ATB Race Report

After not getting much sleep on Friday night, I got up early Saturday and drove to Hamilton to pick up my race kit. The EXPO was uneventful although I did run into several people that I've run with.

Saturday was a rest day so I just took it easy, watched some movies and went to bed fairly early.

Sunday I met a few friends and we drove up together. This was a good chance to talk about the race and what our goals were. We arrived in Hamilton about 90 minutes before the race start. The weather was cooler than expected so I decided to run in my new CWX 3/4 tights, light turtleneck and jacket.

I did a little warm-up run right before the race just to limber up.
Once the race started I felt a slight pull or cramp along the outside of my right leg and quad muscle. This happened about 1 or 2K into the race and I was worried that it would linger throughout. Immediately I began to try and figure out why this was happening as I never have experienced this before. Thankfully the pain went away after a few K's.

I managed to keep my pace at between a 4:30 to 4:40 pace throughout the next 10 or 15K's and was about 1 minute ahead of my goal time of 2:25. However, at about the 25K mark the cramping returned and it came at one of the weirdest parts of the race. There was a long downhill which preceded on the final hills and that's where it tightened up. I had to literally limp down the hill as the pain was severe but as I started to climb the uphill it slowly went away.

Even with this setback, I was still a little ahead of my goal time but had now lost much of that 1 minute advantage I had built up earlier in the race. I was able to make up some more time during the last 2K and finished in 2:24:44 which was over 7 minutes better than last year's time.

Looking back at the race I really feel that the CWX tights may have played a part in my muscles tightening up. This was the first race that I've had that I can remember having this much pain and it was the first race that I had used these tights. Another possible explanation could be overhydration. I had drank my normal 4Ltr's of water the day before and supplemented that with pretzels (salted) to ensure that my sodium level was high enough. As soon as the cramping occurred I made sure that I took in a drink of gatoraide from the water stations to help with the cramping. Usually, though, once the cramping starts it's too late for the gatorade. I'm just thankful that the cramping went away long enough for me to finish the race.

As I write this today (Monday) my calves and quads are still very sore but I know that by taking the next few days to rest, my legs will be as good as new. I start the next phase of my marathon training next week and I'm looking forward to seeing how well I can do at my next race.

The Peterborough 1/2 Marathon (1:40) and now the Around the Bay race (2:24) have given me the confidence to know that I can run a 3:30 marathon.
There are so many people who have helped me with my training and I just wanted to personally thank Ken, Nancy, Theresa, Rob, John, Edgar, Steve, Jen, Sally, and Neil.