Marathon day in Ottawa

Today was the second day of Ottawa's annual "Race Weekend." Consequently, the marathon and half marathon were run today.  As Jeannette was participating in the half marathon I ended up observing a few more of the festivities than I likely otherwise would have.

Almost as soon as we arrived on the scene it was clear that this was a bigger event than I had imagined it would be (despite the fact that Jeannette had already told me that about 11 000 would be running the half marathon with her).

Even though there were thousands of runners assembling for the race when we arrived it was pretty easy to find Jeannette's starting position.  Once she decided to head into her corral I made my way to the other side of the starting line so that I could watch the race begin, which was scheduled for 9:00 AM (the marathon had started at 7:00).

My plan was to hang around the finish line until I saw Jeannette pass by.  Unfortunately, the density of the runners prevented me from seeing her as she passed.  Eventually it became clear that her corral had been emptied and that I had somehow missed her.

I then made my way over to the finish line with hopes that I might see the winners of the marathon.  While making my way to the finish line, a task that proved more complicated than I originally anticipated, I saw a few runners on the other side of the canal as they were nearing the end of the race.  While I don't know if these were the first and second place finishers (though I think they were), I do know that they must have been near the front of the pack (and that they certainly arrived with a few minutes of the first place finisher's 2:09 time if they weren't the winners).

I finally made it to the finish line at about 2:23 after the beginning of the marathon.  Fortunately I was still early enough to see a few of the international marathoners come in.

Actually, the first guy I saw finish turned out to be a guy from New Zealand.

As this guy ran past me it look as though he had run through some mud, which seemed strange considering how dry it was.  A second or two later, while the guy was still in sight, I finally realized the source of the 'mud' running down this guy's leg.  I'm now pretty confident that I won't ever be trying to run a marathon.

A few minutes later I learned that I had, in fact, managed to make it in time to see the first female.  My memory is that she finished around the 2:30 mark (and seemed to be going strong).

Just before the three hour mark, maybe at about 2:53, I spotted MP Ryan Leef (the runner in white in the photo below).  A recent Ottawa Citizen story on the MP alerted me to the fact that he would be racing today.  Fortunately he came through at a time when there were few enough racers finishing that individuals were still easy to spot even if you weren't too familiar with their appearance.

At the 3:10 mark I noticed the 3:10 'pace bunny' finishing.  Much to my surprise, this individual managed to finish within about 50 seconds of their target time.  This seems particularly impressive given the delays that one can experience at the beginning of a race.

At about this time the first of the half marathon competitors finished.  My guess is that the first half marathoner finished at about the 1:11 mark, or 3:11 on the marathon clock (you may recall that the two races started two hours apart).

At about the 3:16 mark a runner being guided towards the finish line by a member of the medical team crossed just as they made it to the finish line.  It was really quite impressive to see them lose all control of their body, but only once they had finished.  Though this wasn't the only medical emergency of the day, I'm glad to report it was one of only two that I saw (the other was a woman being similarly guided towards the finish line but I didn't see if she collapsed or not).

But then Batman came by and cheered everyone up.

About four minutes later I saw a guy running without shoes.  As far as I could tell his feet seemed to be in fine shape, though I guess without a closer inspection might be hard to tell.

At the 1:43 mark of the half marathon I finally saw someone I recognized, our friend Duncan, though just as he was passing me.  It turns out that our friend Kate finished just before Duncan and some how made it past without me spotting her.

Just after the two hour mark for the half marathon I spotted Jeannette.

She ended up finishing less than a minute after her targeted time.  When you consider the quantity of congestion she had to deal with at the end of the race I think it's pretty fair that she met her goal (even if she doesn't see it that way).

Almost like magic Jeannette and I found each other easily after the race (I was worried that the thousands of racers and spectators might prove to be a barrier to meeting).  After walking around the festivities for a while, and hitting up the four free cans of beer tent, we grabbed a few coffees and made our way back home.