National Capital Race Weekend, Ottawa
Saturday, May 10 to Sunday, May 11, 2003
Race report from Una...
Date: Wed May 14, 2003
Subject: National Capital Race Weekend/Marathon Report. Long. At least 3MB ;O)
Hi all, I guess it's time to get this online! After a weekend of great fun, work reared its ugly head, I fell asleep with my laptop on top of me last night, good thing Steve called at 1:00AM (his bus broke down!) and woke me up, because had I moved, the laptop would have met Mr. carpet. I hope to get to the mail this weekend (long weekend yay!) and catch up! Gosh where to begin.
Friday
I met up with Julie and Karl at their hotel, and we went to the bus station to pick up Lucie. We went out to a sports bar on Elgin street and ate. I should preface that it was a serious eating weekend! After eating we stopped in at Sugar Mountain to get some treats, I think Lucie was the only one not to buy anything (they don't have sushi candy ;o)) We dropped off Julie and Karl, and Lucie and I headed back to my house.Saturday
I finally got to meet Tash! Lucie and I headed out to the hotel to pick up Julie and Tash and motor to the expo. It was very well organized, except somehow they had Karl registered for the 10k skate. It was here that I realized that my marathon experience was going to be documented. Julie, the camera queen made it her focus to document every moment of my journey. She's a hoot. She caught a photo of my picking up my race kit (smile volunteers!), activating my chip, me in front of the course map, then her batteries died! I was approached by a young woman asking me to contact her with my first marathon experience story - the volunteers at the pick up told her to contact Julie! LOL I then bought my first HRM as per orders from my man Ray (the PT whose going to whip my butt into shape). Got some coolmax socks at rock bottom prices too! Oh yeah, registrants of the marathon received coolmax socks with NCM Marathon written around the cuff. Cool!From here we dropped Tash off at the Rideau Centre, picked up Karl and headed off to the museum of Nature. It's in a lovely building (castle actually) that's haunted. ooooooweeeeoooooo! After checking out the BC slugs (I will never go to BC now) and the hissing spitting disgusting roaches, it was off for lunch! After lunch Julie got her fix of Lois and Frimas ice cream. We got pictures. Lucie and I dropped Julie and Karl at their hotel and proceeded to the grocery store (note: Lucie really loves her sushi!) then back home where I made the pasta for the pasta salad for Carlene's BBQ (Una feels shame now). While cooking my cell phone rang. A man saying he was staying at the Minto Place hotel said this number was one that showed up on his phone but there was no message left. I think this poor Ottawa visitor must have thought I was nuts. My reply to him was: "Are you a Penguin?" LOL When he answered "excuse me?" I said, "um, are you here for the race weekend?". Turns out the poor man was in Ottawa waiting for his house to be ready. Guess Julie or Tash (or me!) misdialled the hotel at least once!
Back in the car to pick up Steve at the bus station, and to the Running Room for Lucie to buy some shoes, we met up with my friend Tracy (who was going to be walking her first 10k), then off to the 10k race. Hmmm. when did they move the start line????? The 10k was being walked by Julie and Karl, Tash and her family, and run by Lucie and Tash's brother Andrew, who both PR'd (and shattered mine!). Steve and I were looking for a place to park ourselves to cheer and lo and behold Carlene (your hair is so long!) and Glenn (the man with the bell) are calling out to us. Carlene, thanks again for the Penguin Pin. It is soooo cute! Kelly, Mau, Kathryn, Kate (oh god I know I'm missing a few people!) joined us and the cheers began. Scream team is an art that they have perfected. Once everyone made it across the finish Steve and I cheered in my friend Tracy, then off we walked to the restaurant for the dinner.
Meeting everyone at dinner was a treat. Richard, you are a blast. I'm so glad I got to meet the Speedo man! Catherine, I don't know your last name and couldn't find you in the 5k results but I'm sure you did great! Because it took a while to get the feast in front of us, I didn't have a chance to chat up everyone at the other end of the table. I regret this. Julie, Karl, Tash and family (Andrew, knock em dead at CDN Idol ok?), and Nancy and Gary showed a little later. We had an awesome time at dinner but left as I needed to get some sleep!
Una at the start of the marathonSunday
4 hours sleep. Oh well. Brr. It's windy out there! Kelly, your words echo'd from Saturday night, and an earlier email - trust in my training. Thank you. That was my mantra. I met up with my clinic group, Julie made me a pink penguin sign!! We have pictures (of course we have pictures!), but I forgot to collect it from the course!!! Whaaa! Gisele and I lined up with the 4:45 bunny (we couldn't get any further back) and the gun went off. I felt awesome!! I lost Gisele around the first corner, I was so happy for her. I stuck to my plan of 9/1. at the 1 mile mark I hear the screaming off the bridge, it's Lucie and Julie, with Steve. It was really neat to be running the race on the course I trained on, but in reverse. What a trick that played on my head! Where I'd be pooped in training I was fresh! Good plan there Running Room. :) At the 2k mark I was running near an older man (in the 70+ age group) and a very talkative man. The older man mentioned that he must have eaten something that didn't agree with him the night before. Sure enough, the poor guy bent over and was sick. I was sure that was the last I'd see of him, but he did finish the race a little behind me. I guess since he had run this race since 1979 he wasn't going to let a little food poisoning stop him from finishing. Wow. At the 12k mark I mentally began my race. I knew I could run 31k so I decided the first 12k was going to be my warmup. It worked. :)
At the 17k mark Lucie met me and ran with me to where Julie and Steve were. I was so thrilled to see them, and I was feeling fantastic. My brother Pat was there on his bike, I had just missed my Mom on the cell phone! Oh well, she was set to meet me at the finish. Julie pulled out her camera and took photos, then recorded a short video interview of me! In all I believe I spent almost 10 minutes with them. Now that's a race plan! Richard, thank you for thinking of me at the 18k mark. I wasn't hurting, I was partying! I stopped to refill my gel flask at one of the water tables then when I got running I was lapped by the leaders. WOW. They are crazy fast. The first woman passed me to great applause (yes, I stopped in my tracks to cheer her on), then faced with a crowd of people staring at me (think cows LOL), and I confirmed that yes, I was indeed, the second place woman. From the giggles, I guess no one believed me.
At the 26k mark I met up with Julie, Karl, Lucie and Steve. Steve you old woman, I was fine!! He was so worried about me. I felt great! My tummy was a little off so I cut my 9/1 to 5/1 then 3/3. More photos with the group, and one in front of the 26k sign, and I was off again. I thought Lucie was going to blow a gasket. Definitely not the way she'd be racing it! LOL She wanted me to race, I wanted to play. Teehee! At the 27k mark I met up with the official Scream Team. You guys are amazing! They were in the process of taking down the Penguin banner thinking they'd missed me, we chatted, hugged, took more photos, then when I saw Steve and the others coming toward me I thought I'd best move on!
At 30k I got bored. I need to work on this. I danced with the road marshals and chatted up the cops. Discovered the joys of Vaseline (note to runners out there.... the goo on the stick is NOT honey, it's VASELINE. I can't believe people were eating it!!!! LOL) I dropped my running to 2/2. Then I met Loc. It was his first marathon too. He was really struggling. I pulled out my fictional cape and decided it was time to be the super hero and get him through to the finish. We chatted about everything under the sun. At the top of the Heron bridge Myra appeared on roller blades. You are such a sweet woman! We chatted and she stayed with us as we walked until we got to the loop in the arboretum. We said our goodbyes and Loc and I got back to business. The storm. I felt so bad for all the Penguins out there waiting for me, hoping that they had packed it in and didn't get wet. I was hoping that Mom hadn't been soaked too (she had, and turned back for home). It poured. Monsoon season in Ottawa came and went (10 minutes or so), then Loc and I ran the downhill to Dow's lake. Yay Julie! Out from the shadows soaking wet is Julie. She came to walk us to the finish. She offered us enthusiasm and treats! Loc commented that I sure had a lot of friends :) Finally we neared the finish and Loc and I ran for it. We passed the soaking wet scream team (Tracy and Mau, congrats on great races!) and were followed to the finish. I could barely hear John Stanton announcing our names over the cheers of U-na, U-na.... LOL I did hear him though - "and coming in now is Una Beaudry number 969 from Ottawa..... and what appears to be the entire Penguin Brigade!!" LOL Loc thanked me for helping him through, and said he'd see me next year. Go for it Loc! I wore the Penguin banner as a space blanket (see I did have a cape), handed in my chip, got my medal (weeehoo!), a rose for mother's day, and a letter from Katie [see below]. My sweet baby Katie is in Europe and wrote the letter before she left, giving it to my brother to give to Steve to give to me at the finish. Julie caught the photo of me crying. I was so moved. I love that kid. She's my hero.
Una shows off her medal [left] and reads a letter from her daughter [right]After stretching I came home to have a bath and discovered as fantastic as I felt, I was DONE. I'm so sorry Carlene for not making it to the BBQ. I so wanted to be there but my body wanted to sit. I missed out on catching up with everyone, congratulating all the other racers on their successes. I wish I could turn back time, I would be there! Carlene, I hear it was a fantastic time. Thanks for doing this.
Monday
Lucie and I were up at 5AM, Lucie to catch her bus back to Montreal, and me to get to work! Karl and Julie arrived from their hike/adventures in the Gatineaus after 6pm, I worked until 7pm, and then we sat around waiting for Steve to arrive from Toronto at 10PM. We then had dinner and watched a really bad movie (women's prison????) then I begged off at midnight to get some sleep. Oh ya, Julie showed me a photo of 'crazy hair' this wacky guy running the marathon in plaid shorts with wild crazy black hair. He posed for her! Naturally, I knew him! Too funny. Julie, I'll get the picture to him I promise!Tuesday
I took the afternoon off to bid farewell to my guests, and take one last walk in the Market. I don't expect Julie will be wanting a Beavertail anytime soon...Stats:
2570/2666 runners
Gun time: 6:05:36.5
Chip time: 6:03:23.7
8:42/km; 13:52/mile
993/1023 Women
199/203 Women 35 - 39
1st half: 2:40:33
2nd half: 3:25:05Will I do this again? You bet. See you in AZ in January!!
Una :)
Tash and Frank at the start of the 10KRace report from Tash...
Date: Mon May 12, 2003
Subject: Our Nation's Capital!Hey Everyone,
The folks in Ottawa certainly showed us why they are our National's Capital this weekend - with great weather (for the most part), wonderful accommodations, awesome food, a beautiful race course and lovely hosts.
I dragged my entire family to Ottawa for the Tulip Festival, NCM and some time off prior to our move this week. I also convinced them all to enter the 10km.
We arrived in Ottawa on Friday afternoon and walked around the Parliament area, Rideau Centre and then the Byward market area - stopping for an early dinner in Tucker's Marketplace which was just packed.
We all went down to the gym/pool after dinner for a swim or workout. I managed to put in my 1,500 metres in a 20 metre pool which drove me nuts (I usually swim in a 50 metre pool) and then relax in the hot tub, return to the hotel room, read and go to bed early.
We woke up early Saturday morning and our first gracious host Una (along with Lucie) met Julie and I, and drove us to pick up our race kits. I bought some socks at the awesome price of $5 a pair compared to the $12 a pair price I pay in TO. The registration/kit pick-up process went so smoothly. I was really impressed with the race organization (all weekend for that matter!).
My family and I then drove out to Dows Lake and walked the tulip festival, a little disappointing, I don't think 1/3 of the tulips were up but the weather has been so cold the poor tulips suffered. What tulips were up were lovely but there was simply not enough there. Frank however took a lot of photos of the tulips (I'll post a URL when he gets them ready).
Saturday at 6:30pm was the 10km. Julie, Karl and my family all walked over to the start together and lined up at the back. The start area was marked well allowing people to line up along their predicted times (though as we all know some people just plain ignore it and start where they shouldn't - that is such a pet peeve of mine when I am running versus walking).
My brother, Andrew, lined up between the 60-55 minute pace bunnies for his first 10km ever. The rest of us were walking. It was also Frank, Mom and Dad's first 10km experience.
Andrew finished his first 10km (without training, kind of makes me sick) in 58m:22s. Dad walked in around 1h:39m and the rest of us finished at 1hr:44m. It was such a pretty course along the canal and tulips, complete with a sunset and Penguins cheering us through the finish area (I had no idea you were going to be there - what a nice surprise). Even nicer, 10k finishers all get medals. So my entire family got medals for their very first race - memories to cherish :)
We then went to dinner at Carmello's with the entire rookery. Awesome, awesome food and it was so nice to see those I have not seen a while and meet some new faces.
Sunday Andrew and I got up and cabbed it out to Dows Lake to meet all the Penguins and join the half marathon/marathon scream team. What a load of fun again - you all did a terrific job!
Went back to the hotel, checked out and then drove to Kanata to Carlene and Andre's home which they opened up for about 25-30 people to eat and eat and eat. Thank you so much for having us - we had such a nice time!! I have never seen so much food in my life... you must have a ton of leftovers :)
Got home, to Toronto, in time to catch the last hour of Survivor and the Reunion... Kel, can you believe Jenna won by 6-1... what the heck happened?!?!?
Onto our next adventure, moving this Thursday!
Tash (and family)
Race report from Mau...
Date: Mon May 12, 2003
Subject: Mother's Day weekendGood morning, Penguins!
What a terrific weekend it was.
On Friday night, people started to arrive from Toronto -- Kelly, Tracy, Kathryn L., Kathryn S. and Kate all stayed with us -- it was tons of fun and felt like a giant pyjama party! And they were the best houseguests ever. In fact, I came out of the weekend with a net food gain. Couldn't get better than that.
Friday we made our way to the Market area of Ottawa for some Mexican food -- ole! Then the old folks (Kathryn L., Kelly and I) made our tired way home while the young 'uns stayed out to play.
Saturday was lovely with sunshine and warmth. After various errands were run, we made our way to the 10K finish line to cheer in the Penguins on the course. Well done, all of you!
Then to dinner at Carmello's for some yummy Italian food and carbo loading (I've never met a carbohydrate I didn't like!). Home a bit on the late side, but with a half marathon starting at 10h30, we still got a bit of a lie in. How civilized is that?
The weather held for the most part, the rain coming after about the 2:30 mark into the half. At least there was a nice breeze and with cloud cover the running conditions were close to ideal.
My run went great with a chip time of 2:12:59.5, not my personal best, but pretty close. Thanks, Kelly, Kathryn L., Glenn, Myra, Tash and family and everyone else who cheered us all through the race!!
Then once everyone was safely across the finish line, we went to Carlene's for a barbie and met some VERY interesting people, including a multiple Ironman and a woman who had just come from a Mount Everest expedition. Carlene, THANK-YOU, THANK-YOU, THANK-YOU for entertaining the hordes at your house yesterday. It was lovely meeting your hubby. And thanks, too, for lending me your kit.
I had a great weekend, and you are all most welcome to Ottawa any time!
Mau in Ottawa
Race report from Tracy C...
Date: Mon May 12, 2003
Subject: bonking 101todays lesson is how to bonk in style, which i think i did beautifully.
first however great big thanks to Mau. Tony and The rabbit for taking us lot in, its a scary job you guys did really well.
second screamers..you so rock! thanks tash for the time with me on the course, and kelly, kathryn and myra for "bring me home" ringing bells, cheering and riding along with me..(and again Mau who decided to run a bit more that day)
lastly, Carlene for taking everybody in and feeding us and giving everyone the chance to visit a bit longer and share stories.
now me...
started out with kathryn s doing 7.10/ km in 6 / 1's which as we know is not a my pudding pace but i was loving every minute of it... we even managed to pass the 2.30 pace bunny twice...but about 6 or so km into the race i realized this was not going to keep up for the next 15km and told kathryn to go on (she was looking so fresh!)..and she didwell at about 8 i lost the bunny when i stopped for water and went to 5/1
10 had to pee..4.30/1.30
12 ...walking more then running
14 walking
18 walking and getting rained on
19.5 man i'm walking with tells me hes so happy to have found me cause i'm upbeat and motivational...see i am upbeat (sidebar he waited at the end to see me finish and gave me a big hug)
21.1 finish, skipping and yelling MOO, Haaa, Haa, Ha
results 2.55.33 (so not my worst time even if i did walk over 7 kms)
552 / 561 age category
4660 out of 4727 overalli did howver maintain excellent spirits and kept up a good pace, i cheered passing people, joked with a few who were having a tough time of it, high fived mounties, cheered the crowds and generally had the great time
stiff and sore today but so much wiser, (have to train a bit better, not twice a week, getting sick and not running for two weeks bad, no starting off that fast (at least for now), plus a million of other things...still happy as a clam
moo haaa haa ha
tracy
Race report from Richard...
Date: Mon May 12, 2003
Subject: Ottawa - May 10-11Hi folks,
We just got back from Ottawa and first of all want to thank you all for your company. Special thanks to Mau and Carlene. We all had a great time.
After saying several times last year that I wanted to run a half I finally got my act together this time. After all the great and inspiring Penguin running stories in the fall I decided that I needed a goal. Once I had a goal and a training schedule I was ready for take-off. I have to admit that I think that I trained wisely. There were some aches and pains in the process but I took the necessary breaks. I had even put some extra weeks in the program, just in case...
The easiest part became the toughest part: tapering. I had two soccer games on Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday's game was great. Normally the first games of the season kill me but I felt good. The next day I did feel tired and decided to pass the game on Thursday. But there weren't enough players and I am one of the organisers so I decided to play. It is a team sport and you don't want to let the team down. 10 minutes before the end I took myself of the field since my hamstring was really bothering me (small pull). Iced it but still felt something on Friday and Saturday. Luckily a lot less on Saturday but boy I was very worried. 'Screwed up in the last days, Richard' went through my mind during the drive to Ottawa. Anyway, everything was well on Sunday and didn't feel anything during or after the race.
Another small problem was that we walked quite a lot on Saturday. Catherine had never walked around Parliament Hill so we did that. Plus some walking around at the tulips festival (and to find washroom all over downtown because of all the water...). We wanted to watched the 10K race but were so tired that we opted for a nap before the pasta dinner. I know it's not the best preparation for a race but sometimes it's not important in what time you finish a race. I might have been faster on Sunday but would it be worth it? It's also important to have fun, right? I felt it in my calves on Sunday though ;-)
Anyway, the race went fine. My training indicated a time in the 2:00 and 2:10 range but after all the hurdles in the last days I didn't know what to expect so I had went for 5K in 30 minutes (easy numbers to keep track on my watch :) and I would see how everything would go. Felt great around 9K and dreamt about maybe breaking the 2:00 mark but around 14K I knew it would be difficult. So I decided to run steadily to the finish line although I have to admit that it was tougher than this may sound (how did I ever do a marathon?). My chip time was 2:02:51 and I believe that my second half was 1 minute slower than the first half. Quite happy about the time but I was just happy to get to the start line.
Congrats to everybody who ran last weekend. Special congrats to Una. I was thinking of you when I passed the 18K mark and could not imagine how tough it must have been when you passed this marking knowing that you had to do another loop. I was happy to hear that you did a great job.
Lastly, the 'feel good moment of the weekend' was the finish of the 2K race. All the those kids proud running to the finish line with their proud parents next to them. That's what it's all about.
Greetings to you all,
Richard
Race report from Dave L...
Date: Tue May 13, 2003
Subject: Ottawa Half ReportAfter a great pasta dinner on Saturday night with Lorne and Gail, I drifted off to sleep and was dreaming I was running a race with a convoluted course and got lost. So in the dream I checked the course map and found that I couldn't follow the map. Then I woke up before I solved the problem of being lost out on the course.
So after I was dressed, I got the Ottawa course map and put it in the pocket of my shorts. It was a good thing that I didn't get lost on this race because the map I had would not have been much help on the out and back and roundabout portions of the course.
The race started at 10:30 which was a little weird. The weather was just about perfect: cloudy and 12C. The projected high was 18C. There was some wind but it was pleasant. About 4500 people finshed the half marathon. The rain was threatening but stayed away until the last 10 minutes of my race.
I decided to aim for 2:30 and finished in 2:30:28 so I was happy with that. I had run a half before in 1998 in 2:10 but I was not in any shape to achieve that now. Carlene told me that Geoff Carman was going to be the pace bunny for the 2:30 pace group and that sold me on choosing that pace.
Brenda decided to run with Carlene and try for a 2:15 finish.
For two weeks before the race I had some achilles tendonitis in my right leg and a tight calf muscle. I had concerns that if I tried too hard I would end up with a ruptured achilles tendon, but strangely enough the run seemed to make the symptoms go away.
Geoff was great company and did an excellent job as the pace bunny. Twice on the course Lorne and Gail were there to cheer us on. At one of the bridges there were the Toronto penguins with their banner.
It was a really scenic course. At one point three female runners jumped off the road and posed for photographs with Hogs Back falls in the background. At Dow's Lake there were tulips but a lot of them hadn't bloomed yet.
Geoff seemed to know all kinds of people both on and off the course. At one point he ran off the course to where some musicians with classical guitars were sitting. He told them to start playing music and they obliged. There were belly dancers to entertain at the first mile. Why weren't they at the last mile?
In the last three miles I started to fade. My right leg was seizing up on me and my right foot was striking the pavement inappropriately. But there wasn't far to go, and I just stuck with the others and kept up the pace.
Unfortunately, you couldn't see the finish line until you were almost there so it was tough to pick up the pace at the end.
The full marathon started at 8 am and the half at 10:30. It was a double loop course. So the full racers finishing in 5 hrs were mixed in with the half racers who were finishing in 2:30. Geoff and I tried to offer some real encouragement to the full marathoners who were dead on their feet and needed some inspiration. It was a good thing that runners don't carry guns, we might have gotten shot.
So there was the finish line, I got my medal and started to get wet from the rain. I was looking for Brenda who finished in 2:20 and had the baggage claim ticket for our bag. We connected about 5 minutes later, I put my rain jacket on and headed back to the hotel.
After cleaning up we went out to Kanata to Carlene's place where they put out a wonderful feast.
After a long 7 hour drive back to London, my leg is feeling sore and needs a lot of stretching.
I did train for this race but didn't train well. I don't know how I ran a full marathon last October. The 13.1 miles seemed to be all I could do. There was no way that I could have survived another loop of the Ottawa course.
So that's my report. Thanks to Lorne, Gail, Carlene, Geoff and the Toronto penguins who made this experience so enjoyable.
Dave Lipson
London, Ontario
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