Marathon weekend recap

Start line was intense and crowded:)

 Wow i cannot believe it's been over a month since i posted! The Ottawa marathon has now come and gone. What an AMAZING experience. My trip to Ottawa started off very bumpy though. I was leaving Friday May 25th for the capitol of Canada and what do i wake up with that morning? A sore throat:( I tried to find some emerg-c at 2 different stores in Moncton before we left and no dice:( I then decided at the airport (of all places) to give in and buy something a little less natural Cold Fx. It cost me $20! Would have been maybe $10 ish at the drugstore...DOH!

All day i had this lingering anxious feeling i didn't know why. We were set to fly out at 3pm getting in to Ottawa at 3:30pm their time. Well Air Canada cancelled their flight i had a moment for a second where i started to freak out. My eyes welled up and then it quickly passed with a sense of relief. It's like my body knew that the flight was going to be cancelled and that is why i was anxious! The reason they cancelled the flight was because the flight attendant jump seat was broken, and had been for days and they failed to fix it. Typical Air Canada. I must also mention that they cancelled after the Porter flight left which had room on it. Nice Air Canada...thanks! We could have flown with Porter instead.

Tone It Up Sister Maddie and i

We didn't let it phase us too much...everything happens for a reason so no need to freak out or get upset. Crappy thing was we only had two options wait and fly out of Moncton at 8pm and connect through TO and only get in to Ottawa at 1am! Yuck...no thanks OR be bused to St John and fly out of there connecting through Montreal getting in at 8:30pm. So we chose that. There was nowhere and no time to eat at the SJ airport so mom and i shared a box of my brown rice crackers i luckily brought with me for supper. There were also no options for gluten free me at the Montreal airport. Luckily i was so prepared with my food. I always travel with a lot of food. I never want to be stuck and starving!

My amazing Auntie Nell running with me for a bit

Luckily the Cold fx seemed to do the trick for the weekend it held my cold off and after sleeping 10 hours Friday night i felt much better on Saturday morning. Saturday morning i went for an easy 3km run with Brian; who is a friend we were staying with. It was a great run and hard to keep it slow and easy. Just as we got back my Auntie Nell got in. It was soooo great to see her and have her come support me! She drove in from their cottage in Peterborough.

We then went to eat The Green Door a a vegetarian restaurant that fellow Tone It Up Sister Maddie Cook suggested. My mom, Aunt, Norma (Brian's wife) and Diane met up with Maddie, her mom, sister and sister's friend. It was an amazing healthy lunch with tons of gluten free options! Yah. I had the best mocha vegan cheescake for dessert! Heaven! I don't remember what i had for lunch as it is buffet style. So i took little portions of everything to fill my plate up!

We then proceeded to the expo to pick up our race kits! We walked about 30 minutes or so to get there. It was a nice walk. Weather was great and it was sunny. After the expo we headed back to Norma's and she made a great pasta supper, gluten free pasta for me:)

Off to bed shortly after that as i had to get up at 5:40am. The race started at 7am and i needed to eat and we were to leave for the race at 6am to give me lot's of time to get there and to the start line. I ran into a little issue that morning though. I couldn't go # 2..ha ha maybe too much detail BUT hey...it's something a runner needs to do before a race or run in the morning. Well i do anyways. I tried 3 times no luck.

After one final bathroom attempt i headed to the start line about 5 min before the race started. And i was so amped up, anxious and nervous. I squeezed in with the 4 hr pace bunny and chased her for awhile and quickly lost her when i ran in to stomach issues at 20km and after 4km of them not passing i stopped at a porta potty at 24km. I then had to wait in line which sucked:( I really didn't want to but knew i had to. Finally success! Ha ha.

After that little pit stop i paced myself with the 4:15 pace bunny for awhile and then realized i needed to slow down so i didn't hit a wall. I think that may have been about 32km. I can't really remember. If you talk to anyone about a marathon they all say a marathon only starts the last 10km and boy are they right.

My amazing momma and i...much needed walk break

My Mom and Aunt met up with me at a few of the cheering stations and even took turns running with me which i really needed. They were so chatty and i just said sorry i can't talk and i really couldn't maintain a conversation. All my energy was focused on finishing that race. My mom ran the last 4km with me and that was amazing. Just having her there and her cheerful support. I took more walk breaks the last 4km and had a lot of pain and pressure in my hips and pelvis. Which was weird for me. And even though i walked a fair amount it actually hurt more to walk so i am not sure why i took so many walk breaks. The pressure was pretty intense but i wasn't going to let it stop me and i didn't.

I finished the Ottawa marathon in 4:37:25 when i first started my training i had hopes of finishing in 4 hrs but those were dashed when i seemed to get a bout of achilles tendonitis which actually surprisingly didn't bother me at all during the race. My heel felt stiff the last 10km but didn't hurt at all. I also recovered very quickly. My whole body was sore and exhausted after the race and Monday morning i was stiff but went for a 20 minute slow walk which i think helped a lot. By Tuesday my legs were pretty much all better just a little sore. And my hips and pelvis stopped hurting after i finished the race. Very odd!

Post race and still smiling

All in all the whole experience of the training and the marathon was worth it. I learned so much about my body and myself along the ride! And even though i thought it would be my first and last i now think that i may end up tackling another in the future. But not for a few years. Now it's time to work on speed and getting fast at 5km and 10km. Once i am happy with my pace i will train for another half. I love training for half's they are my favorite distance. But i really want to enjoy my summer and relax more and be finished with my runs quicker and not feel like i HAVE to run all the time. If i feel like i want to take a run off i can! As i am just working on speed and not really training for a big particular race.

I know this is a lengthy post. I toyed with the idea of doing a part 1 and 2...but nah here it all is! Enjoy. I do plan on buying some pictures from the race and will be getting the ones my Aunt took soon and i will also post those:) So keep your eyes peeled.