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. 

Tamarack Ottawa 2023 - Training Update

I'll be in Ottawa in just under a month to run the Tamarack Ottawa Marathon and thought the time was right to write a small update about how training is going and what's on my mind.

Injuries are real and not to be trifled with, but they are definitely preventable

I started running regularly in 2009. Back then, my idea of running was something along the lines of 5km down Marine Drive. But the regular exercise did help be build what I think is a reasonable baseline of fitness that hasn't left me. That being said, progressing to half- and full marathons years later has been a very different ball game. This became especially apparent in January this year when I developed a stinging ankle pain that benched me for two and a half months and forced me to visit a physiotherapist. A lesson I learned here that surprised me was that the muscles in my right leg were weaker than those in my left. I needed to dedicate time to strengthen it and stretch it out. A noob lesson, but an important one to learn. How to tackle this is a matter I'm thinking carefully about for future races. At this point, I'm feeling decent about the race but not great. I think I'll be able to finish, but I anticipate difficulties that will test me more than my prior races.

Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition

The first time I ever ate an energy gel was during the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2022. The fact that I made it through an entire summer training for the thing without ever eating a gel continues to surprise me. The fact that I trained for and ran marathons, halfs, and ultras in Bombay, Ladakh, and Ooty without ever eating a gel surprises me even more. I recall all of those races being pretty challenging, and I wonder if I'd have had an easier time of them had I paid closer attention to nutrition. Nutrition continues to be a challenge for me, not just while actually running, but also in the periods in between races. 

Learning about myself

I used to aspire to becoming an ultramarathoner. I was inspired by the likes of Scott Jurek and Rich Roll, and my races in Ladakh and Ooty (not to mention cross country in the latter in high school) made me develop a link in my mind between long-distance running and beautiful places. The idea of spending hours and possibly days running in the Himalayas was almost romantic. While I still want to run ultras at some point, I'm becoming increasingly convinced that marathons and road races will be my area of focus for the next 5 years or so. This is because I've realised that:

1. Marathons are high-energy affairs, and I enjoy that immensely. The crowds, the fanfare, the medals, the enthusiasm. I've never done a big ultra, but it's hard to imagine comparable environments until you get to the big leagues like the UTMB.

2. There is a strong community around marathons that I am enjoying thus far. Marathon training often seems to happen in the company of friends (at least where I live now), while ultras sound lonelier. Maybe I haven't found the ultra crew in Toronto yet (not that I've spent time searching)

3. Training well for marathons fits me better at this point in my life than training well for ultras. As I prepare for Ottawa, I'm balancing running with other physical health. I'm seriously trying to build upper body and core strength at a gym, and I'm in the midst of navigating a career in a field that is ever changing and ever uncertain. I also need to sort out other dimensions of myself - mental and emotional well-being, personal aspirations and goals, sleep, building a new life in a new country, and more. I don't have time to train well for an ultra, but I think I can manage to train well for a marathon.

Excited for what Ottawa will bring, and I can't wait to see the city! I'll be running in race team uniform this time round, so if you belong to a certain Toronto-based running club and see me sporting the colours in the capital, be sure to say hi!