BMO Vancouver Marathon Race Report

It was a gorgeous Sunday morning, the crisp air pregnant with promises of sunshiney splendor. I lined up in my corral with the other zoolander-esque party people in our finest technicolor nerdery and anxiously awaited the start. I chit-chatted with other nervous runners and confessed to them that maybe my Indian food wedding buffet dinner the night before wasn't one of my best choices and perhaps I should have stuck with the dinner buns. They wagged their fingers at me but I knew that all they were concerned about was making sure they were running ahead of me... for obvious reasons.

We took off, and I flew. We had to climb a beast of a hill at around the 10-12 km mark at which point I shed my long-sleeved shirt. It was getting warm. I ended up hitting the half marathon mark at 1:31 which was a mistake, as I needed to be a lot closer to 1:35. I reined it in a bit but I knew my legs had already been kicked around a little too much at that point.

My leg muscles started to fade after that and I starting feeling my left hip flexor kick up a fuss. I focused on gliding along as softly as I could, which bought me some miles. But at the 30km mark, everything fell apart. My left set of toes started to cramp and curl under and my right calf muscle would ball up and spasm from time to time. All I could think about was to keep moving as softly as possible. I knew I was slowing down but I kept plugging along. The only way this thing was going to end was for me to cross the finish line.

I'd get waves of nausea but I'd fend them off with a squeeze of my gel. I use Vanilla Bean Gu for fuel (electrolyte replacement) and I'd hold one in each hand. Whenever I'd feel my guts turn I'd give my gel a little squeeze in my hand and the nausea would pass. It was the weirdest thing, but it worked!

I rounded the bends and lengths of the SeaWall until we came back out onto the roads of Downtown Vancouver. Knowing that I had the last km stretch of the race to go, I gave it my all and dug deep. As soon as I crossed that finish line I swear every muscle in my body balled up into fists and beat the living daylights out of me. YOWCH. I wanted to run it in 3:10 and I squeaked in at 3:10 and change.