The Goodlife Fitness Victoria Marathon 2012

At the very beginning of 2012, I set a personal goal for myself which was to complete a full marathon. The Goodlife Fitness Victoria Marathon sounded like the ideal race for me to enter for a variety of reasons.

First, it is held in the fall, in October, so that means that between the time that I set a goal in January and run the race in October, I would have roughly 8 months to gradually build up my mileage, endurance and speed.

At the time, knowing that it was my very first marathon, I knew that I had to do a lot of training to be able to run 42.2km at a steady pace. That distance requires a lot of endurance, especially when there is a good chance that a first-time marathoner will hit the wall at around 30k. I will talk about “hitting the wall” and how to delay it in other posts.

Second, the weather in Victoria in October is great because it’s usually not too hot and not too cold. Third, I also heard about how awesome the expo would be, the beautiful finisher medals, other complementary items that would be handed out on race weekend and fantastic draw prizes for participants. Fourth, it’s a Boston Marathon Qualifier and I was very curious to see if I could meet the time requirement.

Running my first marathon was an unforgettable experience.

My overall strategy was to start out at a 5:00 min/km pace and speed up in the second half for a strong finish. I found it challenging to maintain my own pace when I saw other runners going fast in the beginning, but I knew that I should hold off on the speed until the second half.

The first 10K of the marathon was an easy 49 minutes and change. I managed to keep a pace of just under 5 min/km. Originally, my plan was to run the first half in 1:45, but instead I ended up being around 1:43, which, although it didn’t feel like it, I thought was too fast. After the half way point, I was worried I went too fast and that there was a chance the rest of my performance would be hindered.

After the half way point, I thought to myself, “I will slow down by 5-8 sec/km for a little bit and if I feel good at the 34K mark, then I will speed up again.”

The 34K mark came and I still hadn’t hit the wall. That was great! So,  I sped up each subsequent kilometer after that. However, I would say that the 1 km between the 40 and 41K mark was the hardest. If I had to say I hit the wall, then that would be where it happened. That was probably my slowest kilometer.

I also drank Cytomax throughout the run and it helped replenish my energy and delay “hitting the wall”.

At the 41K mark, I thought to myself: “I’ve come this far and there is no point in stopping and walking now. The finish line is just a little over 1km away, so it will be over faster if I speed up.” I gathered all my energy, increased the length of my stride and increased the speed at which I moved my legs. The last km took me about 4:25.

Above: Me immediately after the finish. Photo by Ian Simpson of IMS FotoGrafix. I’m wearing a BondiBand headband.

I finished the marathon with a time of 3:27:48. I placed 5th out of 35 in my age group, 38th/763 women, and 220th/1724 overall. I was very pleased with the time because when I first signed up I was not sure if I could finish it under 3:30. In fact, my goal was just to finish, which I think is a good goal for the first marathon.

Above: Me wearing the finisher medal, the New Balance souvenir jacket and holding the award that I got for being in the top 5. Love the jacket! Photo by Ian Simpson of IMS FotoGrafix.

The feeling that I experienced after running my first marathon definitely makes me want to do it again. Yes, I will be doing another marathon. There are both training and racing techniques that I would like to refine for the next one and hopefully I can get a faster time.

If you’re thinking about doing a marathon, the Goodlife FitnessVictoria Marathon is a great race for you to enter. The course is awesome and the race is very well-organized. Victoria is a gorgeous city and a world-class tourist destination. Can you think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than to do a long run through the wonderful capital city of beautiful British Columbia?

Happy Running!