Packed up and ready to go!

Well I'm  packing up all my gear and heading to Abbotsford this morning. To be honest, packing for a marathon is one hell of a lot easier than packing for a triathlon.  Shoes? Check!  Go!

OK, really, I'm a bit more anal than that, but there's still a lot less gear. As always, I'm totally undecided on what to wear tomorrow, despite having kept careful records of the temperature and what I wore on every run since December. Trouble is - I have a very narrow range of 'comfortable' and I don't want to be stuck with too little, or too much, clothing.

The forecast for tomorrow is great - mostly sunny, with an overnight low of 12C (54F), and a high of 19C (64F) although it likely won't hit that high before I'm done.  The part I can't decide is whether to wear my Sugoi Versa vest (with pockets) or a t-shirt and my Nathan fuel vest. Both are tested, both work well, both are very comfortable. But if I get too warm, the t-shirt is easier to shed (I'll toss it to Erik at some point).  If I shed my vest, I'm left with no pockets.  So - I'm thinking I'll go with the t-shirt (over my tank top) and the Nathan vest now that I know it's going to be warmer.


I've decided to do the early (6am) start for anyone who thinks they will run longer than 5 hours. I figure if I am able to run under 5 hours (not really likely given my back issues this past 2 weeks), then it will be nice to be in before noon.  Plus if I'm slower, I won't be alone.  There are about 20 people doing the early start, and only about 200 people doing the marathon, so it'll be funny running with such a small group. I imagine I'll be alone for much of the race, with faster runners eventually catching and passing me, but I'm ok with that. :)

As for water and fuel, I have 6 Hammer gels mixed with water in two gel flasks (2 chocolate and 1 espresso in each bottle) and I'll grab one Gu at the race site to keep in my pocket. I have 4 Nuun tablets for my hand held water bottle which I will refill about every 12km or so. Other than that, I'm good to go!

The course is more or less flat but the first 4 km is a gradual downhill (1-3% grade) and the race ends with that same 5km uphill. Obviously, that will be the toughest part. I've mentally divided the race into a 5km, three 10k's, and a 5k.  Because the first 5k is downhill and I'll be feeling good, I'm planning to run it straight through and at a decent pace (about 6:15/km) and then take my first one minute walk break at the 5k mark.  I hope to do 14/1 run walk for next flat 32 km with a goal to average from 6:40-7:05/km depending on how I feel. That means I need to try to run 6:27-6:55/km plus the walk breaks.  The last 5km is anyone's guess. I am HOPING I'll be able to run enough to average about a 40 minute 5k but who knows, I'm prepared to talk the entire last 5k if needed. We'll see. :)

At any rate, this is only a plan, based on a best case scenario.  I suspect I likely won't be able to follow it, but I need to have some kind of plan to keep my brain focussed. But this is one race that no matter HOW I do, I'll just be happy to finish.

I signed up for race tracking on facebook so it's supposed to auto-post updates. I have no idea if it posts splits, or just the final time though, we'll see.  I'll have my phone so I may tweet a couple times when I'm walking (can't resist ;)

Thank you for all of your support over the past 6 months - especially Gordon Harvey who has given me tons of info and help over the past 6 months - I will feel your good vibes when I'm out on the course tomorrow. Watch for the mini-race report tomorrow night, and a full report when I get home!