Royal Victoria Marathon

What a great weekend and I'm so glad I didn't miss it. I really enjoyed the conversations with my running friends at before and after the marathon parties. It gave me lots to think about, both running and life in general. Nothing is quite as rewarding as spending time with smart, confident women and our boomer group is full of them (o.k., the guys aren't too shabby either).

I had planned on an easy 4:30 marathon. I haven't been working on anything other than long, slow runs lately and haven't posted a time faster than 4:20 all year. I also hadn't run a marathon since August 17th, which for me is an eternity.

I got to the start with a little time to spare and started scanning the crowds as they lined up. I spotted Le Chat Noire and decided to join her. She asked if I'd be interested in helping her PR, and if possible get close to a 4:15. I decided to give it a shot, but reserved the right to bail out if I felt like it. After we started, we caught up with the 4 hour pace bunny. Both Le Chat and I decided to run with him as long as possible, then use whatever we had left to get us to the finish. The pacer was using a 10 minute run, 1 minute walk strategy. That was easy enough, but he refused to slow down through the aid stations. As a result, we had to dodge over to get water, then sprint to catch up. The run, walk, sprint, run, walk, sprint combo eventually wore me down, but I did manage to make it to the half way point with the pacer. Le Chat pulled away from me when I stopped at a vacant porta-potty and I lost sight of her. I finished in 4:14:23... Le Chat in 4:10ish (I believe that is a 20 min PR for her!) It was my 12th finish of a marathon or ultra marathon this year. The weather was perfect and the course spectacular.

Ric met me at the finish line, we started walking back to our hotel but detoured for a beer and some lunch. I had just enough time to shower before meeting MustangMom and a shuttle to the best Canadian Thanksgiving meal ever.
Mustang Sally and The Scot were perfect hosts, serving us wine and cheese as soon as we walked through the door. We sat down to eat in the formal dining room and the power went off. I though it actually added to the festivities, especially as it got darker and we resorted to eating by candlelight. Ric and I concluded the evening with a 3 mile stroll back to our hotel. Just what I needed to loosen the legs before turning in.

Thanks everyone for a memorable weekend!