Victoria Marathon Race Review

Sunday, October 12, 2008 - the 29th running of the Victoria Marathon.  My 3rd running of the Victoria Marathon.  Along with the marathon, there was also a 8K and half marathon events taking place.  The marathon started promptly at 8:30.  And prompt it was, I know because I was still sitting on the porta potty.  That was a first for me.  The lineup for the porta potty just didn’t go quick enough even through the encouragement of the fellow marathoner standing in front of me as he called out to those in the porta potty to “pick up the pace”.  It didn’t matter too much, as by the time I got out, scuttled across the racers (as they were moving forward) to meet my husband on the other side and run through the starting gates, only 1 minute and 40 seconds had lapsed.  Because we were using timing chips, it was all irrelavent.

Other than the shaky start - the race day itself was beautiful.  I had heard that there were 10,000 racers out that morning.  We were treated with sunny, clear weather and phenominal views!  The race course itself winds, twists and undulates and was much more challenging than I had remembered it being in 1997.  Runners run through downtown Victoria and Beacon Hill Park before hitting the coastline and smelling the salt water and feasting their eyes on stunning water views.

Personally, my race was great.  I was pumped and in a very positive frame of mind.  After the half-way mark, I was still feeling great, so I just kept my pace up.  I passed runners who were starting to fade and I have to admit that it felt great and fuelled my fire even more.  My goal for this race was to beat my Vancouver Marathon time earlier in the year (4:24), I didn’t care how much I took off, but I knew that I had trained more for Victoria and had the distance under me.  You can only imagine how proud I felt when I came through the finish line at 4:04 - a whole 20 minutes off my Vancouver time.  Next year my Boston Marathon qualifying time is 4:05 - I now think that I can do it!

Interview with Simon Whitfield

I raced in the Royal Victoria Marathon this past weekend (race review to follow).  While we were browsing at the Marathon Expo, we were so lucky to be there in time for an organized interview between famed announcer Steven King and our very own Canadian Olympic Champion - Simon Whitfield.  During Simon’s introduction, he was decribed as having the biggest heart in Canada.

Simon talked about his family, his training for the olympics and his training.  It was a fabulous interview with Simon’s light and entertaining personality.  It was very obvious how much value he places his family life - his wife, Jenny and young daughter, PK.  When heading to Beijing this year for the Olympics, they arrived in Beijing only six days before.  Other athletes and coaches thought they were crazy, but he said that you couldn’t beat being at home playing with your family only one week before the Olympics.

After winning the GOLD in triathlon in Sydney Australia in the 2000 Olympics, he went into the 2004 Olympics in Athens with pressure on his shoulders to defend that championship.  He said that he didn’t concentrate on the process to get there, but only finishing first and defending his Championship.  This put him in a totally different frame of mind that didn’t work to his benefit.  He went back the “process” for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and took SILVER. 

He spoke about training and strategies and how it is so easy to get into “analyses paralysis” by analyzing your training to death, which is something that he no longer does.  This has helped him a great deal, especially in his swimming.  Simon and his coach concentrate on process and what process is needed to come to the end result.  My daughter is a competitve swimmer and after the interview she asked Simon, what advice he would give on making it to the Olympics.  He told her to write down her goal and work backwards by writing down the stages needed to reach that goal.  Keep a journal.

They were critizised at the Beijing Olympics for bringing there own cook, but Simon believes strongly how much it helped his race to keep everything as close to home as possible.  Dealing with 35 degree temperatures on the day of his race, he also never warmed up, saying that it took alot of patience on his part (something that he admits to not being good at) to stay put and keep his body temperature down.  Saying that once your core temperature starts to heat up, you can not get it back down (until after your race of course).

After the interview, he stayed around for folks to come up and get pictures taken with his - with his Gold and Silver Olympic medals and also answered questions.  I will be posting our picture as soon as I get it.  Simon Whitfield was a complete joy to listen to.  I am so proud that he is a Canadian!

Next Page »