Toronto Waterfront Marathon Adventure

By Yolanda Hopping

When I found out about the existence of this marathon, I thought that maybe because of the proximity to Michigan (My husband's home state), he could come with me and I would have the opportunity of adding another country to my travels. Since he showed some interest, I registered right away. But there was a conflict and I ended up going alone.

I trained for the TWM following the Hanson Brothers Marathon Training Plan, which essentially, doesn't include runs longer than 16 miles. Instead, it has the long runs divided into two consecutive days totaling between 20 to 26 miles each weekend. (I confess I did a couple of longer runs.)

Some of you know about my lack of orientation. Before the trip I got hold of any map I thought could be useful; city map, subway map, hotel map etc. Even so, I got lost. But I will tell you about that later.

The TWM is flat as a pancake. It never goes more than 200 meters up or down, but has loooong gradual down hills and up hills, one of them being up from the 21k to the 26k marks and then down to the 31k mark.

My dream goal was to finish in 3:10 but, since I finished the Austin Marathon early this year in 3:14, I would be happy enough with anything under 3:14, and more than happy with a 3:12.

I finished in 3:18:26 - chip time. (Sniff) I made several mistakes. One, was to believe in the hotel advertisements (only 1km from the start/finish). I had to walk 15 minutes from the subway station to the hotel carrying my luggage, 30 minutes to the expo and then back to the hotel with bags. At the end, it was too late for lunch and too early for dinner. So I made the bad decision of skipping the lunch.

To get to the start on time, I had to wake up very early, and there was no place open to have breakfast. I was afraid of eating something different than my usual oatmeal and coffee. So, I only had a coffee and

a handful of a granola cereal snack bag I got at the expo.

I didn't want to walk alone through Toronto downtown to the start of the race for half an hour and in the dark, so I approached a couple of runners (the only ones there) in the lobby, to see if they were also going to walk to the start or if they could give me a ride. They weren't full marathon runners and were going to leave for the start later. Well, I took a deep breath and went out. Let me tell you, that walk alone was stressful; I did my best to avoid the homeless and the weird people on the streets, and to be aware of the surroundings, noises, etc. Pretty scary!

Another mistake was not to adjust my goal to the weather conditions. It was raining at the start and at the end. It was slippery all the way and the air was so thickly humid that breathing was difficult. The feeling was very uncomfortable.

My plan was to start in between the 3:10 and the 3:15 bunnies. Well, the 3:10 bunny didn't show up, so I placed in front of the 3:15 group. The first 10k of the TWM are almost all downhill, and I was flying. Anyway, I don't think this was the main cause of my slow down since I was feeling OK, and in control until my leg suddenly cramped at about 33 kilometers (apx. mile 21). The cramp started in my left calf, and I had to stop, stretch and massage it, then keep going until the cramp came back. I started running with my foot flexed to avoid the cramps, and passed one of the elite master runners. (I found out later that she dropped out of the race because of, guess what...? Cramps!

Running with my foot flexed was another mistake; my left quad started cramping from the compensation. So, if I stretched the calf, the quad cramped, and if I stretched the quad, the calf cramped. I had to make a longer stop to massage all my leg, until one of the 3:15 bunnies pass me and I decided to stay with him. What I didn't know was that the "bunny" was not feeling well and at the 36k mark (about mile 23), he passed out. I stayed with him until the paramedics reached us. That was very fast since they had paramedics at each aid station (Every k in the second half), but at that point, all my hope of a good time was gone.

The cramps didn't let me go too far, but I ran as fast as I could between them. I used all the breathing techniques I have learned in a year of yoga practice to deal with the pain and be able to finish. (It really worked to diminish the pain, relax muscles, and gain energy). I manage to run the last k with no stops. I found out that running

landing on the outside of my feet controlled the cramps. Another mistake...

When I finished, my foot was aching so bad that I could barely walk and tears came out of my eyes with each step. I was dehydrated, very thirsty and didn't go to the bathroom until several hours later (Coke color, to be more explicit).

The dehydration is something I can't explain. They had water and Gatorade every 2k the first half and every k the second half, that's about two times what I've found in past marathons, and I used all of them.

I had blisters in almost all of my toes and between them, I suppose caused by the combination of wet shoes and socks and looong wet down hills. At the medical tent I received a very good massage, and they put something on my blisters (ouch!). All the beds were occupied with people in worse condition and they considered I didn't need an IV.

I finished placing 2nd Overall Master (Good thing there were nobody between the 3:03 winner and me!). The participation T-shirt is a very good quality Adidas coolmax mesh running T. I got a beautiful trophy, a finisher medal and $300. But it doesn't make me feel happy. Oh, I miss those days when I wasn't aware of my finishing time!

To crown the day, I had to walk back to the hotel (uphill) dragging my aching body and got lost, so instead of 30 minutes I walked for 45 minutes!. Then, I had to walk uphill 15 minutes to the subway carrying my luggage. All those subway stairs felt endless! And finally, I walked to take the bus to the airport.

Because of all the things that happened before and during the race, I can't tell if the Hanson brothers training plan would have helped me to reach my time goal or not. What I can say is that it gave me the endurance to finish.

Next time we will see. Yes, I'm one more stubborn runner; there will be a next time. Things will be hopefully different.

Happy ending:

The pilot of the plane on which I flew back had also run the marathon. He was impressed with my place (of course, he didn't know how far I was from the first). I came back in first class and was treated as a VI. The pilot announced to the passengers that there was a lady in the plane that placed in the marathon, the people applauded and then he asked for applause for all the marathoners on the plane. That was very nice.

At that moment it didn't matter what our time was or if we reached our time goals. We all made it to the finish line and that makes us special.

Keep in stride!

Yolanda.