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Race Report: Goofy 2011 Marathon
Marathon logo A few days ago I wrote about the first part of the Goofy Race-and-a-Half Challenge at Walt Disney World in Florida. On Saturday morning, bright and early, my friends Cecilia, Donna, Laura, and I ran a half marathon in Walt Disney World. Great, you might think, a bit of effort but a good run and a good excuse for a trip to Florida. True, except for one minor detail: the next day, we were running a full marathon. That’s what made it Goofy.
Back when I had first planned to do the Goofy, my goal for the marathon was for a new personal best and to beat 4 hours, hopefully somewhere around 3:50. Having been out of commission for November and December, I had been uncertain whether I would even be able to run. After the half marathon, I had no pain and felt optimistic about the marathon. Somewhat cockily, I still set out with the goal of sub-4 hours, but really finishing would be the main accomplishment.
After Saturday’s half marathon, we eventually met up back at our hotel room, got showered, and tidied up. The smart thing to do would have been to relax and take the day off, but we were at Walt Disney World, so off to the theme park it was. We wandered over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, got some food (an essential task, at this point) and enjoyed the park. We left early to head back to the hotel for our pasta dinner and an early bedtime (before 8pm!) for a second morning in a row of waking at 2:45am.
When we woke Sunday morning, it was much more perfunctory and run-of-the-mill: by this time, we were experts at getting up for early morning Disney races, and we were out the door without problems. It was a bit chillier than the previous day, somewhere around 6°C, so I decided to go for a long sleeve shirt underneath my short sleeve one, something I had been debating the previous day as well. I wrapped myself up in the mylar sheets we received on Saturday after the half marathon, and off we went.
Marathon race course Cecilia and I split up with Donna and headed to our start corral, with a judicious stop at the shortest porta-potty line we could find. Cecilia and I stretched and hung out together until just as the race started, when she headed to the rear of our corral (Corral B, this time) as she was planning a slower race than I was. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy were again on hand to count us down, and the race started. I had to wait a couple of minutes for the first wave to go, and then within 5 minutes I was across the starting line. I remember that the fireworks at the starting line were fantastically warm as I crossed, and then I was back into the cold.
Running through Cinderella's Castle The marathon course started us with a loop through Epcot Future World, then back along past the start. By the time I passed the start after about half an hour, everyone was gone and cleanup was underway. From there, we ran along one of Walt Disney World’s many highways, up towards the Magic Kingdom. The first third of the race went by very quickly, and before I knew it was already heading into the Magic Kingdom, through the same back entrance into Main Street USA that I had run through the day before. Since we’d started off with the loop around Epcot, it was brighter by the time I reached the Magic Kingdom and I stopped for a couple of photos in the park, including this picture just before I ran through Cinderella’s Castle with trumpeters announcing my arrival.
Me running during the marathon At the mile 11 water stop in the backstage area just outside the Magic Kingdom, I stopped for a gel and water. Given that I had depleted a significant amount of my body’s energy stores the day before, I knew eating would be an important part of this marathon. Fortunately, I was feeling good and was right on pace for a sub-4 hour marathon.
Me and Donald Duck From the Magic Kingdom, we had a long run down some back roads to the Animal Kingdom. I stopped for a picture with Donald Duck at one of the golf courses near the Grand Floridian and then got back under way. Not long after, I hit the halfway point and was still right on pace, at 1:58:43 for the first half.
For a brief time we passed the later runners heading up to the Magic Kingdom, and then turned off towards the Animal Kingdom. We ran through a quite large backstage area for the Animal Kingdom. 
Me and Minnie Mouse Just before entering the park, I got my picture taken with Minnie Mouse.
The run through the Animal Kingdom was very short and I don’t remember much of it. We entered in “Africa”, ran to “Asia”, passed “Mount Everest”, ran through DinoLand USA, and then exited through a back entrance. 
Me and Mickey Mouse We looped around towards the main entrance, and along the path was the Mouse himself, Mickey Mouse, all dressed up in his safari gear and waiting to take a picture with me.
From mile 18 at the exit of Animal Kingdom, it was 4 miles along highways until the next park, Hollywood Studios. Looking at the map the day before, Cecilia feared it would be the mentally toughest part of the course, and it certainly turned out to be hard for me. Just after mile 18, I started to feel really tired and worn out. 
Marathon splits I had been taking gels every 6 miles or so, but I took an extra one here and starting in on some other snacks I had with me (Clif Shot Bloks, they’re a gummy form of gels and now my favourite running food in the entire world!). The rest of the race was stop and go for me, with lots of breaks, sometimes every couple of minutes, for walking and stretching. My pace dropped substantially as you can see in this chart of my split times. My sub-4 hour goal was out of reach, but I was still confident I would at least finish.
Me and the Toy Story Soldier One of bright spots — maybe the only — along this tough 4 mile stretch was the Toy Story soldier who was encouraging us on a run up a hill; he had been there yesterday and was one of the best characters along the route, so I stood at attention and got a picture with him this time around. Eventually I made it to the Hollywood Studios. 
Me at Disney's Hollywood Studios We ran through the studio backlot and then out on to the Streets of New York with the Manhattan skyline in the distance. By now it was past 9am, so the park was open, and it was fun to be running through the park while people were there. We headed down the main street of the park and I got another picture of me with the iconic Sorcerer’s Hat.
Me in Epcot From the Studios we ran through the many resorts in the area around the Studios and Epcot, including Disney’s Boardwalk, the Swan and Dolphin, and the Yacht and Beach Club. At last, I was at the final park, back where it all began, at Epcot. This time we ran around the World Showcase, then right down the main walkway of Epcot, and out to the right of the geodesic dome of Spaceship Earth. This was the last stretch of the race, and it couldn’t be over soon enough! Just outside of the park boundary as the finishing chute started, a full gospel choir was there encouraging us, and then the spectator stands and the crowd. I made it across the finish line at 4:22:07.
Cecilia and I after the Marathon At this point, I felt little sense of accomplishment. The usual post-race stuff followed — mylar, medal, water, food — including a special Goofy medal. I gradually made my way to the rendezvous point and a little over half an hour later Cecilia came hobbling up with ice on both her knees. I think we hugged each other, took a step back, and almost simultaneously told each other that that was the stupidest thing we’d ever done. A half marathon and then a marathon? Certifiably crazy! I didn’t feel a great sense of pride or accomplishment: it was just done. At least we were uninjured and managed to complete it. We headed back to the hotel room where Laura was waiting for us.
With Goofy in the Magic Kingdom We were definitely sore the rest of the day and for a couple of days afterward. Brilliant as ever, we went to a park that afternoon (Magic Kingdom). We took it a little bit easier on the park, but it still involved a lot of walking and getting up and down. That was the funniest part, actually: for the next couple of days, you’d see all these otherwise fit people wincing and groaning every time they had to get into or out of a ride, and we certainly did out share of wincing too.
Laura, Donna, Cecilia, and I with our medals We had a couple more days at the park, and proudly wore our Goofy shirts the rest of the time there.
With a bit of time between the day of the marathon and writing this blog entry, I no longer think it was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. But it certainly was tough. I’m impressed that I did it, though it was more a matter of will than training given my training problems. I’m not sure if I’ll ever do something like the Goofy again, though I think I would enjoying running a marathon at Walt Disney World again (as much as one can enjoy running a marathon). But that can wait for a few years.
I suppose that wraps up this series of blog entries on the Goofy. Check out my complete gallery of photos from the Goofy 2011 Half Marathon and Marathon. Take a look too at Cecilia’s race report from the marathon. Check back in a few days for the rest of my trip to Walt Disney World.
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Race Report: Goofy 2011 Half Marathon
Goofy logo A few months ago I was peer-pressured into doing something a little bit stupid. A little bit goofy, even. Yes, Goofy.
My friends Cecilia and Laura, normally upstanding members of society, peer-pressured me into signing up for a race at Walt Disney World in Florida. Every year in January, they have a marathon weekend, with a half marathon on Saturday and a marathon on Sunday. But for the extraordinarily athletic/stupid, you can sign up for both, and run the Goofy Race-and-a-half Challenge. This is what I was peer-pressured into doing.
And thus my training season began. I had two major races last year, the Gold Coast Half Marathon in July and a 10K in Brisbane in August, both of which went fairly well. The plan from there was to increase distance and eventually do a few “x, 2x” weekends, where I ran x km on Saturday and 2x km on Sunday. While training in September-December was expected to be complicated due to my busy travel schedule, it was completely thrown out by an iliotibial band (ITB) injury that developed in October. Tightness in my ITB was pulling things out of alignment, which would caused pain after just a couple of kilometres running. This resulted in me taking almost 8 weeks off of running from mid-October through mid-December. Not good when you need to run 63.3km in January. I was able to get in a little bit of running, pain-free, when I was in Windsor over Christmas; from November to the day of the first race, the longest run I had was 15km. While I was fairly optimistic that I would be able to run and complete the half marathon on Saturday, I had no clue whether the subsequent marathon on Sunday would be doable.
Donna, Cecilia, Laura, and I bundled up before the race We arrived in Florida on Thursday and spent Thursday and Friday casually wandering around Epcot and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. We turned in early on Friday evening as we had to be up at 2:45am Saturday morning to be in place for the 5:35am start. 
Starting line Corral A We were out the door by 3:20am and at the course by 4am, although it took us until past 5am to make it to the starting line. It was chilly, but not so cold that shorts were not in order. There were about 27,000 runners, broken up into 9 corrals of 3,000 runners each. Cecilia and I were both optimistic when we registered for the race, and our optimistic target time placed us in the first corral together.
Cecilia and I at the starting line of the Half Marathon Cecilia and I planned to run together for a while. We planned for a fairly slow pace — slower than what we listed during registration — in part to save ourselves for the marathon the next day and in part due to us both having ITB injuries in the months before the races. At 5:35am, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald counted down to start the race with fireworks and less then a minute after the start we were across the starting line and running!
Tunnel to enter the Magic Kingdom The race started on a road outside Epcot and headed up to the Magic Kingdom on one of the — I was to discover — many, many highways in Walt Disney World. A few kilometres later, we ran through the tunnel from the parking lots to the Transportation Centre (at left), around the Seven Seas Lagoon, past the Contemporary Resort, and then came through a back entrance to enter the service areas of the Magic Kingdom. For me, getting to see the backstage areas of Walt Disney World was one of the best parts of the race course.
Running into Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom After a little bit of running through the backstage area, we ran through a gate and suddenly were in the Magic Kingdom, right in Main Street USA, just inside the entry to the park. 
Runners on Main Street USA It was awesome — beautifully lit — with cast members and spectators cheering us on. We turned the corner and ran right down Main Street USA. It was dark when Cecilia and I ran through, but light the next day during the marathon, which is when these pictures were taken.
Me at Cinderella's Castle We continued up Main Street USA and turned right in to Tomorrowland. We ran through there — at 6:45am, the park was not open yet so it was quiet — then around into Fantasyland, straight through Cinderella’s Castle as trumpets on the balcony announced our arrival, and out the front to adoring crowds. Cecilia and I stopped for a picture in front of the castle.
We ran through Liberty Square and Frontierland, then exited the park through another out-of-the-way gate and into more backstage areas, this time the area where the floats from the Main Street Electrical Parade are stored. At this point, just about halfway through the race, I stopped at a water station to take a gel and some water, then Cecilia I split up as I ran ahead.
Although I knew rationally I should try to take it easy as a precaution for the marathon the next day, I also had a mental block about wanting to beat 2 hours. While my best half marathon time is 1:39:59, something just wouldn’t let me run slower than 2 hours for this race, even though Cecilia and I were both planning “personal worsts” for the half marathon. I increased my pace substantially to make up time: the first half of the race had taken me 1:07:25 (average speed of 9.4km/hr), so I needed to run the second half in less than 53 minutes (average speed of at least 11.9km/hr).
Me with Eeyore and Tigger The second half of the course took us past the Grand Floridian and Polynesian Resorts, then back along many of the same highways to get back to Epcot. To keep us entertained and motivated along the way, there were marching bands, groups of spectators, and Disney characters cheering us on every half mile or so. Since there was no line up, I stopped to get my picture taken with Eeyore and Tigger and then got back underway.
Half marathon race course I’ve included a map of the race course so you can see where the race took us.
For the last half kilometre of the race, we ran into Epcot’s Future World, up past Spaceship Earth, back down the other side, and out to the finish line in a nearby parking lot. I put on a small burst of speed at the finish, motivated especially by looking down at my watch and seeing just a few seconds left before it ticked over to 2:00:00. I rounded the corner, the crowds were cheering (for me, and not for the other thousands of people running the race, I’m sure) and I crossed the finish line at 1:59:59 on my watch. (When I checked the official results, my chip time was 1:59:29; I don’t know where that extra 30 seconds came from, but I won’t complain.)
Me after the Half Marathon After collecting my medal and some refreshments, I headed to our agreed-upon meeting point, where Cecilia joined me some 25 minutes later. We were both in good spirits and feeling alright, although we both got ice for our knees to ward off any swelling around our ITBs. We hung out in the finishing area for quite a while, but our friends Laura and Donna, also running the half marathon, didn’t show up; due to a mixup in communication, they went to a different meeting point, but we all rendezvoused back at the hotel a few hours later.
And thus concluded my exciting race weekend at Walt Disney World!
Wait a second… that’s not right… I had a whole ‘nother race to run, a whole marathon, less than 24 hours later. But to hear about that, you’ll have to wait until I write that race report.
In the meantime, head on over to Cecilia’s blog to check out her Disney half marathon report.
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Brisbane 10k
Brisbane 10km This morning I ran a 10 kilometre race here in Brisbane as part of this year’s overall running season. I only had a month to train for it, as it came four weeks after my half marathon on the Gold Coast.
The goal for the 10k race was to work on increasing speed. My friend Ken and I had gotten into a bit of a training glut — well, not a glut, but at least a routine — with our “fast” runs not much faster than our long runs. The 10k was an attempt to pick up the pace a bit.
Although the weather has been cool here the last few weeks, this weekend was quite warm, and the temperature during the race was 19C at 8:30 in the morning, the hottest it’s been in several months of running. The course was also a bit hilly, with two bridges to cross and some intermediate hills along the way.
My final time was 44:33, nearly four minutes faster than last year’s Twilight 10k run, which lead to an overall placing of 58th out 862, and 17th out of 125 in my age category (M 30-34). I’m fairly happy with the result, though I’m confident I can improve that time in the future.
For now, though, that PB will have to stand. For the rest of the year, I will be switching back to distance running in preparation for the Goofy race in January.
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Gold Coast Half Marathon race report
Gold Coast Half Marathon Last weekend I ran in the Gold Coast Half Marathon. I started training back in the beginning of March as summer waned in the southern hemisphere. My goal was a personal best, aiming to beat my previous best of 1:43:38. At the beginning of the training I believed this was a feasible goal, but the last few weeks leading up to the race I was doubtful as I had been travelling a lot and was not very mentally prepared for the race.
The race started at 6am in Gold Coast, about an hour’s drive from Brisbane. My running partner Ken drove me down (though he did not run in the race that day), and a PhD student from the office, Chai Wen, also came along to cheer me on: the biggest cheering squad I’ve had since high school cross country. (Though sadly I didn’t see them, nor did they see me, the entire race.)
I was not particularly thrilled about running that morning. I didn’t sleep well the night before, and when the alarm went off at 4:00am I seriously thought about skipping the race. I managed to get myself up and out the door though.
The temperature before the start of the race was around 8°C, so I decided to run in long sleeves. I started off at the front of the 1:40-1:50 time block, and that was fairly close to the front of the race. I crossed the start line within a minute of the start of the race, with U2′s “Beautiful Day” blaring over the loudspeakers.
Gold Coast Half Marathon path The first kilometre was slow for me, as it always is, with so many people crowded into such a small area. By the second kilometre I was on my target pace of 4:45/km, or 12.6km/hr. I did not have much of a plan for the race, beyond “run at or slightly better than my target pace the entire race”. I was able to do this easily for the first few kilometres and was feeling quite good, so by kilometre 5 I was confident I had a good chance at achieving both a personal best and my stretch goal of 1 hour 40 minutes.
At around kilometre 7 or 8, I noticed someone ahead of me running exactly my pace. I stuck with her, just a few feet behind, for over 10km. I felt solid straight through to kilometre 18, with very consistent split times, no more than a few seconds off my target. At around 18.5, I started to feel a bit tired, and noticed my pacer was fading a bit too. I left my pacer behind to ensure that I stayed at my target pace. Kilometres 19 and 20 were a bit tough, but I picked it up in kilometre 21 and finished strong, albeit without much of a sprint.
My watch showed a finish time of 1:40:08, which I was quite happy with, but it was just a tad over the elusive 1:40:00. When I got home and checked the “chip time” results, which corresponds to the time the race coordinators recorded for me as my timing chip crossed the start and finish lines, it was 1:39:59. Who am I to argue with that?
I was quite surprised, really, to have achieved that personal best and to beat 1 hour 40 minutes. Analyzing the data when I got home, I was pleased to see that I had a strong negative split, with the second half of the race being a full minute faster than the first half of the race. I’m very pleased with the result and enjoyed the training leading up to the race.
My next race is in four weeks’ time. Ken and I are going to run a 10k here in Brisbane, with a goal of speed. I haven’t run for speed in a long time — ever, really — so this will be literally and figuratively a change of pace.
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Toronto Marathon 2009
Toronto Marathon 2009 After completing the Brisbane Half Marathon in August, I spent the rest of August, September, and October training for the Toronto Marathon. It was my first marathon, and took place on Sunday, October 18, 2009. Although I trained solo in Brisbane, I had partners in training back in Waterloo: Dan, with whom I ran the Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon last year, and Cecilia.
After spending the week before the race in Windsor, I went up to Toronto on Friday afternoon. On Friday and Saturday night, I stayed at my regular hotel in Toronto (Chez Laura, which has excellent crépes!). Cecilia came in from Waterloo on Friday night as well. We had a relatively relaxing Friday evening and Saturday, with a few errands but nothing too taxing. Saturday night came around and I was starting to get nervous.
Nervous, after all, because this was my first marathon. A half marathon, that’s a bit of work, but nothing too ridiculous. For both of the half marathon races I’d run, I’d made sure that I hit that distance in the training schedule a few weeks before the race. Just to know that I could do it. That gave me a lot of confidence going into the race: it wasn’t a question of whether I’d finish, but how fast my time would be.
A marathon is a different story. Marathons aren’t something you do on a whim. Ten, twenty kilometres, that’s doable, and 30, well, that’s pushing it, but something you can do on a weekend run if you try. But 42.2 kilometres is an awful long way.
Cecilia and I ready for the Toronto Marathon I was reasonably well prepared physically, I think. But talking to Cecilia and Laura’s friend Donna (who was also running Sunday morning), I discovered I wasn’t really prepared mentally. I didn’t have a plan, and in a marathon, you need to have a plan. I hadn’t really come up with any time goals (besides finishing!). Cecilia and I talked about a plan a little bit, but it was completely gone from my brain Sunday morning.
The first decision to make on Sunday morning was what to wear. Fortunately, because I was travelling around the world, I didn’t bring extra clothes, so I didn’t have any options. It was about 2ºC when we got up on Sunday morning. I had committed to wearing shorts, but it was a might bit colder than when I wore shorts running in Brisbane. Nonetheless, it was definitely the right decision. I went with a short sleeve running shirt with a long sleeve running shirt on top, and then cheap throwaway gloves.
The half marathon started at 8am but our marathon didn’t start until 9am. I didn’t want to arrive too early at the start because it meant waiting around in the cold, but others wanted to arrive to get rid of their bags (which didn’t make much sense to me — Laura was coming down to the finish and could bring our bags, and basically as soon as we arrived they had do get rid of their bags anyway, but oh well).
The start was up in North York near the civic centre (Mel Lastman Square). Fortunately, the civic centre was unlocked, so we waiting inside in the warmth until about 15 minutes before the start.
It was cold. Standing around waiting for the start I was very chilly, and the nervousness returned when I remembered I didn’t have much of a plan. Mostly just run. For the next four and a bit hours. With some water and food (gels) every 45 minutes or so.
As always, the race start was slow as we waited for the people in front of us to cross the start line. Since it was only the marathoners, not the half marathoners too, it wasn’t too long a wait, and we crossed the line less than a minute after the start.
After less than a kilometre, we turned onto Yonge Street. Just the idea of running down Yonge Street is pretty cool to me, more so than running on the Lakeshore: Yonge Street is the main street in Toronto, and they close it down just for us! (It makes Torontonians cranky.)
I saw Cecilia in front of me the whole time, and as we turned onto Yonge Street I caught up to her and started running with her for a bit. We chatted, and agreed to run together until one of us wanted to go ahead or behind. This was the best decision I made in the whole race, and I’m so grateful for Cecilia for letting me run with her. We stayed together for almost the entire rest of the race, except for a few kilometres around kilometres 38 to 41, where I lead by a few metres. It was great to run with someone else. We were out there a long time — over four hours — and it was nice to have someone else with whom to pass the time.
Cecilia’s plan for the race was consistent pacing. We were aiming for four hours on the dot, and Cecilia wanted to do it with a “negative split”, which means running the second half faster than the first half. It’s a good idea, because most people tend to go out too hard in the first half and then are dying the second half. She had planned for an average of about 5:42 per kilometre in the first half and about 5:40 per kilometre in the second half.
Toronto Marathon map The first quarter of the race was very comfortable. We were going at a relaxing pace, had a nice bit of a chat, and warmed up quite quickly. I shed my gloves after a few kilometres, and rolled up the sleeves shortly thereafter. We spent a while running down Yonge Street (which had a few hills, but was overall a slight downhill), and then moved off of Yonge to run through some nice little neighbourhoods that I never even knew existed.
The second quarter of the course took us through Rosedale and past Casa Loma. It was like a nice Sunday morning run in a quite neighbourhood. We were a little less chatty this quarter, but we still talked every once in a while. The half way point came up somewhere down near Queen’s Quay, and we hit the halfway point at 2:00:55, which we were very happy with!
The third quarter of the course took us along Lakeshore Boulevard, past Ontario Place, out to the little white bridge over the Humber River as Toronto meets Etobicoke. My legs started getting a little heavier, but I was still feeling alright. We were taking gels every 45 minutes or so and had taken water about every half an hour, so my body was holding up well. Better, in fact, than on the long runs in Brisbane, where it was warmer and where I was less well nourished through the run. I was really excited to get out to the little white bridge; when I take the train or the bus into Toronto, it’s the part that says to me “you’ve arrived in Toronto”, so I was thrilled when I ran underneath it and started the run back towards downtown.
Apparently many people hit “the wall” around kilometre 30 to 32 during a marathon. I didn’t hit the wall at that point, and was feeling alright as we moved into the final quarter of the race. When we got back to around Ontario Place, I started pulling ahead of Cecilia. We had previously agreed to split up if that became necessary. I kept looking back for a while and still saw her 10 to 15 metres behind me, so she was still hanging in there. After a while though, I didn’t have the energy to look behind and worry about Cecilia: the race was taking its toll on me, and worrying about me became a challenge enough.
I was still doing well up until I passed the Royal York and hit University Avenue. With about 2 kilometres left until Queen’s Park, I hit my wall. I wanted to have a solid final two kilometres, but the legs just weren’t agreeing with me on that. Having slowed a bit, I tried to pick it up to at least stay on the target pace, but that lasted only for about 30 seconds and then I started walking for a little bit. Somewhere around kilometre 41, Cecilia caught up with me and told me that we were going to finish this thing.
The race course designers, in their infinite wisdom, decided that we had to run about three quarters of the way around Queen’s Park to make it to the finish line. Let me tell you, after 41.5 km, that last stretch around Queen’s Park seemed infinitely long. Cecilia pulled me around that last stretch. Laura noticed us about a quarter of the way around Queen’s Park and ran alongside the course with us towards the finish line.
After what seemed like forever, the finish line finally appeared. Cecilia and I crossed the finish line together, giving me a chip finish time of 4:02:20. Once the race was done, it was a good thing that (a) Cecilia was with me, and (b) there were fences keeping us in a corral to direct us where to go, because my brain wasn’t really functioning very well. Cecilia led me towards water and food, and somewhere along the way I got a Mylar cape to keep me warm.
I was very happy with my finish time! I had had an idle thought that I would be awesome to beat four hours, but this was an amazing result. Our second half was in 2:01:25, only 30 seconds slower than our first half, which is amazing. The race website told us later that in the second half of the race, we passed 203 people and were only passed by 6, so Cecilia’s plan of consistent pacing worked out very well for us.
After gaining coherence and getting some food and drink, we made our way to our support team (Laura) and wandered over to the course to watch for Dan. He came through soon after at 4:19:28 (chip time), a great time! I went back into the finish area to help Dan through. Meeting up again with Cecilia and Laura, we headed back to Laura’s apartment, where hot showers and scrambled eggs were had by all.
I couldn’t be happier with my first marathon. I’m so glad to have run with Cecilia for the whole race, it made it much more fun and I know my result was better because of it. Although I think the half marathon is more my distance, I won’t rule out future marathons. Cecilia has informed me that Walt Disney World has a marathon each year, and that sounds like a lot of fun.
Toronto Marathon report Here’s the “achievement statistics” report generated by the race that shows some more information about my run.
You can also read Cecilia’s race report on her website.
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Marathon training: Month 1
One month down, one month to go! It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a month since my half marathon in August, and it’s even more surprising that there’s just a month left until the marathon in October!
It seems like the marathon training is a bit of a rush, although I think that’s more imagined than real. If I had started a longer training program — say a 12 or 16 week program — from scratch in preparation for the marathon, I would probably be at roughly the same point, except I’ve had a half marathon along the way. I’ll admit that the first week or two after the half marathon I did not feel like training, as it felt like I had accomplished my goal. But I now have my head all sorted out for the marathon!
The first couple of weeks of running went well. I started adding on the distance, getting to 23km in the second week (which was a new distance record for me). During the third week, the sole of my left foot started to hurt. I cut back on the running, and have got a new pair of shoes (the previous pair had about 675km on them when they were replaced), and this week’s long run, 26km, came and went without any foot pain. That’s not to say it was an unmitigated joy, however: the heat has started to return to Brisbane. Even though I got out just after 6:30am on Sunday morning, it was already 20°C, and by the time I got home at 9:30, it was up to 26°C. That made it pretty tough. I guess I will have to start getting up even earlier. This long run also helped me reach a couple of milestones: longest run ever (26km) and 700km of running since the start of the year (continuing to blow away last year’s record of 526km).
I’ll be running in the marathon with my friends Cecilia and Dan. Take a look at Cecilia’s biggest week ever as part of her marathon training.
| Aug 24 Mon | Rest day | |
| Aug 25 Tue | Rest day | |
| Aug 26 Wed | Rest day | |
| Aug 27 Thu | 8.1km | Tempo run |
| Aug 28 Fri | Rest day | |
| Aug 29 Sat | Rest day | |
| Aug 30 Sun | 20.0km | Long run |
| Weekly Total | 28.1km | Year to date: 615.0km |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 31 Mon | Rest day | |
| Sep 1 Tue | 3.7km | Easy run |
| Sep 2 Wed | Rest day | |
| Sep 3 Thu | 10.8km | Speedwork |
| Sep 4 Fri | Rest day | |
| Sep 5 Sat | Rest day | |
| Sep 6 Sun | 23.0km | Long run |
| Weekly Total | 37.5km | Year to date: 652.6km |
| Sep 7 Mon | Rest day | |
| Sep 8 Tue | 3.7km | Easy run |
| Sep 9 Wed | Rest day | |
| Sep 10 Thu | 8.0km | Tempo run |
| Sep 11 Fri | Rest day | |
| Sep 12 Sat | Rest day | |
| Sep 13 Sun | 9.1km | Easy run |
| Weekly Total | 20.8km | Year to date: 673.4km |
| Sep 14 Mon | Rest day | |
| Sep 15 Tue | Rest (sore foot) | |
| Sep 16 Wed | Rest day | |
| Sep 17 Thu | 3.7km | Easy run |
| Sep 18 Fri | Rest day | |
| Sep 19 Sat | Rest day | |
| Sep 20 Sun | 26.0km | Long run |
| Weekly Total | 29.7km | Year to date: 703.1km |
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Brisbane Half Marathon race report
Brisbane Marathon Festival logo On Sunday I ran in the 2009 Brisbane Half Marathon. As regular readers will know, I’ve been training for the half marathon since I arrived in Brisbane in March. (Actually, I started back in Waterloo before I left, but had not adopted a solid training plan until I arrived here.)
Brisbane Half Marathon starting line In Australia, people like to run early. I guess they are scared of the heat. The race started at 6am Sunday morning. That seemed a bit on the early side for me, but then I was only running the half marathon, and some of the marathoners would be out there for 4+ hours. The weather has been temperate the last few months, but we’ve got a bit of a heat wave going on at the moment, so it ended up being fortunate for the marathoners that we started so early: by 10am, it was 25°C.
Brisbane Half Marathon along the river I awoke at 4:45am, which was not as painful as I expected as I had been shifting my sleeping schedule over the course of the past week. Even so, I don’t like getting up while it’s still dark. I had laid everything out nicely for the next morning in case of brain failure, but the brain was working fine. As I walked through the city, some people will still enjoying their Saturday evening; it was still hopping around the Casino. As I crossed the bridge to the South Bank, the sky started to lighten, and by the time I reached the other side morning was about to begin.
Brisbane Half Marathon and the Brisbane skyline The race started without incident and wasn’t too crowded. My chip time (i.e., when I crossed the start line) was only 11.7 seconds off the gun time (i.e., when the race actually started).
I hadn’t planned the race out very much in advance. I did have some goals: #1: finish; #2: beat last year’s race time (1:57:20); #3: beat this year’s best training run (1:51:37). To accomplish goal #3 I needed a pace of about 11.5km/hr, so my plan mostly consisted of going at least that fast the whole race. Beyond that, I was just going to run.
Running in the Brisbane Half Marathon And run I did. I started out a bit faster than I had planned; I guess that’s pretty common. Around the three or four kilometre mark, I realized that my watch distance was about 4% off of the course distance. To explain: my watch uses GPS signals to track distance. It’s fairly accurate, but in city areas where there are tall buildings, the signal reflects off the buildings, making the watch think it’s moving around more than it actually is. As a result, the watch thought I had gone 4.16km when I’d only gone 4.0km. This meant as well that my pcae was about 4% under as well, which worried me a bit. I decided to pick up the pace a bit, and turned in some really strong kilometres from 6km through to 14km (I ran kilometre 6 at 13.2km/hr!), then started to feel it a bit at 15km. I think kilometre 15 also involved running over a bridge, and by that time even the slightest uphill was annoying. I’d love to be able to say that the last kilometre was a sprint to the finish, but my legs just wouldn’t go any faster than they were gonna go, but they did the job and got me across the finish line.
Sprint to the finish of the Brisbane Half Marathon And to what a time! I’m happy to report that, according to the official results, my chip time was 1:43:38.0, a full 13 minutes and 39 seconds faster than last year’s time of 1:57:17. I’m very happy with this time and how the run went, I felt good through the whole run but was still pushing myself pretty hard.
Brisbane Half Marathon race number My running companion for the race was my trusty iPod shuffle. Some friends on Facebook provided some great suggestions and I filled the rest of the playlist with some inspirational classics (We are the Champions, by Queen) and some of the Canadian indie music I trained to from CBC Radio 3. The song that was playing as I crossed the finish line was my favourite song of 2008, Tessellate, by Tokyo Police Club. (It wasn’t entirely coincidental that that song was playing then, sometimes fate needs a little fast forwarding.)
My friend Dan and I had been talking about running a full marathon later this year, but I was putting off deciding until after the half to see how it went. With such a great race under my belt, the plan is now to keep training for the Toronto Marathon on Sunday, October 18, 2009. Scary, and exciting!
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Running – Week 19 – Graphs
Last week’s running can be best explained by two graphs.
Thursday’s run was speedwork. Normally I’m not a fan of speedwork, especially at 7:30 in the morning, but this one actually went fairly well. I managed to keep a good pace on the speedwork sections and ran hard the whole time. The graph below is my heart rate from the run — can you tell when I was running fast and when I was doing my recovery jogs?
20090806 - Speedwork - Heartrate
Sunday’s run was the long run. I’m supposed to be tapering now, bringing down the distance in preparation for the half marathon next Sunday. I decided to try something different for Sunday’s run: I took a bus out to Mt Coot-tha, where I previously went cycling, and started my run there. I ran along the road around the top of Mt Coot-tha, then started downhill to the river for the run home. It ended up being a little bit longer than I planned. It was pretty tough too: there was a 2.5km climb along the way, as you can see from the elevation graph below.
This week also marks my passing — blowing away! — the 500km mark for the year.
| Aug 3 Mon | Rest day | |
| Aug 4 Tue | 3.7km | Easy run |
| Aug 5 Wed | Rest day | |
| Aug 6 Thu | 13.3km | Speedwork 5×1600 with 800 jogs |
| Aug 7 Fri | 3.6km | Easy run |
| Aug 8 Sat | Rest day | |
| Aug 9 Sun | 18.8km | Long run |
| Total | 39.4km | Year to date: 530.0km |
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