Weather was perfect for running the Victoria Marathon and there were 11 records set in the event. Unfortunately, my time wasn’t one of them! It was my fastest marathon this year but still pretty slow. I made a rookie mistake of not hydrating properly in advance. That wouldn’t have been big problem if I wasn’t pushing to try to do a 3:45 on tired legs (two weeks to recover from tough run in Bellingham wasn’t enough). Things were going well and I was ahead of my target pace until I started down the big hill after the Oak Bay Golf Course at about 19km. At that point I had a very painful cramp in my right adductor muscle. After a couple of tylenol and walking it out I was able to run again, but whenever I tried to pick up the pace the muscle would start to cramp again so I had to settle for plodding along for the rest of the marathon. Its a long way to go when you start hurting before the half way point.
Disappointing, but I did manage to finish my 132nd marathon in 3:51. I was also there to share Janet Green’s champagne for finishing her 250th marathon. Congratulations Janet! I was also less disappointed than I would have been normally because this year I was approaching Victoria as my last “training” event before leaving for India and Nepal. The Everest Marathon challenge is looming large on the horizon and I am really fixated on raising funds for Nepal and eventually running Everest.
On the fund raising front I just sent over $2500.00 to Nepal School Projects which is all the money I have raised thus far. I hope to continue fund raising after we return from Nepal. Hopefully I’ll be able to speak first hand about the way the funds are being used and will be able to encourage more people to open their hearts and wallets to support Nepal.
Running for Nepal 