Ottawa Marathon

OTTAWA MARATHON REPORT

MY 37th MARATHON

PRE-RACE ANXIETIES:

I had been to Ottawa before and had run a good section of the marathon route when I was there in 2005. However, I was still a bit anxious the night before the marathon, which is probably the case for most runners. I had booked a hotel room on Rideau St. quite a ways from the start of the marathon. The day before the race I checked with the Quality Hotel, whether I could drop off my bag at their hotel, which was close to the finish point of the race, so that I could just walk over there after the finish and catch the Airporter bus to the airport from there. They were very helpful, and so at 5:00 on Sunday morning I had my muffin and some coffee and made my way to the Quality Hotel to drop off my bag. I had checked to make sure the Power bars and Gels were in my pocket, made sure I had the race plan, the computer chip and the race bib attached to the appropriate places.

I arrived at the start with 40 minutes to spare. I did some stretching and concentrated on the long run ahead. The gun went off at exactly 7; 00 a.m. – (the gun start and my chip time were 3 minutes apart.).

There was a field of 3600 full marathon runners – each one had trained to run the distance.

THE ROUTE: started north along Elgin St. and we saw the War Monument, then turned left and ran as proud Canadians as we passed the Canada Parliament buildings, the tower and the Terry Fox monument. The Supreme Court building was next along the route. WOW! What a start to the race.

Soon we were heading north across the Ottawa River, into Hull, Quebec. Here we zigzagged back and forth, mainly north and east along gently rolling streets. The French Canadian spectators of Gattineau were friendly, funny and encouraging as they cheered for us. Some wore huge, colourful hats or clown suits. They were happier than we were. I did not see any runners dressed in funny clothes or juggling as they ran.

It was quite a cool morning, and having dressed in shorts and a short-sleeved t-shirt, I needed to push it to stay warm – or to get warm.

There were serious runners. 113 runners came in with times of under 3 hours.

After about 8.5 kilometres. We headed back into Ontario across the high Alexandria Bridge. At km 9 we turned left onto Sussex Street, passing our Prime Minister’s residence. A few more kilometres and I noticed a runner veer off to the front yard of a house to shake the hand of the man standing there – it was none other than our former Prime Minister Chretian.

The race continue along Princess, Mariposa, Beechwood and MacKay streets which was a beautiful residential area. Soon we were back into the city center and at the half point of the run. Ottawa is a beautiful city.

Now we headed south and along the east side of the Rideau Canal.

I had been pushing myself and took note that I was keeping a pace of 10 km per hour, stopping only for water at the aid stations.

I was feeling good; my stomach was in good shape so I kept the pace. Between km 30 – 40 I was forced to slow down some when pain developed on my right side. I slowed and did some deep breathing and eventually the pain disappeared.

The number bibs assigned to us had our name printed on it as well as our number. At first I was surprised when spectators would call out my name to cheer me on…until I realized the name was right on my chest. But there was a psychological boost when you were cheered on by name. I had never experienced this in other marathons. It was really a neat thing.

Somewhere around km 23 the half-marathoners joined the full marathoners. This created a bit of congestion, and I heard one half-marathoner complain to a full-marathoner that we should not block the road for them!!! The full-marathoner was quite upset at this comment. That was not a nice thing to say.

I guess conditions are never perfect. The half marathon runners had started 1 ½ hours after the full marathon runners, so when we joined, they were still fresh and going a faster pace since they were also only covering half the distance. After about 5 kilometres, the two categories separated again with the half-marathon runners veering off to the left and the full-marathoners to the right.

The route itself was great, comprised of country, city and town atmosphere. The aid stations offered water and Gatorade. In all my Canadian marathon experiences I note that any Power bars or Gels you need along the way, you need to bring with you. I compare this to the European marathons I have done where the aid stations usually have the dextrose, orange slices, banana slices, tea, and sometimes even beer. A ‘full-course meal” compared to just water and Gatorade offered here.

At about Km 35 a little 4 year old boy jumped up beside me and yelled “Go Sens Go! Go Sens Go!” His mother looked a bit chagrined and told me he was a Senators fan! How did I guess? I interpreted that to mean “Run Albert Run!” Really, his Ottawa Sens spirit encouraged me. I pretty much became an Ottawa fan as well, when I watched the YOU TUBE video clip of Elgin Fraser. Check it out

at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z25OVDG_E9g&mode=related&search=

(Copy and paste the link to your browser.)

We were now heading back north along the Rideau Canal, on the home stretch. Almost there! “Only 2 kilometres” “You can do it”, “You look good” were the cheers from our spectators.

Last year 14 elite runners got lost and were disqualified. (Apparently a motorist moved a barricade). This year the route had been changed a bit and was well marked. There were km signs uniformly placed, at the same level, same color so were easy to locate.

Towards the end, with 3 – 4 km to go it began to rain, which was not a problem at this point.

THE FINISH: I was thinking about the finish and expecting it would be a bit of an anti-climax since I knew nobody there. What a pleasant surprise when Terry S showed up with 750 meters to go. Terry had connected with me via the Internet, but we had never met. He showed up to encourage me, and cheered me on. He ran alongside right to the finish. WOW! That was great. I chatted with him for about 10 minutes in the rain after I finished.

The organization was running out of the alu-blankets since people needed them in the rain. So I tried to get out of the recovery area as quickly as possible to keep warm.

The Ottawa Marathon was a great marathon, a truly wonderful experience, measuring up to many of the larger marathons I’ve done in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The medal we received was beautiful and HEAVY. The t-shirt is a good quality running shirt. The fans and spectators in Ottawa were great. Thank you Ottawa marathon board, organization, volunteers, and police for a great event.

The winner of the men’s marathon was David Cheruiyot from Kenya with a time of 2.10.35. (I got too much lead in my pants for that speed).

I was also privileged to see Catherine Ndereba from Kenya run the Nordian 10 km race on Saturday. She is the fastest woman in the world and holds the Women’s marathon record at 2.18.47.

PS Just for the record, a full official marathon distance is 42.195 kilometres, it is not 42.2 km. In miles it is 26.21875 miles, not 26.2. (it is 26 miles and 385 yards).

When ‘gun time’ and chip time’ become so crucial and timing is down to 100th of a second, it is important that the distances are also given correctly.

Albert

No. 3105