After a tricky couple of months of rehab and a 10-week training cycle, I completed the Calgary marathon on Sunday, and it proved an enjoyable experience.
Injury meant my first marathon, in Elche-Alicante back in late November, was a torturous affair, but while my training cycle was short, the lack of knee injury meant this marathon was set up to be much more fun. Here's how it went, and what the Calgary marathon is actually like.
How the marathon went
The marathon itself was good fun. A nice atmosphere, good weather and with no injury, I was able to complete it without any issues.
My final time as 3.16 on the dot, although there is a story behind the time. Strangely, I finished at least 90 seconds ahead of the 3.15 pacer, and given he was behind me for the whole race, and given my watch had me on perfect pace for 3.15, I thought I was safe. It turned out that the pacer was late, and my GPS watch was likely off a little in terms of distance covered.
The result was a slip just below 3.15, but these things happen. Given the marathon and pace was comfortable for me, I'll lose no sleep knowing I could have made up the minute pretty easily had I known I needed to.
There were tough stretches - there always are - and mine came between KM 31 and 37. I had a long stretch of fast running before that where everything felt great, and after KM 37, everything loosened up a little.
Though, with only a 10-week cycle and no real speed training, given I ran at a solid pace throughout, I knew it would be difficult on my legs. I had no issues with cardio throughout and had a couple more gears to climb to if needed on that front. A longer training cycle with speed would have helped the legs, but it wasn't possible for this marathon, due to the previous injury.
I wore a chest strap for this race, and my average HR for the whole race came in at 160, supporting the theory of having plenty of room to push it in terms of cardiovascular fitness.
But I did feel a little limited with the legs, owing to that shortened training, and I promised myself I wouldn't push it in this race. I wanted to enjoy it and finish this season without an injury, and I stayed true to my word.
The time issue was a little annoying, but having finished feeling capable of much more, I'm happy with how it went.
What is the Calgary Marathon like?
Pretty good. A really good atmosphere, as you would expect in Canada - the people are great. They put your first name pretty big on your bib, so the crowd can call you out by name, which is a great idea, and it does help with encouragement during tricky stretches.
I was impressed with the aid stations. Very efficient. Along with some other goodies, there were paper cups with water or electrolytes, which is a simple solution to the whole plastic debate.
I was appalled by news that the Paris marathon required runners to bring their own bottles. It should never be incumbent on the runners, who pay a lot of money for these races, to serve as the solution. The Paris marathon makes 5million euros in profit and employs volunteers for the most part. Spend more money on the clean-up or employ people to fix the issue rather than chipping away at the personal bests of runners, who pay for the right of having the best setting possible to achieve their goals.
Paper cups solve that issue, and there were staggered bins after each aid station where runners could throw their cups after use. This meant for no real mess, no obstruction and no issues.
The biggest negative was the 6.45am start. The city doesn't want to have major road closures through the day, which I think is pretty poor given how much money is made for cities on days like these. It means a 2.30am wake-up and a less than ideal prep on race morning.
The route was pretty average, and it certainly has room for improvement. It's such a cool city, and you would hope that the marathon spends a lot more time in the city itself, but hardly any of it was. There were long stretches in streets and housing estates, and the course nature meant a long stretch of coming back down the same way after the turnaround.
It would have been much cooler had it gone through the city streets, and there is surely potential for that. Having said that, there were some really cool stretches and nice views of the city, particularly in the first 6km or so, along with some nice riverside stretches.
Overall, it was a fun race that was pretty well organised, and in terms of my own experience, I was pleased to have an enjoyable race that served as a nice platform for progress.
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