Exceeding My Own Expectation

Finishing Time: 1:27:18.065

Best Lap Time: 8:11.314

Overall Placement: 38/72

Gender Placement: 5th

Coming into the marathon at Montreal this weekend, I have set some expectation for myself. I know that I made improvement based on my performance in the Run For Reach half marathon but could that possibly be a fluke? After some consideration, 1:33 is to be my goal finishing time. Frankly, it is a tall order because my finishing times for a marathon last season range between 1:43 to 1:50. Pressure? You bet.

Before the race, I talked to many skaters, trying to find out what their own expectations are. I figured if I hang on to skaters who expect to finish around the 1:30 mark and those who have the results from previous season to back those expectations, chances are I have an easier time finding my pack. I did a relatively long warm up with two laps of skating (around 8km) with a few sprints sprinkled in. I was preparing myself for a fast start.

At the start line, I kept my eyes on RV but at the same time, I knew that I wanted to aim for the next faster pack. You never know, right? Bang! went the start signal and I was on BX's tail who was in turn pulled along by another older skater. We were flying and weaving in and out of the hectic traffic down the straighaway leading to the paddock! It was nuts and I had a few close calls for collision. During one of those, I got gapped and was on my own. I continued skating at an easy pace by myself but keeping a close eye on the packs coming up behind me. It seemed like forever and I started to worry perhaps I already missed RV's pack...that would be bad. Luckily, about 3/4 way of the first lap, LM caught up along with everyone in the pack including RV. Phew! A huge sigh of relief.

We had a pretty coorperative pack of about 6 or 7 skaters. The pack got a little bigger as we picked up a few skaters for the 21km race as well. With so many people in the pack, I did not feel bad for taking shorter pulls at all. However, it was quickly apparent who the stronger skaters in the pack were, who were willing to work, and who were conserving their energy. I stayed near the front of the pack most of the time so as a result, I did my fair share of work. I would definitely prefer to work less and probably should. :) However, I have my reasons. I was definitely not one of the stronger skaters in the pack and if I get stuck behind skaters who get gapped, it would really drain my energy to repeatedly play catch up. A more steady pace at the front with a bit of work thrown in definitely beats getting dropped any day!!

So it went rather uneventfully for lap after lap. At the end of lap 8, I was very very alert. I fought to stay behind JSB from Roller Montreal (that's him in the picture flying down the straights in awesome long strides), probably the strongest skater in my pack. I did not want to get stuck pulling the pack and everyone else had the same idea so there was some dillydallying. Unfortunately, I did get stuck before leading up to the right hand turn and incline. What I did not expect though was a truck pulling out from the parking lot across the beach and onto our track! I was like "oh sh!t", stood up, slowed down, before getting caught by a FORKLIFT on the opposite lane. What's going on?! As a result, I was pulling far more than I really should in lap 9 because of all the commotion.

As soon as we started the last lap, the pace picked up and was I ever glad that I stayed in the front! BY told me afterward that we gapped him and he had to play catch up for over half a lap. With about 250m to go, the sprint began and HX took off. I made a crucial mistake at this point. My legs started sprinting but my heart really wasn't in it. I watched as RV and BY sprinted ahead of me and I was thinking "forget it, I'm done". With 100m to go and a hairpin turn approaching quickly, I suddenly realized "I can't let BY beat me! What was I thinking?!". That's when I started picking up my pace for real, quickly overtook BY, and closing in on RV right at the hairpin turn. He took the inside and I carried my speed on the outside, all the while scootering with my left leg to lose as little speed as possible. I remember my lesson from indoor racing! It came down to a jab at the finish line and with the official result still pending, I'm very curious to see which of us crossed the line first (the results are out, he did).

According to RV's GPS, our finishing time was 1:27. The offical results are available here. That would be a 16 minute improvement from the same race last year. I think I will go register for Duluth wave B as soon as I'm done celebrating. Yay for me!

Photo courtesy of Heather De Garis and Cor Beattie.

Comments

[Tom]

Great job Candy, super time - breaking the 1:30 barrier is a great accomplishment! You're training is really paying off, I'm sure that is a good feeling.

FYI, the picture you linked to is private, so it's not publicly visible.

I wasn't going to mention it, but it's killing me every time I read your blog - the Red on gray is KILLING my eyes! I literally cannot read the red text at all :( It's your blog so do what you want, but I thought I might mention it. Red on gray is a "vibrating color" combo - You can read more about that here: http://www.designmatrix.com/pl/cyberpl/cic.html

Tom

[Candy]

Thanks Tom for your encouraging words. Looks like I'll have to revise some of my short- and long-term goals but I guess I wouldn't be sure until after Detroit. I guess on the back of my mind I'm a little worry that perhaps I peak too soon in the season. It would really suck if it's all downhill from here.

Ah, the joy of being a loud-and-proud glass-half-empty kinda gal.