5:38:01!

I can hardly believe it - I ran and finished a marathon!

It was, without a doubt, the greatest challenge I've ever faced, made all the harder by the deplorable race day conditions.

I had four main goals for the race:

1. Actually complete the distance (ie, all 26.2 miles)
   
2. Run non-stop for as long as possible
   
3. Run as much of the course as possible
   
4. Finish somewhere around 5:20
   

Having completed several 16- and 18-mile distances during my training, I had no doubt whatsoever that I would be able to cover the entire distance through some combination of running and walking.

Knowing that I could complete the course, barring some sort of freak incident, I wanted to be able to run as long as I possibly could. I was shooting for at least 20 miles, but anything more than 18 would be great.

I acknowledged the fact that I probably couldn't run the entire distance (it's hard to train, sleep, and eat right when you've got a newborn), but I did want to really push myself to run every step of the distance that I could.

The 5:20 finish time was really a stretch goal, but under good running conditions, I felt that I could probably make it.

As I described last time, the forecast for the day was none too favourable. In fact, deplorable would be a little more accurate. I must admit that, although I knew it was going to be bad, I still was pretty unhappy when I woke up in the morning and saw the awful conditions. My resolve never wavered, however, and I eagerly prepared for the race.

Finally, after showering, eating, getting dressed, and dropping Olivia off at the grandparents', Andrea and I were off to the Metro Centre.

The first bit of news we were given once we got there was that the start time was going to be delayed at least an hour - ie, original start time of 9am was pushed back to at least 10am. That wasn't such a big deal to me, but it did mean that Andrea would not be able to see me actually start off (she had to leave to get ready for the christening of her best friends' daughter, who happens to be 3 weeks to the day older than Olivia).

Along with hoping for better weather conditions by waiting the extra hour, we also found out that the delay was a result of the planners trying to figure out how to salvage the race. With the high wind conditions, it was no longer safe to run across the bridge. It was also mentioned that parts of the course in Dartmouth were flooded out.

There was quite a bit of talk of canceling the race. However, the organizers realized that that was not an option - too many people spent too much time training to have the race scrubbed. There was also talk of reducing the full marathon to only a half. I really hoped that they weren't going to do that. I had trained to run the whole distance and if I couldn't do that, I wasn't going to bother at all. After much delay, the organizers were able to get the city to allow the first half of the course to be run twice.

The time for the start finally arrived. Everyone started lining up, getting ready for the starting gun. The first person out of the gate was the lone wheelchair athlete. There was a great amount of cheering and applause when he crossed the start line.

I was surprised by the electricity in the air. I was very excited about getting started, but I was also really nervous. I'm not really sure why, but I do have a habit of getting nervous when doing new things. *shrug*

The full and half marathoners all started at the same time, so there were a lot of runners at the start line. In fact, it took about 5 minutes from the starting gun just to get to the start line. As a result, my "official" time is longer than my actual chip time.

Although the weather was awful, there were a lot of supporters along the track, waving like crazy and cheering everyone on. It was really great. I probably spent too much time/energy acknowledging the cheers, but it was great fun.

The first few miles of the race were pretty painless. There was lots of rain and wind, but I didn't really notice it. Well, not until the course turned around and we were running straight into it. I'm not sure of the wind speeds, but I'd be willing to bet that the winds were at least 40km/h. With the gusts, sometimes it felt that I was running up against a brick wall. It was kind of demoralizing - running as hard as you can and not making any real progress. We had to run into the wind for several miles and I was beginning to wonder if I'd be able to keep it up the first time, let along a second lap. Of course, I was completely soaked by all of the rain by this point and the strong wind made things very, very cold. It was not pleasant by any stretch of the imagination.

Around the 8 or 9 mile mark, I started to wonder if I was going to be able to make it. Luckily the course turned again and we were running with the wind, which gave some reprieve. However, most of the second half of the first lap was uphill. That kind of sucked, but at least I wasn't quite so cold (my hands were literally blue for most of the race).

Finally, I go to the 13-mile mark. I stepped over the line and began the second lap. I was pretty sore and tired at that point and my heart sank a little at the thought of having to do all of that again. The one thing that really kept me going was the goal of trying to run more than 18 miles without stopping.

Running along Barrington street, straight into the wind, for several miles was incredibly difficult the second time around. I pushed and pushed as hard as I could, each step becoming more and more difficult. It was all I could do to make it to PPP. Finally, at the 20-mile mark, I had to stop. I also had to pee like a race horse, so I stopped. It sucked that I had to stop, but at least I managed more than 18 miles without stopping.

From that point on, I would walk for a bit and then run for a bit. I tried very hard to run as much as I could. Of the final 6 miles, I probably walked about half. That disappointed me, but I was just so tired and spent. The wind really took its toll on me.

It was right around the 22-mile mark that I came upon Andrea and Emma, my niece. Andrea had been planning on meeting me in various spots along the course to cheer me on. I've got to tell you, seeing the two of them there, waving signs and hollering at me really spurred me on. It was only about 30 seconds, but it made all of the difference in the world.

As soon as I ran past them, they got back into the car and drove to another spot and waited for me. They did this a couple more times along the remaining miles. When I got within two miles of the end, I told them that they should probably head over to the finish line.

I walked for a little bit until I got to the 2km remaining point. I wanted to finish as strong as I could and I pushed hard to run right to the end. There's a bit of a nasty hill right before the finish line and it was quite a struggle, but my training route ends with a mile-long hill, so I was used to having to work hard to finish. I got to the top of the hill and a volunteer directed me towards the finish line which, thankfully, was downhill.

I ran into the Metro Centre and Andrea, Emma, and her parents (my sister and brother-in-law) were all cheering me on. There was almost no one left, but I didn't care. The sense of accomplishment I felt was almost overwhelming. I felt so good that I almost didn't want to stop running. In fact, a volunteer had to tell me to stop so that she could cut the chip off my shoe. :)

The official time - 5:38:01. Slower than the 5:20 that I was shooting for, but pretty respectable, given the conditions.

I've never been so tired or spent in my whole life, but I'd also never felt so invigorated. I can't even describe how I felt. And pretty much the first words out of my mouth were, "oh yeah, I'm going to do that again." Robin Williams once remarked that while you could certainly spend your time doing cocaine, running a marathon gives the same high and only cost a pair of shoes.

Interestingly enough, some combination of my elation at having finished and the excitement of my family attracted a reporter from the Halifax Herald, who asked me some questions about why I was running, how long I trained for, etc. It'll be in the paper in a couple of days, I suspect.

And so now I plan to take a week or two off to recover and then start thinking about what I'm going to do next. The Valley Harvest marathon in Kentville is in October.

- Mike

Not looking so good...

The weather hasn't been so good for the last few days, what with the constant stream of rain, and it's looking pretty miserable for tomorrow's race. That's certainly a drag.

The Weather Network has a 7-day forecast that I have been watching intently since last weekend. The weather is notoriously hard to predict in this area and the forecasts are wrong as often as not. It's hard enough coming up with an accurate short-term forecast, so when I saw rain for the 22nd the week before (ie, the tail end of the 7-day forecast), that pretty much told me that I could look forward to sun. As the week progressed, the forecast for the 22nd continued to change and at one point, they were predicting sun and good temperatures for both Saturday and Sunday. Alas, that was not to be.

Heavy rain started near the end of the week (and I mean heavy). The forecast for Sunday changed again around Thursday - lots of rain, relatively cold temperatures, lots of wind. It remained the same on Friday and here it is on Saturday and the forecast for tomorrow hasn't changed.

Oddly enough, it's been quite nice today. No real sunny breaks, but no rain, not a lot of wind, etc. Given the forecast for tomorrow, the race should have been bumped up to today.

So how are things looking for tomorrow? 50mm of rain, winds of 40km/h, and single digit temperates. How lovely.

With that kind of weather, what to wear for race day becomes very important. If it was going to be nice, my running shirt and shorts would be sufficient. If it was going to be cold/windy and not raining, my sweat pants and a sweater would be fine. However, the rain adds a whole new dimension. The sweater and sweat pants would be ok, except for the fact that they will hold a lot of water, making the run even more difficult, especially with all of that wind. If I don't dress warmly, though, hypothermia will be a real problem. I decided that I needed to buy some appropriate clothing.

Half an hour later, I'm back at the Running Room. They had all kinds of great water-resistant windbreaker like jackets. I did some research on the website before I headed down and had two potential jackets picked out - the SOHO jacket and the Unisex Reflective jacket (some sort of Running Room-branded jacket). From my research, I preferred the Unisex, but the cheapskate in me had me leaning towards the SOHO (hey, $15 is $15!).

Once I got to the store and really looked at the two jackets, I opted for the Unisex. I liked the look, feel, and features of the jacket better. There were lots of colours to choose from (although I would have to go to the expo booth to find a blue or red one) and although I'm historically into drab and dark colours, I figured I'd spice things up a bit. I hummed and hawed between the yellow (listed as gold on the site) and bright green and decided that yellow was the way to go. So add another $80 to my equipment total. :)

One of the nifty things about the jacket are the zippers that run along the sleeves and down the sides of the jacket, which serve as vents. I won't be needing those tomorrow, but I'm sure they'll have some use in the future. I was wearing the jacket around the store and noticed that sometimes the zipper would rub up against the underside of my arm. I immediately recognized that as a source for chafing, especially on a long run, and the short-sleeved running shirt that I already have left some of my bare arm exposed to the zipper. I'm sure you can guess where this is going... $50 later, I found a long-sleeved mesh shirt (very similar to my short-sleeved one).

Now that I've got my new shirt and jacket, I'm all set for tomorrow. I tend to generate a lot of heat while I'm running, so I think I'll be fine if I wear my shorts only (ie, no sweat pants).

And so I wait....

- Mike

What a little piggy!

There's no doubt about it - Olivia is a ravenous little girl and has been pretty much since the moment she was born.

Olivia was 8lbs 1oz when she was born on April 18th. As is typical with all newborns, she lost some weight over the next couple of days. Olivia was having quite a bit of trouble getting a hang of the whole breastfeeding thing, so she didn't get a whole lot of food the first couple of days. On the 19th, she was down to 7lbs 7oz. On the 20th, she was 7lbs 6oz. Nothing really out of the ordinary, but the nurses were cautious.

Because she hadn't really been getting a lot of food over those two days, she was pretty upset a lot of the time. She'd feed at the breast for 30 or 45 minutes, be calm for 10-20, and then start screaming again. Two days of this behaviour finally took its toll on Andrea and I and we were at our wits' end.

Recognizing that we were about ready to give Olivia away to the next person that walked by, our nurse suggested that we try giving her some formula so that she'd at least have a full belly and let us get some sleep. We started with only one ounce, but as soon as she finished it, she quieted right down and went to sleep. We've never looked back since.

Breast milk is best, of course, so Andrea was pumping off as much as she could during the day (and she continues doing that today), but we continued to supplement with formula. It was 1oz at first, but with each feeding, she would take more and more. By the middle of the 3rd day, she was almost up to 4oz.

As a result of feeding her the formula (and the sheer amount she eats), her weight loss obviously stopped and she actually started to gain back a few ounces. We left the hospital on the 22nd and the public health nurse visited us at home on the 23rd. When she weighed Olivia, she was back up to her birth weight.

Olivia is now consuming 4-6oz per feeding, with 5-6 feedings a day, and the results are incredible. By the 27th, she was 8lbs 14oz. On May 9th, she was 9lbs 14oz. She also grew 2 inches in length between the 27th and 9th. She's starting to bust out of the 3 month sleepers we have for her, resulting in Andrea hanging out in the second-hand clothing stores (we're pretty lucky in that we have 2 very good stores within a 10-minute drive).

Olivia is progressing incredibly well, and I very much look forward to the next stage of her continued development.

- Mike

The right equipment makes all the difference

I've been meaning to write this up a long time ago and now that I'm home for 6 weeks with Olivia, I've finally got a few minutes to try to catch up with some of the things that I've wanted to write about over the last couple of months. (I can't believe I just said that I actually have a few minutes!)

I tend to be quite a cheapskate, so one of the appealing notions of running was that I wouldn't need any additional equipment. I already had a pair of sneakers, t-shirts, and some shorts, so I was good to go. Or so I thought.

I began my training in earnest at the beginning of January. I was only running a maximum of 5 miles one day a week at this point (3 and 4 miles for the other days in the week), so I hadn't encountered any problems. Shortly into February, however, my feet started getting sore on my long days (6, 7, 8 miles). I knew I was in real trouble when I started developing blisters on my feet. Andrea had been telling me all along that I really should invest in a good pair of shoes, but I had been resisting that idea because of the cost (cheapskate, remember?). Finally, I realized that she was right and decided to give in.

I probably could have gone just about anywhere to buy a good pair of running shoes (Cleve's, SportChek, etc). Instead, Andrea convinced me that I should go into the Running Room. A friend of hers at work went there and had been raving about how informed the staff was and the various services they offer, such as running clinics. I knew I'd pay a premium for anything I'd buy there, but I decided to check it out. And boy, am I ever glad I did.

It was busy in the store when I got there (I was pretty surprised by that, actually), but while I was waiting, I noticed that all of the staff seemed to know all of the clientele. That was pretty reassuring, since that meant the store got a lot of repeat business.

Someone finally got to me. She took a look at my feet and asked "You've never been here before, have you?" I wasn't quite sure how she knew, but I acknowledged her assertation.

"Take off your shoes and roll up your pant legs."

As I complied, I noticed that everyone in the store was walking around in sock feet with their pant legs rolled up. So that's how she knew. :)

"Have you ever bought a good pair of shoes before?" she asked.

I looked at her and said, matter of factly, "I've never paid more than $30 for a pair of sneakers in my life."

She gave me a look that hinted that maybe I was just there to buy the shoes and had no intention of using them for training. "Well, you're going to pay a lot more than that today."

As I said, I'm really glad I went there. I had no idea that buying a pair of good running shoes was such a complicated process. I always thought that a shoe was a shoe was a shoe. Not so. Manufacturers make different types of shoes, based on foot structure and how you walk. I don't remember all of the details and I'm too lazy to look them up, but I was completely surprised.

The associate had me walk and run up and down the store so that she could see how I impacted the floor. "Aha! So that's why I needed to roll up my pants," I mused. It was kinda weird at first, but everyone else was doing it too, so it wasn't too bad.

After a few minutes of analyzing my walk and my feet, the associate went to the wall of shoes and selected a pair of Saucony Omni 4 shoes. I'd never even heard of them before. Amazingly enough, they were an absolute perfect fit. I'm really not sure if it was skill or luck, but I was impressed anyway (I'm willing to bet it was skill). Just for kicks, she brought me several other pairs of varying manufacturers and types to try, but none of them really fit. I opted for the first pair.

During the fitting, she eventually asked why I was looking for a good pair of shoes. I mentioned that I was training for the Bluenose Marathon. I think she was relieved that I planned on actually using the shoes for their intended purpose. I mentioned that I was getting blisters and she indicated that blisters are usually caused by improperly fitting shoes and improper socks. I tend to wear cotton socks, which tend to hold moisture. She immediately recommended that I buy a proper pair of running socks (mostly a polyester-like material that wicks moisture away). I really didn't know what I was doing, but I bought a pair anyway.

And so I continued my training. And lo and behold, the blisters went away and my feet stopped hurting, almost immediately. After only a couple of days, I was very glad that I paid about $140 for a pair of sneakers. I also tried wearing both the new socks and some of my old socks. I immediately noticed a difference. Again, I was so surprised. Eventually, I noticed that one particular bag of sports socks I got for Christmas worked really, really well (even better than the running socks I bought), so I've been sticking with those ever since.

As my training distances increased, my nipples began to start chafing. Like everything else I wear, most of my t-shirts were 100% cotton. Luckily I found a great tip on the web site where I found my training plan - the tip was to apply Vaseline to your nipples before running. What a huge difference. Instead of being rubbed almost to the point of bleeding, I suffered no problems at all, no matter what the distance. Eventually my wife bought me a proper running shirt (again, made of a wicking material) which has done wonders for me. Sometimes I finish a run and my shirt is actually dry!

So it turns out that my initial thoughts about running being a cheap hobby were completey incorrect. I've laid out $140 for shoes, $10 for socks, $40 for a running shirt, $20 for shorts, and $40 for a 2-bottle water carrier. Still cheaper than playing hockey, I guess. And had I not done it, I'd have given up on the training several months ago.

- Mike