RVM Done

Near the beginning, with Ben, in the crowd, BC parliament visible in the background.
Near the end, on the waterfront (Dallas Road, I think). The field has thinned considerably. A few K to go. Note the bib#: coincidentally the street address of the house I grew up in in Dunbar.

Third marathon completed successfully!

As usual, I was super-nervous and did all the little superstitous as well as practical things. Eat a lot the night before. Have near-new runners. Tape up the nipples (TMI?) in case of rain (there was a fair amount). Above all: never, ever, ever wear the event swag (in this case, a really nice jacket - the YVR one was a kinda ugly and cheap-feeling T shirt) during the race. As Sam said, imagine if you went down and the paramedics had to cut your marathon t-shirt off you before you finished. They would probably just leave you in the gutter in disgust!

This race felt much, much different from YVR because I ran the first 10 with Ben. The RVM is quite different in that the full (me) and half (Ben) marathons followed the same course (for the first half of the half = the first 1/4 of the full) and started at the same time. Runners were 100% comingled up to the 13k mark, where Ben . Thus, the first 1/4 (10k) was much more relaxed than it otherwise would have been - because I was chatting with Ben!

That meant that my time wasn't nearly as good, but on the other hand, the whole thing was infinitely more pleasant. I don't know my splits but I do know that in the first 1/4, runner after runner was passing me; in the last 1/4, I was passing everybody. But that's not so important: what IS important is that (a) unlike YVR, I never seriously debated the possibility of taking a DNF, (b) that last 1/4 felt good, whereas in YVR I was really, really willing myself to keep putting on foot in front of the other; (c) afterwards, I didn't puke (or even feel like puking).

I'm signed up for #4 in YVR in May and then the next RVM in October. My vagueish goal is to hit 11, which is hugely arbitrary: it's how many an older guy I met in HG had done, and it seems like a worthy objective. TBH chances are I will blow out my knee before then.

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