November 7, 2021
There are not many marathons that I have felt the urge to go back and run a second time. Once I’ve climbed a hill, I’m usually looking ahead for the next one.
But the Blue Nose Marathon was a different story for me. I ran it for the first time in 2017, and loved it. For that reason alone, I might have been up for doing it again, but there was more to it than that. In 2017, I felt like I had a good race, and was super pleased with my result. But I later discovered that I had made a critical error on course that resulted in a disqualification.
I have told this story before and will not rehash it now, but, if you’re interested in the gory details, feel free to read all about it here.
For four years now, that race has hung around, living rent-free in my head, and I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to rid myself of the ghost. When the pandemic caused organizers to postpone last year’s Blue Nose to the fall, I considered running it then, but that event ended up being virtual-only, and I had already decided to do the Coal Run in October instead.
When this year’s Blue Nose was once again scheduled for fall, I knew it was time. It was in November, which would give me plenty of time for a full training program after the Nova Scotia Marathon in Barrington in July.
The Barrington race went well. My finish time had stayed around the 3:30 mark, which I was beginning to accept as the standard for me. Even though the Blue Nose would be my third marathon this year – a first for me – I felt like my body was up for it.
Once again enlisting Greg Wieczorek’s help putting together a training program, I worked hard throughout late summer and early fall, logged plenty of kilometres, and had no injuries. I wasn’t feeling fast, but nor was I hampered by problems with my knee or my Achilles like I had been in preparation for Barrington.
Unlike my previous few marathons, I threw in a tester race this time, deciding to run the half at the Valley Harvest Marathon on Thanksgiving weekend. I hadn’t raced a half in almost two years, so had no idea what to expect, and I was pleasantly surprised to run a new PB of 1:33:42, beating my previous best from 2015 by more than a minute.
Valley gave me a nice boost as I headed for my Blue Nose taper, although I started to feel a bit tired. We have had a beautiful fall weather-wise this year, but the mornings did start to cool a bit, and, as they did, my knees began to ache. I had never trained for a full this late in the year before, and my body seemed to be telling me it was time to ease back a bit.
So, I went into Blue Nose with my mind telling me to keep rolling after the Valley PB, and my legs telling me to Netflix and chill.
Just like in 2017, I stayed with my Aunt Nita and Uncle Wayne in Bedford for the night prior to the race, after picking up my race kit at Grand Parade. It was hands down the best swag bag I’ve ever had at any race, including a shirt, toque, gloves, buff, and other goodies, even an armband phone carrier. In a time when we are paying so much to register for a race, hats off to the organizers for giving us a little something back.
I had a great night’s sleep (the extra hour due to the time change was a welcome bonus with the November date) and was up and ready to go. I was able to park within a couple blocks of the start line with zero issues.
I had struggled a bit with deciding what to wear for this one, but, after careful checks on the weather forecast, decided to go with my shorts and tank top. Although I had to scrape frost off my car that morning, the temperature at the 8 a.m. start time was slightly above zero, and I was never cold once I started moving.
Unlike the previous time I ran the Blue Nose, the full marathoners and half marathoners started together this time, so it was much more crowded as we lined up at the start line. Signs were held in the crowd to try and separate us by expected finish times, and I made my way to the 3:30 marathon area, which seemed pretty far back.
When the gun went off, I was hoping the crowd would spread out a bit, but it stayed quite congested for a while. It seemed like it was mostly half marathoners around me. Although I had planned to start with a 5:00 pace for the first 4-5 kms, I found myself with little choice other than to move with the flow. If I would see an empty pocket of space up ahead, I would try and scoot forward and get there. I like to have a little elbow room when I run.
The result of moving with the flow and trying to find extra space was that I was not paying as much attention to my pace as I should have been. Sometimes in races I will see a familiar runner nearby that I can match my pace to, but not this time. The sun was also in our eyes for much of the early part of the race, adding to my feeling of disorientation.
Long story short, I committed the oldest marathon mistake in the book and started out too fast. My pace in my first 5 kms was 4:45, 4:49, 4:47, 4:54, 4:35.
Watching these splits come up on my watch, I knew I was likely in for trouble later on, but damn it I was still enjoying myself. It was a beautiful morning in Halifax, and the excitement with Blue Nose is hard to beat around here. There are so many supporters cheering your name along the streets, and it’s impossible not to feed on that energy.
The course was almost the same as the one I ran in 2017. Once again, the race would be basically two loops of the half marathon route, i.e. no Dartmouth section. I guess I’m just not meant to run across that bridge.
That being said, there were some slight variations with this route from the one I ran previously. Most notably, instead of running along Valour Way and working our way to Hollis Street from there, we hit a section of paved trail before making a short but vicious climb up Cornwallis Street, and then passed near the finish area, making our way down the steep Duke Street hill and then proceeding onto Hollis.
None of this was a problem on the first loop, of course, when I was still full of vinegar. The Point Pleasant Park section slowed me down a bit, but I was still feeling great. Halifax is hilly but I love it.
On one hill, someone had music blasting. On the first loop, I heard “Eye of the Tiger,” and I was immediately Mr. T. training for his first fight with Rocky. On the second loop, I was “Sexy and I Know It.” Then the music switched to “Enter Sandman,” and that intro had me seriously pumped up, air drumming as I made my way up the hill. I truly was enjoying myself with this one.
That feeling carried over to that 20-30K section, where I was still feeling pretty strong. Mentally, I treated the second half as a separate half marathon race, and pretended I was back at Valley. Looking back, it was probably my second mistake of the day, because I think I went a little too hard between 20-30. I’m blaming that on Metallica.
Remember that run down Duke Street? And how much I love Halifax and its hills? My knees were not loving it so much. They were screaming at me as I gingerly made my way down that hill the second time around. One woman who I had just passed looked light as a feather as she skipped by me going down this hill.
When I made my way through Point Pleasant for the second time, the wheels started to come off the wagon. I slowed down going up the Serpentine, and afterward was not able to recover the pace I had prior to entering the park. My fast start had come back for its revenge.
The Wall was here, and I bit down and chewed through it as best as I could. In spite of my effort, the last 7K were slow.
I crossed the finish line at 3:29:29, with my Garmin reading 42.2K, leaving no doubt about the distance for this one. It was my fastest marathon of the year, and my fastest since Resurgo in 2019. I would have liked to have been faster, but at least I ran the full distance this time. The ghost of 2017 can stop pestering me now.
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