Ottawa Marathon 2023, OR: How I learned that race planning is critical

I ran the 2023 Ottawa Marathon in 03:47 and change. That's 50 seconds faster than what I managed at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon last Fall. My friends tell me that adjusting for the heat, that’d be 5 minutes or so better than my previous PB. Given that I injured myself and only got 8 weeks of proper training in, I’ll take it. 

A couple lessons:

1. Race strategy is essential - I ran at least 0.6km more than I needed to, which probably added 3 or so minutes to my overall time. Do I run tangents to all the road curves? Do I maintain a certain position on the road? 

2. Hills - there weren’t any major hills that I can remember, but there were several small ones all along the course. My strategy was to use more power at each hill because I fear losing momentum more than anything else. Lost momentum means I’ll have to play catch up on my pace. I’d rather use energy to maintain pace than potentially save a little when the hills hit. Is this the right way to do things?

3. Nutrition and hydration: oh man. I continue to learn how much of an idiot I’ve been during ALL my previous races. Mumbai? No gels. Ladakh? No gels. Ooty? No. Gels. Toronto 2022? Three gels. I went into Ottawa race week fully intending to manage with 5 gels, starting at 21km and proceeding at 5km intervals thereafter. Laughable. I got some advice to start at km 7 and proceed at 7 km intervals after, which I decided to follow religiously (and enabled by buying a metric fuckton of gels that week for good measure). Unlike other regrettable races from my shady past, I started the water and electrolyte intake at the first station seeing as the race conditions were reminiscent of a desert in the summertime. A wise choice. 

4. Friends - BlackToe running is awesome. Having your teammates cheer you in the final few kms is energizing in a way I can’t easily describe. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that they made the difference to me completing the race at least a couple of minutes faster. 

5. Strength training - a lesson I should have learned ages ago but continue to ignore. That’s where my injury came from, but I was lucky to recover just in time thanks to physiotherapy and a month and a half of gym. I will not repeat this error ever again. Welcome to actual race training. 

Okay then! Onwards to the next race and the BT cheer squad. It’s going to be epic.