A view of Parliament Hill from Quebec. (Wikimedia Commons)

Ottawa Race Weekend (ORW), the biggest running event in this city, is finally here.  Over the two day event approximately 48 000 runners will take to the streets and participate in a world class road race.  An amazing six events are scheduled: the family 2k and the kids’ marathon, plus the 5k, 10k, half marathon and full marathon distances.  And to make the weekend even more exciting, it is the 40th anniversary of the marathon.  In 1975 a small group (by today’s standards) of 146 runners – three of them women – participated in Ottawa’s first marathon.  This Sunday there will be 7000 runners at the marathon start line.

A view of Ottawa, Gatineau and the Ottawa River

There are a number of reasons that ORW has become such a popular event.  The courses are beautiful and take in all the major sights of Canada’s capital city, including Parliament Hill, The Rideau Canal (a World Heritage Site), and the Ottawa River.  Marathoners and half marathoners get to run in two provinces, crossing the river from Ontario into Quebec and back again.  It is a race that is known for its organization but is perhaps even more known for its incredible support from the public.  No matter what distance you choose, you are guaranteed to see throngs of people cheering you on.

The Ottawa Convention Centre, home of ORW Race Expo. (Wikimedia Commons)

Race Expo started last night, so the boys and I headed downtown after school to pick up kits and do some shopping.  Thursday evening is definitely the time to go – check out this picture of the “lines” at bib pick up:

No lines at an event that has 48 000 participants 🙂

I had seven bibs to get for three different races and it couldn’t have been easier!  After picking up the bibs, we headed upstairs to get the shirts.  After last year’s nice light blue shirts for the 5k and the half marathon, the white shirts were a little disappointing.  Do people actually like white tech shirts?  If it rains they are virtually see through and once you sweat in them they never come clean again.  Thankfully though the full marathon shirt is a winner:

Expo had all the stalls you would expect to see and the kids were excited to spin the discount wheel for Running Room.  We stopped by iRun and filled out “bibs” to pin on the wall:

My iRun because…

Luke’s iRun because…

Evan’s iRun because…

I did a little souvenir shopping and picked up a comfy long sleeve t:

I am also bought for the first time a Columbia Omni Freeze shirt.  There are special tiny rings in the material that absorb your sweat and are supposed to cool you down.  Staff had sample pieces of material to put on your arm which they sprayed with water.  After a few minutes I could feel a slight tingling and cool sensation.  I’m hoping I can feel that when I am running in 20+ degrees Celsius.

Being at Expo definitely brought out my nerves/excitement (how do you tell the difference?) for my second marathon.  This week has been busy enough that I have’t been as hyper-focused on the upcoming race as I was the first time I ran this distance.  Actually, I think I may have even been in a state of denial for the past several days.  But last night I had a tough time getting to sleep and when I finally did my dreams were about running and the race.  There is no more denying that on Sunday I am running 42.2 km.

Next post, my goals and game plan… just have to figure them out first!

I spent the long weekend relaxing and obsessing.  Relaxing because I spent the time with my family at the lake.  Obsessing because of the ever increasing temperatures forecast for the marathon next Sunday.

I came home to find out that a friend’s husband had unexpectedly died.  While I worried about weather and pace times, her whole world was turned upside down.  She too is a runner and was training for the Ottawa half marathon.  We don’t see each other often in person but we were touching base through email to see how training was going.

My biggest challenge in the near future is to run/walk/stagger 42.2 km in the heat.  This is the major “difficulty” of my life right now.  How lucky am I that such an endeavor, and one might say a selfish one at that, is my only real challenge to deal with.  At the moment it seems like nothing.

D, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your children.

With 65 km of running completed last week, I decided to take this weekend off.  I am just at the beginning of the taper, the part where it feels like a bit of a relief to back off from training, though I suspect by next week I will have those taper jitters.

Instead of running today, I took the boys to a local conservation area to hike some trails.  When they were little I took them often to this network of trails by the Ottawa River.  It has always been important to me that they appreciate nature and her beauty.  Somehow, however, a couple of years have gone by since we last visited Morris Island.  I didn’t realize how long it had been until today.  The clue was the fact that in my head, the trails were much, much longer.  I remember getting on trails and it feeling like forever until we made our way back to the car.  It ends up the trails aren’t overly long, they just felt that way when walking with small boys who stopped and looked at everything and who needed regular breaks.  Now though, it is me trying to keep up with them.

I introduced the term “fartlek” to the boys today.  You can imagine the giggles at that one.  When one of us called fartlek we would do a dash or a jog on the rocky paths.  Eleven and eight year old boys are fearless; a 45 year old 2 weeks before a marathon – not so much.  I was way behind as I tried to carefully manoeuvre over and around the rocks and ruts.  Needless to say, I was the only one to fall.  Thankfully just a bit of a bruised knee was the end result.  The boys of course were far enough ahead that they didn’t even know I had hit the ground!

It was fun to just be outside and not be training.  Sometimes the running takes over your life a little (my husband might argue more than a little!).  How wonderful to be out on gorgeous trails with no goal other than to have fun.

In one area on the shore of the river we found inspiration in the rocks.  Someone, using stone on stone, had written brief messages, such as “Hope”, “Don’t Judge” and “Smile”.  My boys decided to add their own words of wisdom.  What a window into the minds of my children when I read their messages:

“Love and Be Loved”.  “Be Inspired”.  “Believe in Yourself”.  “Listen to Your Heart”.  “Don’t Lose Faith”.

Today our priest read Robert Munsch’s “Love You Forever” as part of his Mother’s Day homily.  You might know it – “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living my baby you’ll be.”   It seems my babies are growing up, a few steps ahead of me on the trails and carving wise words into stone.

After bailing on my last 32k run I set out today to just spend some time running without panicking about the distance.  My goal was to complete 2 hours of running, if and only if my body felt like it.  I’m happy to report that in the end I did 2 hours and 57 minutes of running, and a total of 28 km.  There was nothing spectacular about the run, I kept my pace slow and steady and I stopped my watch and took the time to stretch any time I felt like I was getting sore.  With just under 3 weeks until the marathon, I knew I had to make sure I did nothing to injure myself.  Mentally though, this was a good run.  I now feel like I have done all I can do to complete a marathon, and that is a good feeling.

I am not a marathon runner.  Well, I kind of am since I have done one and I was crazy enough to sign up for another.  What I mean is this is not my distance.  I don’t at all mean that in a negative way.  I love the half marathon, I think I have it in me to be a faster 10k runner, I discovered at my last race that 10 miles is an awesome race distance, and I can honestly say I enjoyed my first 30k race in March.  Marathons and 5k’s though, just not my distances.  That said I am proud of myself for taking on race distances that aren’t in my comfort zone (really, there is nothing comfortable about running a marathon, or for that matter trying to run a speedy 5k).  And I am thrilled that I worked my way through another round of marathon training.  I am a stronger runner for it and once again I have accomplished things I thought impossible.  Heck, I just ran 22 km, took a day off and ran another 28!  Really, I did that?!?

Here’s the best part of today’s run.  Once finished I headed to a store to buy my favourite post run drink, chocolate milk.  The very bored looking teenage cashier asked if I had just gone for a run.  I couldn’t resist a little bragging, she did ask after all!  I replied that I had finished a 3 hour run.  I thought her eyes were going to pop out of her head, it was like I had said something that was nothing short of impossible 🙂  I admit it, it is fun to impress someone less than half my age!

Now it is officially taper time for me.  I am not even going to look at a training schedule.  My body is telling me it is taper time, it needs some rest.  So all of my runs are now going to be done by feel to make sure I am rested and ready to enjoy the marathon, regardless of how slow or fast I am come race day.

Last long run of marathon training, last chance to get that 20 miler done, last chance to feel like I really set myself up for success.  And what happens by  22km?  The wheels fall off.  Not only do they fall off, they roll far, far away with no chance of retrieving them.

I did everything correctly before this run.  I took it easy the day before, I ate well, slept well, fueled well prior to the run.  None of it made a difference because by 22k my legs felt like lead.  Even after walking (which turned into at least 6k of walking with a little 2k run in the middle) I just couldn’t get myself going.  I actually enjoyed some of the walking through wooded trails, but at 8 degrees with rain and wind, I was chilled to the bone.

I had joined the Running Room’s final long training run which is called the K2B.  Originally it ran from the Kanata store to the Bank Street store, hence the name.  Now, however, it runs from the Stittsville store to the Y downtown, not sure if at some point in the future they might plan a name change.  It was a wonderful route planned, though I had decided to run it as an out and back since I left my car at the start in Stittsville  and would have had to have my family come pick me up if I did the full route.   Maybe if I had stayed with the group until the end I would have done better but I don’t think so.  At least this way I as able to wallow in self pity in private and without having to worry about being the last one downtown.

This is not a creek but a puddle on the path

I eventually made my way back through the rain and mud and headed into a mall about 2 or 3 km from the car.  I wanted to have some lunch and attempt to warm up.  I finally had to buy a warm hoodie to be successful in that last goal.  Actually, I was only mildly successful in getting warm, I think a parka would have been necessary for that.  I phoned my husband and he said just get a cab back to the car.  Sure I said, secretly thinking I don’t get cabs, who gets cabs to finish a run?  A couple of km’s, surely I could manage that.  Then I looked outside.  It wasn’t just raining, it was pouring down.  And I realized that unless the temperature had miraculously jumped about 10 degrees, this run was OVER.  Yep, I called a cab.

Feeling more dejected than you can imagine, I stiffly climbed into the cab and the driver asked me if I had had enough of running on such a miserable day.  Then he asked me how far I ran.

“I did around 22 today,” I replied.

There was a slight pause.  “22 what?” he asked.

“Kilometres, but I should have done more.”

I can’t remember his exact response, but it was something along the lines of that being an amazing distance to be able to run.  Funny how something that really should be impressive can be such a let down.

Needless to say I am disappointed and frustrated.  I am pretty sure I made the right call to stop.  I wasn’t injured, but I felt like I was pushing for something that just wasn’t there.  Last week I flew through (for me)  a 16k race and then came home and did a really comfortable 8.5k.  My legs felt great that night and the next day.  Right now my legs feel like they have done a full marathon.  Why,  I don’t know.  It is what it is and it can’t be changed now.

There was at least one nice moment of the day…coming home to a hot bath already prepared by my husband.  A perfect way to thaw out after a miserable day.

… and why I will be using it next time.

Update:  In the last few weeks this post has been the most popular post on my blog.  Clearly there are many people looking into the bib market for ORW 2015.  If you are one of those people, welcome to my blog and feel free to hang out for a while, maybe even leave a comment.  I’ll be training again for the ORW half this year, as soon as I complete my dream half in Prague, Czech Republic at the end of March.  If you want to read my race reviews of ORW you can click on any of the following:

http://raz-family.ca/RunKristi/?p=215

http://raz-family.ca/RunKristi/?p=941

http://raz-family.ca/RunKristi/?p=958

http://raz-family.ca/RunKristi/?p=960

Now back to the original post…

The Ottawa race organizers recognize that you cannot always run a race that you registered for, so in the past transfers were allowed during a specific time period prior to the race.  It was up to the runner to find someone interested in their bib and arrange payment between parties.  A $15 transfer fee would then be paid to the race in order to make the change official.  The buyer would get his or her own name on the bib and would also be able to choose the appropriate corral and t-shirt size.  Various forums and websites would post requests for bibs or for sale notices.  Personally I think all large races should allow for transfers, clearly it can be done.

This year organizers went one step further and introduced the Bib Market.  Runners are still able to do the transfers independently, just as they have in the past.  Now though they also have the option of posting their bib right on the race website and buyers can go there to pick up a bib.  If you buy a bib on the market, you pay the race directly, the same way you would have done back during the original registration period.  If your bib is sold, you receive a refund on your credit card, minus a few fees.  When I spoke to one of the race organizers last month he noted that the technology is there to do this easily, so why wouldn’t they offer this service?  You have to love a race that is thinking about its runners and wants to provide the best services possible.  And hey, if they make a few bucks off extra fees, well I figure they deserve it for not forcing people to pay for a race they can no longer attend.

Last year I decided to buy a bib for the sold out half marathon.  This of course was before the Bib Market, so I found someone who posted a bib for sale on a local running forum.  I contacted her, gave her my name and email address and dropped a cheque in the mail.  She very kindly did the online transfer immediately, not even waiting for the cheque to arrive.  When it did come, she let me know and wished me all the best in the race.  It couldn’t have been simpler.  This year, when I decided to sell my 5k bib and my half marathon bib in order to buy a full marathon bib I decided to use the same method.  While I loved the idea of the Market, my thought was I might as well buy directly from someone so they would know their bib was sold.  One “risk” to the Market is there is no guarantee your bib will be sold before the end of the transfer period and I don’t think there is any way of seeing how many bibs in your distance are up for sale.

So I quickly sold my bibs and agreed almost two weeks ago to buy a bib from someone in another city.  This time the seller wanted the cheque first before doing the transfer process.  Fair enough, I understand wanting the cheque in hand before making it official.  I immediately mailed off the cheque, not wanting to cause any delays.  I expected that it would arrive at the seller’s home sometime last week.  Unfortunately the seller failed to tell be she would be out of town until yesterday and therefore unable to collect her mail.  This would not have been an issue a month ago when there was still lots of time to complete the transfer.  Once I knew of her absence (and only found out because I emailed asking if the cheque had arrived since I hadn’t hard anything) I became mildly concerned as the April 30th transfer deadline was quickly approaching.  But I settled myself and accepted her offer of completing the transfer by Sunday (yesterday).  You can guessed what happened.  No word of a transfer yesterday.  So I sent another email last night, requesting that the official transfer happen by this morning and if there was going to be a problem with that schedule to please let me know.  I woke up to an email saying it would be done this morning.  By one o’clock this afternoon there was still no sign of a transfer.

I have to ask… is there any runner out there who after months of marathon training and only two days before the closing of the transfer period would be comfortable with not actually having a bib to their name???  Is it just me who is paranoid??  It is not like it was a ticket for the theatre.  I could miss a musical with only some disappointment.  But miss a marathon that I have trained for because a stranger has yet to do the two minute transfer?  All I could think of was at what point do I stop the cheque and buy a bib from the Market?  Sure there was two more days left to do the transfer, but I wasn’t exactly feeling confident anymore that it was going to happen.  And there was the irony of knowing that when I offered to buy this bib, I knew that if I waited until the last few days (i.e.: NOW) I could probably independently buy one at a significant discount since people would be keen to sell for whatever they could get. Sure enough, there are some cheap bibs out there right now.  I chose not to wait to the last minute however, as I did not want to deal with the stress of not having a bib.  Look how that worked out for me!

In the end, with another email and some complaining I got the transfer done.  Apparently, and I quote, transferring a bib was not a priority for this person due to her busy life… yes, that was what she told me.  She did note that she hadn’t deposited the cheque yet, I guess that was supposed to make me feel better about not having a bib in my name.  I know marathon training can make you a little crazy, but this scenario was just a little too stressful for me.  I can’t tell you the relief I felt this afternoon when I finally got that transfer officially finished.  That bib is mine!  And next time, I think I will just buy from the Bib Market.

Race # 7 of 2014 is done and dusted and a good one it was!  Last year the Manotick 18k race nearly beat me (with the help of  sudden high temperatures) but this time around I beat my goal and set a pace I am proud of.

The boys outside the Mill.  The boys had great runs today too.  Luke completed the 1 Miler and Evan did the 3 Miler.  And Charlie, our chocolate lab, got to hang out for the day.

Manotick is a former mill village to the south of Ottawa.  Unfortunately, in my opinion, it is slowly being swallowed up by the city’s suburbs.  In the centre of the the village, however, you still get a sense of village charm and the race has a wonderful small town appeal.  This year, under a new name, the race once again offered a mix of rural routes in the first part of the run and older suburban streets for the last couple of miles.  For those not wanting to do the long run of 10 miles, there was also a 5 miler, 3 miler and a family 1 miler.  For those who are mile-challenged like myself, that translates into choices of 16k, 8k, 4.8k or 1.6k races.

In no particular order, here are some things I like about this race:

Organization: There was no shortage of volunteers and there was no chance of going off course at this race, despite several turns.  Marshals are standing in all of the right places and are quick to cheer everyone on.  The races were on time and each one started with an energetic warm up.  This would be an ideal “first timer” race for any runner as they would be bound to have a good experience without the stress of a large city race.

Post-race Food:  I love seeing variety at the finish line, and this race had it.  Apples, oranges, bananas, granola bars and several different types of chips.  There was still plenty left after the last race, so no one was left out.  Big Rig Brewery was also there selling burgers, hot dogs and beer.

The Course:  I like the challenge of this course – not too difficult but not pancake flat and simple to run either.  Throw in a strong headwind like today and you finish this run feeling like you had a good workout.  And who doesn’t love a race that throws one last hill at you before the finish line?  OK, I don’t love the hill but I definitely didn’t curse it the way I did last year.

Probably the only thing I can think of to improve this race would be to offer tech shirts rather than cotton t-shirts.  Perhaps that will be something that comes in the future as the race becomes larger.  Personally though I can’t really complain about not getting a tech shirt since I signed up at the early bird rate of 50% off.  So for $35 I feel like I more than got my money’s worth from the day.

I do have to add one funny aside, take a look at what was in the race kit (look closely at the left hand upper corner):

Hmmm, Ottawa Heart Institute and Deep Fried Mars Bars… is it just me who thinks this is a strange combination???

So that is the race in a nutshell, but what about my run?  Well, I am still smiling, so it was a great day.  As mentioned in my last post I wasn’t sure how to go into this run given the fact that this is a long slow run day for my marathon training.  Technically I should have been out there today running 29 km.  Part of me wanted to try going for speed in this race but the sensible side thought I should go slow and add mileage.  Even when I started running I wasn’t convinced my legs were going to go for the speed option, despite race adrenaline.  But then I saw a pace bunny up ahead and decided to catch up just to check out his pace.  The pink ears told me he would be doing a 5:40 min/km, a good pace to aim for.  After a minute or two of running behind him though, I realized that I wanted to go faster, so decided to pass him for a while and then when he passed me I would try to keep up.  I also decided at that moment not to play it safe and worry about what I had left in the end.  I realized that this was the perfect race to just run and see what happened.  If I crashed and burned at the end then so be it and a lesson would be learned.

In the end though, I am happy to report that there was no crashing and burning.  There was a bit of a slowing down during the 5 km stretch of headwinds with some hills thrown in the mix.  But I was able to pick up the pace again in the last 2 miles and as for that pace bunny, didn’t even see him again.  (And speaking of pace bunnies – congrats to Rebecca at RunningFoodBaby for completing her first race as a pace bunny!) My final time: 1:29:29 with an average pace of 5:32.  Original goal time: somewhere between 1:30 and 1:36.  Best of all, I still had gas in the tank.  And all this means that I have a sub 2 hour half marathon in me and to be very honest until today I wasn’t certain I did.  In fact, if I could maintain today’s pace for 5 more km, I could finish a half marathon in 1:56!  What a confidence booster!!!

So, do I regret selling my ORW half marathon bib in order to run the marathon?  Not really.  Yes, there is a good chance I could have had a half marathon PB if I didn’t switch bibs.  But part of the reason I am running well right now is because I am training for the marathon.  Unlike last fall when I felt like I lost all speed while trying to struggle my way through marathon training, this time I definitely feel like I am improving in all areas of my running.  I am still not expecting amazing things at the marathon…ultimately it is really not my distance and I truly just appreciate crossing the finishing line after 42.2 km of running.  But regardless of how the marathon turns out for me, I know that this has been the best few months of my relatively short running “career” and that is something I will hold on to for a long time to come.

And as a final note, remember today should have been a long run?  This afternoon I headed out again and ran another 8.5 km.  When adding it to the race distance I am still 4.5k short of what the marathon training schedule says, but given the higher speed I figured it was good enough!

It is race time again!  This time it is a new distance for me for a race; a 10 miler, or 16k.  Last year this event was called the Manotick Road Race and the distance was 18k.  You can read my race report here or go to the Manotick Miler website  at http://manotickmiler.com/ and you can see it posted there,

This was a race I really enjoyed last year, despite my struggles with the run.  I am looking forward to returning tomorrow and enjoying the small town vibe and the excitement of a growing race.  One of last year’s big challenges was the heat but that won’t be an issue this year, for which I am grateful.  There will still be the challenge of a somewhat hilly course though, as can be seen by the elevation map below:

I have no pace plan for tomorrow.  Back when I signed up (and by the way, when you sign up early for this race it is half price) I was planning on doing the half marathon at ORW at the end of May.  I figured that this 16k run would be a perfect chance to test my half marathon race pace.  Now that I have switched to a full marathon bib, I am wavering between keeping tomorrow’s pace a little slow or going all out.  Technically I should be running more than 16km tomorrow if I am following the marathon training schedule.  Mind you, I have thrown that schedule out the window so many times and in so many ways that I am not sure changing it up once more would do any harm.  Despite all of the changes I have made I have managed to put in all the major long runs so far.  In fact, I know that I am a stronger runner right now than compared to the month before my first marathon last fall.  So I am going to go by feel tomorrow.  If speed feels good I’ll go for it.  If slow and steady seems the right choice I will add distance either after the race or later during the day.  We will just call this a flexible pace plan with the knowledge that no matter what, I will get some hill work done 🙂

…but a pretty happy runner.

It’s been a pretty busy week and a half of running.  Here is the short version of my runs for the last ten days:

• a 22k run, meant to be longer but that didn’t work out so well
• a 30k run
• a 7.5k run
• a 10k including five hills
• my fastest 10k ever
• a 32k run

As for the long version…way too tired to even try 🙂

Today I ran on an outdoor track for the first time.  My kids wanted to be able to ride their bikes on pavement rather than our freshly re-graveled (is that a word?) road.  So their bikes were loaded into the van and we headed to the local high school where they could ride around the building and parking lot ( yes, this was very exciting for them) and my husband and I could go for a run on the gravel track.

I have never run on a track before.  To be honest, it seemed like only a slightly better idea than a run on a treadmill.  Running an oval over and over for 10k seemed a little ridiculous.  But I discovered an amazing thing about tracks…they are really, really flat.  Yes, technically I knew that.  But as an all season outdoor runner, my idea of flat is anything that doesn’t have obvious large hills.  The reality is every outdoor route I do, even those I consider to be flat, has elevations changes.  I really didn’t realize just how many changes there were in my “flat” routes until I got on a track.

My husband and I ran 4k together which probably pushed me to run a little faster than I would normally for the beginning of a 10k run.  He finished up at the 4 and I continued on.  By 5k I was feeling good and I started to realize that on this flat surface I just might beat my best 10k time of 56:13.  I picked up the pace a bit and continued to feel good.  I made sure to change my direction every few km’s thinking perhaps 10k in one direction would not be good for me.  I don’t actually know if that is true, like I said I have no track experience.  As I was getting to the last few km’s I was pretty sure I was going to go sub 56 minutes.  I couldn’t remember what pace I would need for that so I decided to just keep moving forward and increase my speed when I could.  You can’t imagine my shock – actually if you are a runner you probably can – when I finished the 10k and looked at my watch to find a time of 53:56.  I hadn’t just beaten my record, I had smashed it!!!  And this was the day after doing hill repeats.  If only it had been at a race, I would love to have that time in my official stats!  I also had my fasted km; my 10th km came in at a 4:59 pace.

The best part of this for me is that it happened in the middle of marathon training.  When I was training for my first marathon last fall I was very disappointed with how slow my running became.  I felt like I had sacrificed anything resembling speed for the sake of distance.  Much of that was due to injuring my ITB halfway through training.  Once it healed I made the decision to simply work on endurance and nothing else.  This time around though I have been able to increase my speed while working on endurance.  I have no idea if it will have any effect on my marathon time – I still think of a marathon as something to simply survive, hopefully without throwing up or passing out (or at least not doing either until after the finish line).  But I do know right now I am a stronger runner and if I were doing a 5 or 10k race in the immediate future I could probably set a few records for myself.

Today has definitely given me a boost in confidence.  It has also served as a good reminder to not always play it so safe.  I am always worried about pushing too hard too early, but at some point you have to take some risks and see what you can achieve.  It won’t always work, but when it does, it feels amazing!