We arrived in Victoria on Saturday afternoon to sunshine. We couldn’t have asked for better weather! We picked up our race packages and then went for some food before walking around downtown Victoria. The last time I was in Victoria was probably a good 10 years ago so it was great to be back and remember what a beautiful city it is!

Jonathan, me and Bob at the waterfront

We then went for a good pasta meal before heading back to our hotels. We all wanted a nice early night and a good sleep before the marathon. I had the early night but didn’t have the sleep. I was still suffering from jet lag and literally could not fall alseep. I took some melatonin but it did nothing. I finally took a sleeping pill but that did nothing. I think I might have gotten 2 hours of sleep if that. I didn’t feel horrible in the morning though. I think I was too excited about the race to notice how tired I was.

Scott, me, Jonathan and Bob pre-race

We got to the start line with about half an hour to spare. I couldn’t believe that I was once again doing a marathon. All of that training, it came down to this moment.

 At the start line

And off we went! Jonathan and I were running together as Bob and Scott are way faster and Bob was trying to qualify again for Boston. We started with a nice easy pace and had a great first half but then it started to go down hill for me.

All smiles. Clearly at the beginning of the marathon.

Again, the smiling faces! I was really enjoying myself at the beginning.

By the time we got to 28km my body had started to totally shut down. I could barely move my legs. We had to walk some and we slowed down a ton. So much for our sub 4:15 race. Jonathan was great and stayed with me even though I told him to go ahead and told him he was pissing me off for staying with me. We argued for about 10km about how he wouldn’t leave. It was pretty funny actually. I am sure I looked like hell around this time. The look of pain on my face. But every time we saw a race photographer, we would say “camera” and we had the big smiles. No way was I going to be caught with a horrible grimace on my face.

We saw Susan (our race  & team cheerleader) at about 38km and we knew we were SO close. At this point, I could barely put one leg in front of the other and we were about 30 min behind our goal time. As we got closer and closer we started to move a little faster and faster and by the time we saw the finish line we were sprinting. We just wanted this race done. Jonathan and I finished at the same time….just over 4 hours and 40 min. Finishing a marathon always brings me to tears because I got through it and had friends cheering me on.

Bob did qualify for Boston with a time of 3:13 and Scott qualified too with a time of 3:28. Scott ran that fast after already running the course the day before. He is training for the Hainey to Harrison 100km race. So yes he did 2 marathons in 2 days. They are both total rock stars to me!

Although I was really disappointed with my time, I have been reminded by a lot of people that it is a huge accomplishment no matter what the time. I have to remember that. I put a lot of pressure on myself and I think that probably affected me some. If I do another marathon (I have to forget about this one first), I am going to do it just to enjoy it and forget about the time. Just run for the love of running.