PEI Marathon 2014

The PEI Marathon was a couple of weekends ago.  Figured I should document the experience, though it wasn't much to brag about.

But before that, let's go back to 3 weeks before the marathon.  I was out on the R2T on a lovely Sunday afternoon for my LSD run.  I was 13K into a 15K run when I tripped and fell.  I don't even really know what happened. I guess I just tripped over my own feet.  Anyway, I went down and scraped up my knee, arm and shoulder. I also managed to either pull an intercostal muscle or bruise/crack a rib.  Even now, five weeks later, it's still not back to normal.

A rib injury sucks.  There's little you can do but take anti-inflammatories. I took three days off and then resumed training.   It wasn't comfortable, but it wasn't unbearable.  I ran 10K on Thursday, 5K on Friday and 20K on Saturday.  Then, when I headed out for my planned 10K run on Sunday, I realized something was really wrong.  Instead of a dull ache in my side, I was feeling a sharp pain and it was difficult to breathe in and out.  I cut the run down to 3K and decided I had better rest a bit more.

Eight days later I resumed training.  I got three more runs in before the marathon: 3K, 3K, and 5K.

Then it was marathon day.  I was definitely not over trained...

I wasn't really sure how it was going to go.  I wanted to get a PB, or even a course PB.  This is the first time I have run the same course twice.  I ran a 3:58:56 here four years ago.  I decided to follow the 4:00 pace bunny.  What I didn't realize was that she was doing the 10:1 race plan.  Run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute.  This means you actually have to run a faster than 5:41 min/km pace to make up for the walking.  I kept with her for a while, but I had to stop to pee and I got dropped.  I decided to go back to my own pace.

I felt pretty good for a long time.  I made it to the halfway mark in 1:59:48 which was right where I wanted to be.  I'm pretty good at maintaining a fairly steady pace throughout a marathon and usually have enough left in the tank at the end of a race to crank up the speed at the end of a race. I was able to maintain this pace for quite a while. I hit the 29K marker in 2:46:00.  Then the wheels fell off...

The last 13.2K were brutal. It was a struggle just to put one foot in front of the other.  During this time, I took quite a few walk breaks.  At one point I was walking downhill.  That was around the point when the cramps set in, around the 37K mark. Managed to cross the finish line in 4:08:23.

So, that's 5:43 min/km for the first 29K and 6:15 min/km for the last 13.2K.  Huh?

I imagine it was due to a number of factors:  lack of training in the 5 weeks leading up to the race, three previous marathons this year, the cracked/bruised rib...  In hindsight, I probably should have deferred or run a shorter race.

However, I had one of the best weekends I think I have ever had.  Spent the weekend with running friends, old and new, and had a great time. Also got to see a few old friends from my UPEI days which is always fun.  I love PEI.

We are all planning to go to Toronto next fall for the Waterfront Marathon.  That will be fun, no matter what the result of the marathon.

So, while it wasn't my best time, it also wasn't my worst.  I still think I have another PB in me, but it wasn't to be on this day.