Manitoba: My Second Fastest Marathon

"The course is flat - really flat. In fact, it's really, really flat. The organizers say that there are 3 places with an elevation rise of about 10 feet. I will take their word for it but I only noticed one place (at about 7 miles) where I think there might have been that much of an elevation change."

That's a description I read of the Manitoba Marathon from a comment on marathonguide.com. And yes, it is a really flat course, but I was surprised that it wasn't quite as flat as NJ.

Still, by all accounts based on my most recent half marathon, I should have set a new marathon PR. I didn't, and I have no good explanation for it. The temperature was a perfectly cool 50-ish degrees Fahrenheit (about 9 Celsius) at the start. I hadn't slept well for a few nights before the race, and there was a bit of a headwind, but I really should have beaten my previous 3:15. I might have gone out just a tad too fast, too, but not much. Could have even been the change in altitude. I also might even be able to blame a bit of my performance on not recovering enough from my sweltering Need For Speed Relay the week before, but whatever (Runner26 has a great N4S recap, by the way. We did the same leg, and she wrote a better review of it than I ever could). Frankly, I think I just didn't push myself hard enough. Maybe It was all of the above combined. Or maybe I can always find a new excuse.

I ended up with a 3:20:15 (7:39 pace), finishing 58th out of about 780 marathon finishers, and that is a respectable marathon time for me so even though I'm a bit disappointed I can't complain too much.

Besides, it was great running my hometown marathon. Winnipeg is a place I know like the back of my hand, and I was very familiar with almost every road along the way. And it was sooo great to be back in in the city for summery weather for a change, instead of Christmastime. Everything is so green and lush, and it's so clean, especially compared to dirty dirty dirty NYC. I got to do some gardening at my parents' home while I was there. Yay for gardening!

I even got out to my parents' farm for a visit. I grew up there, and hadn't been back in at least 7 or 8 years. The farmhouse has taken on a kind of abandoned feel, as my parents are only out there sporadically, and don't keep it up much. Interesting being back in my old room again, and leafing through the sketchbooks, drawings, and junk I left behind there years ago. Lots of memories.

Now hopefully I can make my poor marathon performance a memory and move toward a 3:10 like I should be.

This weekend is the Shelter Island 10K, and some friends and I are planning a trip out to partake. I won't kill myself in the race, as this is recovery week from the marathon. I'm more looking forward to a scenic run without the pressures of marathon training. At least for another week or two when training for NYC begins.

Winnipeg Wedding

I was in Winnipeg Jan 4th through the 8th. It was a pretty good time, but rushed and frantic. Part of this was due to having my flight bumped from 7 PM on Wed. to 6 AM on Thursday. Trust Travelocity to change a flight schedule without sending out an e-mail notification. Luckily I called to double check my departure status before heading to the airport that evening.

I went to Canada for a wedding, and skipped Christmas because of that. I explained to my family that Christmas comes every year and weddings, at least in theory, happen once in a lifetime. That is, unless you're Liz Taylor and hold them regularly. The biggest part of the hectic-ness of the trip was trying to cram in the family and friend visits around the wedding, and all within four and a half days. I managed it, but not without frustration.

The wedding was pretty good, but not without it's flaws. The ceremony was held in the main hall at the swanky downtown Winnipeg Art Gallery (pictured). It was a great venue for the event, after which we moved up to the penthouse level for the reception. The atmosphere over dinner was relaxed, the food was delicious, and I caught up with an old friend as well as met some other nice, new people. We then moved to another room for the more active festivities.

I would have thought the gallery had hosted lots of weddings before, and I’m sure this was the case, but they seemed fairly unseasoned at it. Specifically, when the DJ started playing Billy Holiday's "Strange Fruit" during the reception, we knew something was dreadfully wrong. The groom remedied that quickly, though, and people were shakin' it on the dance floor in no time.

I also had to care for a friend of mine who went a little over the top with the alcohol consumption. In a follow up e-mail to me the next day, she referred to herself as a “basket case”. I wouldn’t quite go that far, but to say that she was inebriated would be an understatement (and who could blame her – it was a wedding!). I saw her off safely in a cab before partying the rest of the night away without incident with the bride, groom, and their many friends and family. I made it home in the late hours of morning, and slept until early afternoon.

Overall, I was happy to see my good friend tied the knot with this guy. She and I have been friends for about 14 years now, and although I’ve never had a chance to get to know him so well (they started seeing each other just before I left Canada), I can tell they’re great for each other.

The rest of my trip I spent meeting up with many friends I had during university and high school, as well as relatives. Some of the people I saw I hadn't caught up with in years.

I had brunch with my family on the Saturday. Seeing the family always reminds me how much I regret not being able visit my nephews more than once a year… a definite downside to living so far away. The other downside was something new this trip, and that was seeing how much my mother’s health has deteriorated substantially over the past year. She was almost a different person, and that left me feeling helpless and mildly depressed, like there was something I should be doing to make her better, but I didn’t know what. It’s tough to watch someone’s health decline and realize that it’s out of your hands.

On the issue of health, I noticed a few friends and relatives have also put on a couple of pounds, which I guess is easy to do if you're not actively running marathons or anything. One friend has kept in shape by doing Jujutsu, although I think this also serves as an effective dual purpose of keeping her two kids in line. Two of my friends - a couple that I didn't get to see last year - had dropped a LOT of weight, and were looking healthier and happier than I had seen them in a long time. How? "A healthy diet and exercise", they said. I was very happy for their new, healthy lifestyle, which included eliminating a surplus of junk food and joining a soccer league. I’m sure we all know and can appreciate how important and difficult it is to keep that extra weight off when you’re on that slide towards the big four-oh.

I also did lunch with my best friend while I was there. He and I have been friends since grade seven. It always amazes me how, even after years living apart, and very different lifestyles, we always come back to each other with perspectives on the world that are interesting, enlightening, and respectful of each other’s differences.

Finally, I did breakfast with my parents on the Monday morning, and they drove me to the airport that afternoon. It was a good, albeit exhausting trip.

Chicago

Winnipeg, where I'm from, is known as The Chicago of the North. Really, I doubt that anybody from Chicago or anywhere else is aware of this, but Winnipeggers are. It's a "windy city" - Portage and Main boasts being the "windiest intersection in the world", although I've never been able to see how that's something to really brag about. It's in the Midwest (even if that phrase doesn't really apply to Canada). And it's known for it's architecture, a lot of which is in the Chicago Style, particularly in the Exchange District.

The first time I was ever on a plane, I was 19 and on my way to Chicago with a bunch of fellow second-year architecture students. It was a great trip. We visited Wright's Oak Park studio, toured Unity Temple, and admired many of his houses. We were amazed at so many of the buildings downtown that we had studied in our History and Design classes. And everything was just so damn tall! Coming from medium-sized Winnipeg, Chicago was my first taste of a big city, and coupled with a year living in big, international London, inspired me to move to NYC. As an aside, the trip also changed my life in other ways. First, it was years before I would be able to drink vodka again and second, it cured me of the very Canadian "eh" that I was inserting between every other sentence that I uttered.

Chicago was going to be My Marathon. It's flat; it's fast. After two New Yorks, 3:57 and 3:32, and with continued improvement on my times in other races, I knew I could qualify for Boston at Chicago. I'd do Vermont in the spring, but not pursue such an ambitious time goal. I'd instead use it to maintain a high level of mileage, and further work on my speed in the summer and early fall. I did the reasearch - with the differences in times between NYC and Chicago, I knew that with only a little improvement, a Boston Qualifier was in the bag.

And then I got cocky. If you were reading this blog back in April, you know the story. I was banging out PRs left and right in every race distance between the end of January and end of April, capping that off with a 1:31:33 half at Queens on April 30th. I started to set my sights on Vermont for the BQ, and began not paying proper attention to my body. I wasn't doing proper speedwork (which would've helped with my running form) and more importantly, wasn't warming up or stretching properly, as I used to do. I increased my mileage to 70 mpw. About a week before Queens, there was a little pain in my side, and it just got worse. But Vermont was so close, and I was so stubborn.

Had I stopped running immediately when I got the hip pain, or even right after Queens, I'm pretty sure I could've recovered from what was then a minor injury, skipped Vermont, and resumed my training for Chicago later in the spring. Instead, I pushed through the injury and limped painfully eight miles to the end of the marathon in Burlington only to be pushed into the medical tent strapped into a wheelchair. And how humiliating is that for someone expecting a BQ time? This lack of common sense only exacerbated the injury so that it knocked me out of running completely for five weeks and into physiotherapy for another fifteen weeks.

The Chicago Marathon came and went today, and I slogged out a tough 13.25 miles in Central Park, New York City. Don't get me wrong - I'm actually pretty happy to be at this level of mileage without any problems so far, but it is very humbling to say the least. Later at home, I deleted all the marathon e-mails I had saved in my inbox and threw out the entry ticket and booklet, all of which I'd been holding onto like a shoebox full of old love letters. Maybe I'll apply for Chicago again next year, but maybe not. I'm optimistic that I might eventually get back to my level of speed and ability that I was at six months ago, but if there's one thing I have learned over this past year, it's the Law of Caution and Moderation. There's always time to take it slowly.

That said, I have no intention of taking 18 months off. See you at the races.