the end. Once I finished my legs immediately seized up and I could barely walk. No severe cramps but just overall tightness. Achilles and hamstring survived, the worst pain may be from the outside of my right foot.
Extremely happy with result and feel confident I can impreove this time with some more volume and long runs in the build up. Aerobically I felt really strong so I think the taper was quite positive. Just need to build up more strength in my legs and work on endurance. Would also like to incorporate sppedwork if Achilles holds up just to make marathon pace feel even easier. For a half today I;m not sure what I could have run but my initial estimate of around 1:27 I think was accurate considering how fluid kms 10-20 were. The first 2kms were surprisingly slow but I think my body would have responded if I forced it to go around 4:10.
I think i did hold up really well considering my limited training as my placing was still improving from 35-40K despite the huge drop in pace. The consistent mileage in June and July may have helped here too. The last 10K really was like a separate race, much more mental than physical as it was all about not stopping, not cramping up and just not falling over, employing intense focus to fight through the pain and maintain a respectable pace. With more solid training, maintaining goal pace during this part should be achievable.
COMP. VIEW BIB NAME COUNTRY CATEGORY RANK GENDER PLACE CAT. PLACE @10KM HALFWAY @30KM OFFICIAL TIME
4143 Andrew Collins CAN M40-44 264 227 34 00:43:02 01:31:03 02:09:54 03:07:01.6
SPLIT NAME SPLIT DISTANCE SPLIT TIME PACE DISTANCE RACE TIME OVERALL (/4475) GENDER (/2985) CATEGORY (/426) TIME OF DAY
@5KM 5 km 00:21:42 4:20/km 5 km 00:21:42 347 302 50 09:07:07
@10KM 5 km 00:21:20 4:15/km 10 km 00:43:02 336 293 47 09:28:26
@15KM 5 km 00:21:36 4:19/km 15 km 01:04:38 331 288 45 09:50:02
HALFWAY 6.1 km 00:26:26 4:19/km 21.1 km 01:31:03 323 283 42 10:16:28
@25KM 3.9 km 00:17:01 4:21/km 25 km 01:48:04 306 269 42 10:33:29
@30KM 5 km 00:21:51 4:22/km 30 km 02:09:54 285 249 36 10:55:19
@35KM 5 km 00:22:31 4:30/km 35 km 02:32:25 275 239 36 11:17:49
@40KM 5 km 00:23:50 4:45/km 40 km 02:56:14 261 226 35 11:41:38
@42.2KM 2.2 km 00:10:49 4:54/km 42.2 km 03:07:02 266 229 35 11:52:27
OFFICIAL TIME 03:07:01.6 4:25/km 42.2 km 03:07:01.6 266 229 35