Royal Victoria Marathon race report

Not quite a Boston Qualifying run but I shattered my personal best marathon time at the Royal Victoria Marathon. I haven't got the official time yet but it was around 3:18. Next Monday when I get access to my computer I will post all my splits and some graphs. Forgive typos, it is late and I just ran a marathon.

If I were writing a news article I'd be leading with the last seven Ks. Forget it. Consider the lead effectively buried. I slept well -- not great -- Emmanuelle awoke at 3:30 a.m. and I was tossing and turning anyway. About four hours later I was jogging down Yates with Ricky. My toe was burning by this point. I could hardly believe my luck, two weeks of relatively little pain in the broken toe until marathon day. So I slowed down my warm up to avoid aggravating that little demon.
With two minutes until the starting gun, I concluded that I needed to hit the porta-toilet, thankfully we were standing next to a short row of the green outhouses and there was no line. I was back in the queue before the 30-second count. Phew.
When that gun sounded, my world transformed into a tunnel including only me, 42.2K of pavement and a stopwatch. Things could not get less complicated.
The first 10K was marked by a few sounds. The pattering of thousands of shoes pounding the pavement. And the banging of a string of 4:30ish Ks. I felt strong and at the 10K marker I was on pace for 3:10.
Banging off near 4:30Ks continued around 15K as the course chatter slowed. The streets were lined with maple trees losing their reddish yellow leaves. When the course turned by the ocean I soon discovered why RVM is such a popular race. The oceanview was magnificent. The roar of the ocean, however, was muted by the cheering crowd. As I stepped on the halfway time mat, I was in the zone, roughly two minutes off 3:10 pace. It was here that I saw Dad for the first time.
My one complaint of the course was the unending number of hills. They weren't big but I thought it was supposed to be a flat course. These hills really took a lot out of me.
About a kilometer after the turn-around I spotted Ricky who slowed down around 18K. It turned out Ricky had a painful flare-up with his back and was forced to walk for a short distance.
I hit 30K and I was still knocking down 4:30isk Ks. Rounding the corner into Oak Bay, there was a singer busting out tunes in the middle of the street. To thank her, I swerved left and offered a high-five. That was probably the last pain-free moment of the marathon. I saw Dad again and he jogged about 20 metres with me. Within the next six Ks I saw my grandparents (who didn't see me) and Rob, Gael and the kids. The highlight was when I spotted Lisa and Emmanuelle. It was only for a few moments but it made my marathon.
It was shorly after that the wheels came flying off my marathon. As I tried maintaining my pace I felt the lactic acid infiltrate my muscles. Now it was not just a bit of lactic acid. The sensation resembled what I imagine a geyser looks like. As it seeped into every inch of my body, my pace slowed and I was in tremendous pain. There were several points where the thought of walking crept into my mind but I fought on. I winced. I visionalized happy moments. I looked at the 38K marker. Nothing masked the pain.
I wanted to pick up my pace but it was slowing to 5:45 range. At 32K point I was 44 minutes away from Boston but as 40K showed up I had missed the chance. I couldn't pick up my pace so I trudged on. The race wrapped up along the waterfront with thousands of cheering onlookers.
I ran as hard as I could toward the finish line and and as I heard the announcer call out my name I knew the ordeal was done. I broke my five-year old PB and life was good again. My muscles were screaming. My quads were exploding. My calves were constricting. Several times I felt the cramping set in and I tried massaging it out. These ailments did not blunt my excitement over my run.
I am now looking ahead to 2006. I feel I can improve upon today's time.I'm not blaming the broken toe or the hamstring injury. I ran a good race and see the improvement.
I just want to thank my two girls -- Lisa and Emmanuelle -- they truly made today possible.