Running: ScotiaBank Toronto Waterfont Marathon - Race Report

Monday, September 26, 2005 - 12:55 PM

First off, there's always something wrong when your roommate is walking into the house to go to sleep just as you're waking up to go race.... yes, 5:00am wakeup call is not fun....

I had a talk with the coach the night before the race and the strategy was to get out fast and aggressive with the top Canadians, but be smart and don't do (and I quote!) "anything suicidal!

Well coach, sorry, but I guess I got a little carried away. But hey, we decided to go for it, and see what we're made of, and I definitely learned a lot today...suicidal and I lived to talk about it!

So the race went off at 8:00 a.m. as scheduled.... did a few strides, got my props from the coach and we were off.... I settled in with the lead group which consisted of a lot of African and Algerians, one American and a few of us Canucks. Now I don't know about the others that ran but I never saw any kilometer splits till we hit 3K.... so wasn't quite sure what pace we were out in....felt easy and comfortable....and we were following the game plan.

For you runners out there who know a thing or two about splits, and how essential they are, I split my first 3K in 8:52.... (5th fastest time of my life.... only difference is I had never been there before with 18.1K still to go) ... yikes! Well I was committed and there was no one behind me at all so I decided to stick with the group and try to stay relaxed. Megan, biking with the coach, did remind me in the race, as she yelled "hey you said you wanted a fast 10K now you got it...." I figured she was right and kept going with the group.... .things finally settled down through the next few kilometers as we were heading towards the first 10K.

The elite Africans took off with the American and Canadian in toe, a couple athletes fell off pace and a few athletes fell off lakeshore and I think somewhere in the lake...they never made it to the finish. So I got through 5K in 15:20. By 7K I was in a group with two Algerian runners living in Montreal... we battled throughout the rest of the race taking turns leading as we split through 10K in 31:36 and 15K in 47:54....by this point I had become public enemy #1...

...I kept stepping on the one guy from behind cause of his high back kick, then the wind kept blowing my spit onto the other guy....I think there was a few choice french words exchanged... although I think this was the boiling point cause these guys I think were getting freaked out when Hugh would bike up near me and give me some coaching advice...these guys kept looking at each other trying to figure out who the guy on the bike was... every time hugh said something they looked at each other with this confused look on their face...I thought it was quite funny....

...anyways, were were all running strong heading into the last 3K... we went up a small incline (Spadina overpass) and as we were coming down I decided I was going to take off at 19K... we came down the incline and as we hit 19K I bolted....opening up a lead on the two and kept pushing...I think they were caught off guard... with 1K to go they started to respond, but only one of the two Algerians could chase me down... we battled toe to toe, made the last left hand turn to the finish... I gave a hard effort but the algerian pulled away, but I managed to hold off the second guy... I finished three seconds behind the one, and 1 second ahead of the other.... very happy with the result considering the front end of it was really fast... I held on quite "comfortably" for a 30 second PB....I finished 9th overall, (5,000 runners?) 3rd north american, and 2nd canadian.

So here's the overall picture of splits:

3K- 8:52(5th fastest time ever)
5K- 15:20(top 5 time)
10K- 31:36(2nd best- Sporting Life 10km still #1)
15K- 47:54 (*PB- beat old record by 50 seconds... though, again, i never had 6K still to go when i ran my PB)

21.1K- 1:08.13 (*27 second PB)


So thank's to everyone who came out for moral support!

Congrats to everyone who ran as well!


Mario


P.S.

But congrats to everyone who made it out there in the dark to race - fellow Huskies: Joe,Angie,Kevin,Cheryl,Steve, and Chris and Sue,Rick, Pete,Andy. Thanks to Megan,Hugh and Nancy for coming out on their bikes to support/advice and motivate the Huskie clan who all had amazing races! and to everyone else i saw on the course thanks for the support... man i needed it....