Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon Race Report

Toronto Waterfront Marathon - 11th place in 2:25:46

I said last week that one of the key elements of a good marathon was 'not running like an arse on the day'. Unfortunately I didn't quite take my own advice on board!

The build up as many readers will know went absolutely perfectly, I almost couldn't believe my luck. I arrived on the start line in the shape of my life ready to do some serious damage to the PB. My main concerns ahead of the race had been the forecast 15mph winds which would likely slow me down a touch. As it happened whilst it was a little breezy the wind wasn't really ever a problem. As we were ferried to the start along with the other elite athletes I was chatting to two-time Olympian Krista DuChene who informed me that the humidity would be the big worry and not the wind. It was already 19 degrees at 7:00am and 90% humidity. I wasn't too concerned given all the Heat Acclimation running I had done and didn't think it would effect the outcome time wise too much given the adaptation I had developed. How wrong was I?!?!?

As the hooter went, we were quickly into our stride and I was running in a group alongside England teammates Kevin Rojas, Steve Bayton and Kojo Kyereme. The pace felt quite quick from the start but I knew it was a slight rise for the first couple of kilometres so didn't think too much of it, but what I did notice was that my heart rate was getting to a high level already. The first 5k split my heart rate averaged what I would expect to see as an average for the whole race. I should have taken stock at this stage and realised that I needed to slow down quite a bit to ensure I had a comfortable race. As anyone that has run a marathon and blown up badly will know even if you are going fractionally too quick, the pace still feels OK and it's not like you're busting a lung. So I kept with it. I hoped that things would settle down and it would start to feel easier. It didn't, I felt sluggish, like there was no upper gear and it just gradually got harder until at 20k I started to slow substantially. As a result this meant my heart rate then dipped as I couldn't sustain the pace because of the fatigue in my legs. It was almost as if my Central Nervous System was shutting down and preventing me from running as hard as I wanted. I have subsequently read that humidity can induce fatigue as a defence mechanism to prevent the body from overheating. Goodness knows how slowly I'd have run if I hadn't done all the HA training! Despite all this I didn't feel particularly thirsty at all during the race so that was one element of the HA that definitely worked.


From here, it was just about getting my head down and working as hard as I could to get to the finish in a respectable effort as possible, focusing on trying to pick other runners off in the second half. I thought of all the hard training runs, the sacrifices my family have made to support me in my endeavours, the time Mike Baxter has spent coaching me and how much everyone back home would be cheering me on. This helped me all the way and curb the thoughts of throwing in the towel (I could have done with a towel given how much sweat was saturating my skin, unfortunately given the humidity there was nowhere for it to evaporate!) when it would have been so easy to do so.


At half way I was in 24th and by the finish I was 11th showing how badly the field was decimated by the conditions. Teammates Kevin and Kojo finished in 9th and 10th respectively with Steve Bayton and Carl Ryde valiantly completing the race despite serious issues along the way. To put this all into perspective, there were only two Canadians (one of which was Rio Olympics 10th placer Eric Gillis)ahead of the first England trio and given it was the Canadian National Champs means that we acquitted ourselves well in a high quality field.The strange thing was although I don't feel I could have gone any quicker given how I raced it, I still felt like I could have kept running for quite some distance. That said I was more than happy to stop running when crossing the line!

Photo Credit: Andrew Paterson - Head down with 5k to go.

 

One other aspect that could have affected the outcome was the impact of jetlag. I felt very lightheaded the day before the race and indeed never felt completely fresh in the days following our arrival as well as struggling to get any significant sleep. It is hard to quantify what kind of an impact this could have had on the performance but it is likely to have played a part, even if quite small.

Full stream of the race - I make an appearance when the ladies race winner overtakes me at 40k (around 3hours 3 mins into the video)

The Experience
It would be remiss of me to not discuss some of the other aspects of the experience of racing in Toronto. I was incredibly lucky to get the call up to run for England in this event and am incredibly grateful for the opportunity. The race was arranged as a development event with two main purposes. Firstly rewarding achievement (i.e. how folks had done at the EA marathon champs at London this year or other recent results) and secondly to give the athletes experience of a championship style race and all that goes with it with a view to them possibly going on to compete at major games in the future. Experiencing the travel, staying in the same hotel as all elites, eating together, press conferences, elite athlete briefings, etc.) was just brilliant and I take my hat off to the organisation of the race as well as England Athletics. All things considered it was a great success and I have come away from it with so much more knowledge than I had before. I somewhat naively thought I knew everything there is to know about marathon racing and prep but once more was humbled by the magnificence of the distance. Kevn, Kojo, Steven, Carl and I were joined on the trip by Charlotte Fisher (Team Manager) and RobMcKim (Team Coach) who provided valuable insight and guidance throughout as well as having an incredibly positive post-race debrief where we picked away at what went right and what went wrong. I had such an incredible time on the trip and am so happy I got to meet all involved. It was a sheer privilege. It is also clear that England Athletics are keen to really develop marathoning in the UK and with people like Charlotte and Rob involved I am very excited about mine and my fellow athletes prospects.


What was I worth on the day?
Having now had time to reflect on the race, I don't think I was ever worth quicker than a 2:23 on the day with more sensible pacing given the conditions and course (which I suspect is around 90s slower than Berlin). So to come in with a 2:25:46 is still OK and bearing in mind the humidity could have made 3-4 minutes difference, I was almost certainly in something around 2:18 shape! That may sound like wishful thinking but it seems to make sense to me given the quality of training I had done in the build up.

What will I do differently next time?
Not a lot to be honest, I am very happy with how my build up went and the blend of different types of training which got me to the start feeling primed and ready. I will almost certainly have a near identical build up next time. I do think however I will review my carb loading strategy. I will certainly deplete again but have a more moderate diet in the two-three days before the race with much less carbohydrate than I did prior to this race. I don't think I need as much as the recommended 10-12g per kg b/w per day during the load phase given I do the vast majority of my training fasted and so am quite well adapted to burning fat as fuel.

What next?
I am taking the next couple of weeks easy before getting back into proper training with a couple of 10 mile races planned, including the Northern Champs at Stockport in December. I'll then have a pop at a 10k PB at the Ribble Valley around Christmas before moving my focus to the Cross Country. Marathonwise for 2017 I am currently tossing up Manchester and London. I would quite like to do Manchester and treat it as a race rather than a PB attempt, but I am being drawn back to London given it is the EA champs and I am keen to support that. Hopefully in the not too distant future EA may consider moving the champs to another race, such as Manchester or Yorkshire - two quick and well organised races.