Racing Series

the lost marathon

Posted by Wynne Lock on

when i took a blogging hiatus in september last fall until november, it meant some stuff fell through the cracks, like an illicit trippie back “home” and a half marathon never got mentioned except after the fact.

so, in order to reconstruct that memory, i thought i would rely on offline journal entries but it turns out i didn’t mention the race because of all the other activities going on during my four-day covert trip to moncton and charlottetown last fall….

all is not lost because i can still google myself and find the stats and i was surprised : i thought i had done better.

final stats —
289 of 443 half-marathoners (it was a tiny race)
40 out of 68 females age 20-29
2:10:57 final time
6:15-minute kilometer (or 10-minute mile)
—

which means of the halfers so far, my times in order are saint john ’04, vancouver ’05, p.e.i ’04, then bluenose (halifax) ’04.

(now where will calgary ’05 fall?)

there were only 236 finishers (241 made it at least half way) of the full marathon, to give you an idea of how small the marathon was.

it was a point-to-point, which means the runners got shuttled to the start line with the full marathoners starting along the north shore, at 7 a.m., and the halfers started halfway through the course in the middle of the island at 8 a.m. in a way, it was neat how the marathoners ran all the way across the province to charlottetown on the south of the island. (it meant i couldn’t see W off at the start line of his first full marathon =( as i couldn’t reach my start in time if i went to his.) so my bus arrived at the half-marathon start about 45 minutes before the beginning and we couldn’t wait outside because it was chilly so we huddled in the bus… 45 strangers.

we started in the middle of the confederation trail and as my marathon habit had been so far, i didn’t bring music. so we silently trod along amongst sparse trees, through a farm yard, along the highway, by the airport, and finally to the outskirts of the city and into the core. it was a boring trail, simply put.

otherwise, without a write-up in a journal about it, i don’t really remember my thoughts over the miles. i know i went into the race with a small backache (i’m such a bad girl), and it got a bit aggravated through pounding the pavement for ~50,000 paces.

when i was done, about three hours after the full-marathoners had started, i waited around for W to finish, that we might celebrate another run well completed. (he came in at 4:50:31, split time 2:15:30. ;) he’s a trooper.)

i don’t know anymore how long i was sore after that race but one factor that was present after saint john and p.e.i. was soaking in the jacuzzi in our room after the run. so, after calgary, even though i don’t reliving the memories evoked by a jacuzzi, i might go for a dip for therapeutic purposes. this time, i was debilitated and only better three days after the run.

On this day..