Ottawa Race Weekend

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Memorial Day weekend, May 2024

Fri May 24:

Drove from home to just over the border in Gananoque, Ontario.  This was at the tail end of Matthew's visit home between spring and summer semesters.  Broke up the ~6.5 hour drive with a stop at the previously unheard of location of Little Falls, New York.  Given that it was 73°F and sunny, we opted to have Brady forego the run, and it was just Matthew and me.  Actually, we ran apart for much of this as I struggled and rightly got dropped pretty early.  Very nice and clean path on a small part of the 360-mile Erie Canalway Trail.  The sections we ran on today were part paved and part manicured gravel.

Nice views of the Erie Canal along parts of our run

Sat May 25:

AM:  Three miles easy in Gananoque with Matthew and Brady on a mix of paved roads and gravel bike paths, before driving the ~2 hours northeast to Ottawa.

Gananoque Confederation Park,
Gananoque, Ontario

Noon:  Packet-pickup and lunch.  The wait lines for both were just incredibly long, as were the lines for accessing and leaving the underground parking facility.  I was getting really hungry and in a bad mood.  Not the way I want to be a few hours pre-race.

Long line to get into the expo, wrapping around to the front of the building. 
It did move reasonably quickly.

If there was a silver lining, it's that the venue
was dog-friendly and Brady was welcome in
the expo.

Evening race:  Ottawa 10K race.  Left the hotel about 5:30pm, walking with Jana and Brady to the start just under a mile away.  As we arrived at the race start location at Confederation Park, the enormity of the event and number of participants finally hit me, as there was a huge gathering of runners and spectators here.  I did my best to get in a very short warm-up and a few strides, but it was tough because the roads weren't closed yet, and there were people seemingly everywhere!

Pre-race with Brady.  This is a very dog-friendly
city, but it's just too hectic and crowded to take
him on a warm-up.
---
And look at that bib number!  Possibly
my highest number ever.

I watched the start of the women's elite race at 6:15pm, got a few strides, and then went to line up.  Uh-oh, the race start is already crammed, and there are barriers preventing you from getting in.  Just as I was starting to fret, someone opened one of the barriers for a very fast-looking young male runner, and before they could close the barrier, I quickly jumped in right behind in.  Yes, I'm in!

This race has almost 7,000 runners participating!  Although there were six different color-coded corrals corresponding to your self-reported expected finish time, the first corral (blue) was up to 45 minutes with no further break-down, so I needed to be reasonably up front.  But how far up front?  This was the Canadian national 10K championship.  I ended up about 10 rows back, and then once they asked people to move up to the starting mats, I was in probably about 15 rows back.  I visually scanned the scene and didn't really see anyone looking about my age.  What I did see that concerned me was that several rows in front of me was the 45-minute pacer!  Yikes - that's about a 7:15 pace; he's just a few rows from the front, and I'm a number of rows behind him.  Am I in the wrong starting position?  Or is he?  Can't change anything now.

Race outbound - first half:

The course starts on a major downtown road,
Elgin Street, then proceeds along the west side of the Rideau Canal,
 before crossing over on a bridge and returning on the east side.

There is a countdown from ten, and as the gun goes off, I'm feeling really jammed in without much room to move.  Clearly some (but not all) of the runners ahead of me are much slower than me.  Ugh.  This is fine in a marathon to help reel me in, but not so much in a short race like a 10K.  In the first kilometer, I do a fair amount of weaving and get elbowed a few times.  A few minutes into the race, someone pushes me so hard that I wonder if it's deliberate.  My instinct is to turn around and confront the runner, but then what?  And who knows if I cut the runner off or if it were perceived that way.  I vow to let it go and truck on.

(Pics by Jana)

Crowded start

After about a kilometer, the road has opened up enough for me to run unimpeded.  My watch beeps out my first mile split at 5:52.  That's fine, but I am conscious of my heavy breathing and fear a slowdown soon.  If you write a Strava description of your races, maybe you can follow that in my mind I'm already writing my Strava description of how the race went long before it unfolds.  Or maybe that's unique to me.  At any rate, I've already turned a bit pessimistic on the outcome, but I push hard regardless.

I'm pleasantly surprised that Mile 2 is a 5:46 for me.  Towards the end of Mile 3, we take an exit off-ramp with the only "hill" on the course - a 25' rise onto an overpass bridge to cross over to the other side of the Rideau Canal.  Mile split 5:50.

Race inbound - second half:

I enjoy the corresponding downhill now coming down from the overpass bridge to along the west side of the Rideau Canal, and have my fastest mile in Mile 4 at 5:41.  OK, then.  Can I ride out this pace for the rest of the race?  If so, that might be close to my PR of 36:45.

It's pancake flat now, there's no wind, and I have plenty of open room around me, so no excuses, but unfortunately Mile 5 is where I started to fade.  Mile split 5:57.  I figure I can pick it up a little in the final mile since we're coming to the finish, but it's not to be, as I'm breathing so hard and just want to see the finish line.  Mile 6 split 5:59.  I have zero kick even when I see the finish line.  Just nothing left in the tank.

Plenty of room at the finish,
just didn't have anything left at this point.

Final result:  37:11, 104th of 6,879. 1st of 248 in age group.  Full result here.

I finished and kept walking, but was a bit delirious and walked right past Matthew without seeing him and didn't stop until I heard Jana calling me back.

Another runner offered to look up my chip time
on his app; that was really kind of him.  He was
also very complimentary on my time.
---
A female runner, observing my time above and
my appearance, came up to me and politely asked
my age, at which she seemed astounded!  She said
something to the effect that she just hopes she's
still running well at my age.  

What went well:

• Race website and communications were really good.
• Course itself was [mostly] very flat.
• I paced myself pretty well for the first four miles.
• Bib with your name pre-printed is always a nice touch.
• Roads were closed (I guess they'd have to be with a race this large).
• Chocolate milk at finish!  Grabbed a couple extra of those.

What could have gone better:

• The expo lines were just too long, and parking at the expo was a disaster.
• Well, of course, I would've been happy if I could've kept my 5:40s pace the last two miles!  But it wasn't to be.
• This was probably the latest start (6:30pm) to a race that I've ever had.  Not a fan as it messes up dinner and means you'll be eating real late, with more limited choices. 

My distance on GPS came out a little long at 6.36 miles.  For reference, with the same watch, I got 6.25M and 6.28M the last two years at Middletown.  Obviously, it's a certified course, but did I get more mileage because of GPS error with tall buildings at start, or does it reflect that I did more than usual extra running with some weaving in the first mile?  Maybe a little of both?

Anyway, overall this was a good race, both in terms on it being well run and my performance as well.  Probably my 2nd fastest 10K on a certified course.

Sun May 26:

Headed out for an 8-mile run with Brady, half of the Ontario side of the Ottawa River, and half on the Quebec side.  Almost entirely on paved bike paths.  Very clean, with restrooms along the path, at least on the Ontario side.

On the Quebec side

After having crossed the river back into Ontario

Everyone stopped for the large crossing of geese and goslings.
Fortunately, Brady had no interest in them.

Mon May 27:

Spent the night in Stowe, Vermont, after having dropped Matthew off at Montreal airport for his direct flight back to LA.  Ran five miles on the Stowe Recreational Path.

Nice included breakfast at the Innsbruck Inn,
before driving home to close out the mini-vacation.