Ottawa Half Marathon
I did it. My first half marathon, completed.
We left at 6am Saturday morning with the bus from the local sports store. I hate taking the bus. I thought we were going to travel in a coach but it was more like a city bus. The toilet stunk before anyone even used it. It was a long ride but it went by fast. I bought JPod on Friday night since Raymi’s been blogging about it for a while now. I read a hundred and some pages. When we got to Ottawa we got lost for about 20 minutes. We finally made it to the hotel at about 4pm. Jenn had to run at 5pm so it was a big rush. It was rather stressful but Jenn ended up making it in time for the race.
On Saturday night we went to the mall to get some sun glasses because I forgot mine at home. I also bought a pair of shorts since mine don’t fit anymore. We drove around for like an hour trying to find a place to eat. Believe it or not, I had a hard time finding a place that had pasta. We went to St. Hubert in Gatineau thinking they might have a few pasta items on their menu but we were wrong. We ended up going to Dinty’s, I had some spaghetti and chicken. I went to bed around midnight. Taking the bus makes me tired.
Sunday morning was the race. I woke up at 6:57am to Jenn yelling “What time is it!” thinking we had slept in because the sun was bright and early. We got ready and drove to City Hall where the start line was. It was kinda hard to get there because all the street closures. The full marathon started earlier at around 8am. Too bad we didn’t start that early. At 9am it was already +15 celsius. The half marathon started at 10:15am. I was nervous but I felt good. At the 5km marker 30 minutes had gone by. My heart rate was just below 170. It was a good start, I didn’t leave too fast. At around 7-8km that’s when I knew it was going to be a killer run. My heart rate was getting up there. It was in the 180’s and it stayed up there. We passed a few water stations where I stopped to get a drink and splash some on my head and face. It was +37 celsius when factor in the heat from the pavement and the humidex. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. At one point we crossed a bridge and the sun was just killing me. There wasn’t a whole lot of shade to run in. I found that the hardest part. One of the water stations was out of water, at the next water station I drank way too much and started getting cramps. When we got back to Dow lake at around 14-15km I had to start walking. I couldn’t handle the heat anymore. I would walk a bit, run a bit, walk a bit, run a bit. The last 3km was the hardest. The crowd was cheering on the runners. You started seeing more and more people dropping to the ground. Paramedics were all over the place taking care of fallen runners.
I crossed the finish line in 2:22 into the race. My official time was 2:18. My goal was to run it in 2:00 but that didn’t happen. The heat is what killed me. I didn’t have a chance to train on hot days. I think the hottest day in my training was about +18 celsius.
When I finished the race I drank 2 full bottles of water. When I tried to sit down on the curb I almost fell over. I was exhausted. In the resting area they had cottage cheese, bagels and gatorade. The were also giving free massages but the line up was huge.
We went for lunch at Oregano’s in the market. They were still having brunch at 2:00pm. That’s the first time I had bacon, eggs and beer. The service sucked. The guy was rude and not helpful. We won’t be going back there.
After lunch it was time to head back to the hotel since the bus was about to leave. I showered quick and we were off close to 4pm. We made it to pembroke where we stopped at the truck stop for supper. It was actually pretty good and the service was great. We were able to get the race results with my laptop from a wireless network from the truck stop. Everyone on the bus was around me asking for their time.
By the time we got into town it was about 2:30am. I was really tired and it was impossible to sleep on the bus because it was very uncomfortable. I got to bed at about 3am. Jenn had to work today at 9am. I don’t know how she did it. I slept in until 1pm. I was so sore this morning when I woke up. I had a hard time getting to the shower. It’s ok because I have a massage scheduled for tomorrow evening.
I installed the air conditioners this afternoon because it was +31 celsius. I hate the heat.
I think I might do the Toronto Marathon in October. By then it should be a little cooler outside. Tomorrow night everone that I trained with are going to East Side Marios for supper. I wonder who will want to do the Toronto Marathon with me…
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