Victoria Running Report

In the words of Perry White, editor of the Daily Planet, a good photographer eats, drinks, and sleeps with his camera. They are never separated! Which, folks, is why I am not a good photographer, and it is why I have no real race-day photographs of October 11's Royal Victoria Marathon. I just never remember the camera! (The photo, incidentally, is of Ali and me at the ferry dock near Vancouver on our way to the marathon. We're so bad, we didn't even take any shots on the ferry!)

The marathon was the culmination of a summer of training. I can't speak for Ali, but it was the most focused marathon training I have ever done. I have always thought it would be nice to qualify for Boston even though I didn't really think it was a particularly realistic goal. But in my last marathon, I missed the qualifying time by 2 minutes. So I thought about what I could do to cut 2 minutes off my time. The answer: focus on pace. I trained just 3 days per week this summer: a long day, a tempo day, and a speed day. Alison ran with me every time, and, I'll say that without her, I definitely would have blown off some of the speed days at the Burlington High School track when it was 85 degrees. Also, she always ran with Oscar on the tempo days when I needed to run at a consistent pace. In short, I just couldn't have done it without her.

Ali also set the Boston qualifying time as her goal -- pretty ambitious, since it meant cutting 8 minutes off her personal best time. In the end, she just missed, but she ran her fastest marathon ever (her 5th PR in a row) by over 5 minutes -- nearly 40 minutes faster than her first marathon 7 years ago. I have a fast wife!

Victoria was billed as a flat course. I' wouldn't call it "hilly," but it was way more rolling than I expected. The course was beautiful -- 12 or so miles went along the Pacific with views of Washington's Mount Baker and the Olympic Mountains -- but it was crowded. A half-marathon and all marathoners who planned to run in over 5 hours went ahead of the rest of the marathoners. I found I had to constantly weave through people. Alison had trouble negotiating the water stops. Otherwise, it was a beautiful day. My race day strategy was to go out fast to build a cushion. I did this and, with 7 miles to go, realized that all I had to do to qualify was run 8-minute miles the rest of the way. Which I did, and I came in 3 minutes under my goal. I'm a little annoyed with myself now for not continuing at the fast pace I started with; but try to explain that to someone at mile 19 when the goal he set for the day is in reach by coasting. Oh well. I'll try for 3:10 next time.

John Gallagher was our host and trip planner -- and he also ran a great marathon, finishing in 3:45. He did a fabulous job choosing restaurants over the next five days in Victoria and Vancouver; despite running 26.2 miles, I gained 7 pounds on my vacation. Also present was Chris Gallagher, who didn't run because of a sore leg. But he provided plenty of moral support; in fact, he was the first one to join me at the bar after the race to watch the Patriots game.

We had a fabulous trip, and we really accomplished something while we were at it. It feels good to work at something all summer and to see results at the end. Now that we're home, we can officially call summer a wrap. It's time to tape up the hockey sticks and get out the ski equipment!