Canada Day Marathon

Woohoo! My first dry marathon!

Going into this race, I had absolutely no confidence of finishing all 42K despite what everybody's been reassuring me. The reason is quite simple. Based on my experience with marathons and half marathons since I got my speedskates last August, I honestly believed I would either DNF or cross the line in a slow and painful manner. Fortunately though, it turned out to be a much better day of skating than I anticipated.

It was very cold and very early in the morning when we arrived but I needed the extra time to get ready without rushing myself. I took my time to pin my race number, put on my gears, sip on water, and eat my pre-race energy bar. From last year's experience, the time between my breakfast at home and the start time was way too long so this year I learned my lesson to fuel at proper times. I skated to the start line as my warm up though as SZ pointed out, it was far from enough.

Due to my lack of confidence, my original plan was to skate this race at training pace with GC and just "get it over with". However, when the gun went off, GC was way behind me and I would need to slow down to pack up with her. It did not seem like a sensible thing to do so when MF and LP caught up, I hopped in the back of their pack. Apparently they were chasing JS's pack and I felt that I just wasn't up to skating at that pace. I slowed down and decided to just skate at my own pace--big mistake. All this dillydallying in the first minute cost me my chance of skating in any packs.

About 3 or 4km into the race, I caught up to CC who got dropped. We skated together for another 4km when GC caught up to us with a skater from the KW short track club. I took the opportunity to rest up my back and when it was my turn to lead, we hit the smooth pavement. It felt so nice and I was finally warmed up at this point. Feeling good on my skates, I picked up the speed and it was me and CC in a pack of two again. The distance went by rather uneventfully until we passed the water station in our second loop. I looked at my watch and to my horror, 50 minutes already went by! In my state of panic, I thought that at that rate, we would not finish in under two hours...so I let CC know that I would pick up the pace again. I dropped her soon after and well, I was by myself for the remainder of the race except when I caught up (and eventually dropped) a skater from Montreal. It was an uneventful 42K of skating which was far less painful than I anticipated.

I finished this race in 1:46:37. I thought I was much slower but I guess my watch was wrong. All things considered (skating solo for the majority of the race and all), it was a decent time for me. I learned my lesson for being hesitant at the start line and I will not make that same mistake again. Like SZ said, if I don't hang onto the pack with my dear life, my race would be over anyway so what have I got to lose?