Notes
Back was still not 100% when I woke up but was feeling good enough that I wasn't too worried. I did make sure to lie down for a bit at the Doubletree Hotel before the race started. Condidions were pretty ideal. I wore gloves but dumped them at 22K. There wasn't supposed to be any wind but there did end up being the slightest end wind going west on Lakeshore and then a bit stronger of a headwind going east on Lakeshore towards the beaches. In the end I feel there was more wind than last year.
My plan was to start the race very conservatively by latching onto the 1:30 pacer for the first 20K. The pacer ended up going out way too fast; I hung back but it still resulted in some very fast splits between 3 and 6K. I was really surprised to see my pace this fast as I kept trying to slow down but to no avail. When I finally caught up to the pacer he immediately slowed down as he was well ahead of schedule. This led to a really slow split between 5 and 10K. I tried to just tuck in and take it easy but I was worried that when the pace picked up again I wouldn't be able to respond. I had some trouble with the tangents due to being in a big pace group but I felt like despite this and the irregular pacing it was still worth it as I was just able to relax and not think about pace at all.
I took my first gel (a GU) at 9k. Had a bit of a problem getting it out of my pocket but otherwise it went smoothly. I had also taking a Maurten 15 minutes before the race and was making sure to grab some water and Nuun on the course whenever I could. This resulted in me alternating between the 2 just about every aid station. I also made sure to slow down quite a bit at the stations not worrying about making the time back up. Definitely did a much better job at fueling than in Ottawa.
10-20K was pretty uneventful as the pace had steadied and I was still feeling quite relaxed barely even tempo breathing. I took a Maurten at 18K without a problem. The only new concern during this stretch was that my left upper quad and upper IT band appeared to be fatiguing. There were moments where they felt quite achy and then other moments where the discomfort seemed to dissipate.
When I split off from the half marathoners at 20K I made a bit of an effort to push the pace. This year's race was quite a bit more competitive than last year so I didn't feel as isolated. I still wasn't confident I could break 3 but I knew I was in much better shape than last year and Ottawa at the half way mark. By the time I hit Bayview I felt for the first time i was working hard but the pace was still manageable and my splits were not dropping. Coming back on Bayview between kms 25 and 27 I found a girl to latch on to. We were passing people at a consistant clip through this stretch. We crested the Eastern Overpass and I took another GU. At his point I felt like I was beginning to suffer a bit. I kept thinking just make it to 30K on pace and then reassess.
28 and 29K were tough but my pace was picking up a bit again . . and then we hit Lakeshore into the wind for the 30th K. I led in front of the girl and was really trying to battle but I just couldn't ,aintain pace. Hitting a 4:24 here was definitely demoralizing but my legs still felt ok so I decided to push on and just try to get to 20 miles. The girl came back and took the lead which gabe me a bit of a breather until we finally turned away from Lakeshore. The next 3kms through the Beaches was still into a bit of a wind with a gradual incline. I felt like I did a really good job here battling back and maintaing a pace under 4:20.
I hit the turnaround at 33K still feeling OK, definitely much better than last year. With a bit of a downhill and tailwind boost I clocked my fastest km since Bathurst. I knew this couldn't be repeated as I was definitely tiring and the km markers seemed to get further and further apart. The girl was also starting to gap me and I just couldn't muster the energy to reel her back in. Kms 35-37 got progressively slower and despite being under goal pace I could just tell the end was near. I was already calculating what time I had to do to get under 3:02 oblivious to the fact that I was 40 seconds ahead of 3:00 pace. I think I was a but surprise that kms 34-36 weren't slower as I was definitely struggling here. I took my last Maurten at 36K without much of a problem.
Finally in km 38 I fell below 4:20 pace and from there it just got worse. I knew I was slowing, my cadence was dropping, my legs were burning, and all I could think was just stay strong and steady and hold on for something around 3:01. The 39th km went up the Eastern Overpass and once I saw the 4:27 I knew sub 3 was gone for good as I just did not realize how much time I had banked up to 35K. I kept thinking about the slow kms and forgot about all the 4:12's and 4:13's. If I knew at this point I.was that close to sub 3 I think I could hav pushed harder. There was a guy I had caught up to and ran the 40th km with - he ended up getting in under 3 but I mnade little attempt to stay with him. I figured we both had missed the target and I was just going to run my pwn pace.
I did pick up the pace a bit in the 40th and 41st km but I feel like I could have pushed harder. The 39th km ended up being more of an aberration like the 30th km than the beginning of the end. When I turned onto Bay and hit 500m to go I checked my watch and saw I had over 2 minutes to get to the finish. I realized it was doable and really started pushing but the 500m to go may have been placed a bit far out as the next time I looked at my watch I had a bout a minute to cover maybe 250m. At this point I really should have just sprinted but instead I maintained a fast steady pace until the last corner when I looked and saw I only had 10 seconds to get to the finish. Unfortunately I came up just short.
The sporint at the end was evidence I had a little more to give but instead I just ran scared, not necessarily scared of blowing up but scared of facing the pain. I think for the next marathon I really need to embrace this pain more.
My back felt great after the race and the next day even better until I tried to do some exercises and tweaked it again. So back is not doing great now but legs seem to be recovering well. My right hip was not a problem at all during the race and lower legs felt great throughout. A few hotspots on feet but nothing too bad. The 4%'s definitely worked out great.
2019 STWM / 2018 STWM / Ottawa 2019
20:58 21:42 21:06
42:28 43:02 41:59
1:03:45 1:04:38 1:03:00
1:25:03 1:26:18
1:46:11 1:48:04 1:46:10
2:07:29 2:09:54 2:08:06
2:28:44 2:32:25
2:50:27 2:56:14
3:00:01 3:07:02