Breaking news: Good long run ruined by race

I was beaten by a guy wearing flip flops.

Sad, but true.  At around the 15km mark of yesterday’s Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront half-marathon a man in Adidas slip-ons sailed past me as I struggled (and I mean struggled) to maintain my marathon race-pace.  Had it not been for the race-bib, I would have mistaken him for someone en-route to his Sunday morning Yoga Class.

On the bright side, at least this time it wasn’t a chicken. That was the worst.

Yup, it just wasn’t my day. I started off with terrific intentions — Run my last long run pre-NYC.  Dr. Stevil, had slotted in a 38km doozy, but I had committed to Canadian Running Magazine’s “Marathon Quest” in May and the idea of running 17km pre-half marathon did not appeal.

So Stevil acquiesced to a 10km warm-up followed by a half-marathon at my marathon race pace.  Seems reasonable right?  What I didn’t account for were the antibiotics coursing through my body and the cough and snot that goes with them.

The result? By kilometer five of the race I was struggling. By 14 my eyes were stinging with salt and by 17 my entire right leg seized up. Good times.  Lucky my main goal in NYC is to have fun because yesterday another 11km just wouldn’t have been doable.

But it wasn’t all bad.

I managed to squeak out a sub-two hour race, finishing in 1:59:53. That was a goal when I ran the race last-year without the 10km warm-up or the sinus-infection. So, it would seem, I’m improving.

The race was really well organized, the spectators were terrific and the volunteers abundant, helpful and happy.  Our very own Reid Coolsaet came third in the marathon with a personal best time of 2:10:55, virtually guarantying himself a spot at the London 2012 Olympics. Perhaps even more exciting (sorry Reid), his training partner, Eric Gillis, came fourth, qualifying for the Olympic team with one second to spare in 2:11:28. Yeah Canada! We couldn’t have two nicer, more grounded guys representing us.

In other news, a 100-year old man broke the world record at the race and 80-year old crowd-favourite Ed Whitlock crushed his old world record finishing in 3:15:54.

On reflection, what’s also really great is that a few years back I was massively intimidated by even the thought of running a half. Now, that same person, that same body, those same feet (in new shoes) considers it a training run for something bigger…and I sure whipped that centurion’s ass.

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