SportsStats time to a decimal 2:11:27.3

As I crossed the finish line the crowd countdown was down to two seconds, maybe 1. That actually didn't give me a whole lot of security I'd got under for standard, the finishing clock is often started by hand which can be a fraction slower then official timing equipment. As everyone started congratulating me, I decided to wait until someone could tell me definitively it was under, before celebrating. It was a good 10-15 minutes before I found out. Nicole Clark from Athletics Canada was standing close and said "SportsStats (official timer of the race) has you at 2:11:28", it didn't sink in until she passed me her phone with the time on it! Then I let out WHOO HOO :) One thing I have to clear up is that my time DOES NOT automatically get me on the team for London. What it does for now is, it meets Athletics Canada's Olympic qualifying standard that one must reach in order to have a shot at going. Every county has three spots per event they can enter athletes in, in Athletics. That's means Canada can send up to three marathoners so long as all have standard. Currently Reid and myself are the only two that have met this mark, others will trying for it in the coming months! They have until the Canadian Track&Field Championships in June of next year. So, if two other Canadians run faster then me before that, I would be bumped to 4th, and not go. Good news is that I too can run another marathon in that window if needed. Hopefully that clears up things for anyone who wasn't sure what exactly 2:11:28 did for me. All the being said Sundays race was a HUGE step forward in my hopes of representing Canada again!!!!!

I've really enjoyed reading all the message of support this week from everyone! Can't believe what a great job CBC did covering the race, both online and TV. Awesome that folks were able to watch from all over!! There's a couple options for people to watch if they missed it, CBC has posted a three hour segment online and now has the one hour TV recap up too, recommend this one if you don't have a lot of time.

Finally thanks Emily and Heidi for putting up with me the last few months, tired runners aren't always the funnest people to be around. Also thanks Dave being a kick ass coach, and thanks to the rest of our amazing Speed River support team! There's at least 10 folks I should name, I'll do it in person how about that :) Thanks guys!

NEWS STORIES GuelphMercury Marathoners’ display should make Guelph proud Speed River marathon runners under Olympic qualifying time CBC Canada qualifies 2 marathoners for London Olympics HometownWeekly, TheCasket Second to spare Watson talking to the TorontoStar Marathoners don’t want to see writing on this wall

Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon 2011

All right, lets get something posted here. Guess we'll randomly start with my thoughts going into the race. Despite not posting on here much, which I've tended to do in the past when things weren't going well, my confidence heading into STWM actually very high, blogging is tougher than workouts. The past 14 weeks have been the best stretch of training I've ever had, was feeling like I was in the shape of my life. Thought to myself, ok, on a good day you can attack, attack standard, and if feeling good off back end, even run a lot faster then it. Second thought was, if weather's not perfect I'm strong enough to attack 2:11:29 with confidence my fitness will allow me to hold on and get under. Third thought was, if weather is really bad, what the heck do I do? And it was this last scenario that I was facing a few days out with 40k/h+ winds projected. Luckily there was no panic, rather I listened to the people around me whom I most trusted. We didn't come out with anything complicated, simply keep an eye on the prize and get after it! Most difficult part by far was keeping mind off the wind! Great thing about racing in Canada is you get treated like a someone. Alan Brookes, meet director of STWM has been fantastic. The race brought in eight pacers total, pretty much each Canadian had an individual assigned to them. This came in very handy the first 13k, much of that into a stiff headwind. I was running in a pack with Dylan Wykes and Kip Kangogo, plus our 2 & a half rabbits, I say half because we had three total but one left early and another would take off up ahead for spells, only coming back after getting told he wasn't doing his job. Gotta say I was pleasantly surprised at how I felt whole first half, and much of the second. Goal was to split 65 at half and came through in 64:53, though did think it said 64:41 which had me thinking, "we're well under standard pace, this is great"! Not sure in the end if that helped or hurt me? The race for me was pretty uneventfull for about the first 3/4, a good uneventfull that is. I remember thinking before 30k that I wanted to get into the Beaches, "because thats were the race really starts". A brief moment of zen happened in that 5k stretch of rolling street, just after shedding my 'RunningWorks' (thats for you Catts;), Trent Stellingwerf yelled "gotta stay on it now", having not seen a split in a while I thought, maybe he knows something I don't, maybe I'm slowing down? Clicked my watch at 34k aiming to what I was running. 35k along, looked down, 3:01, though BOO YEAH, one of my fastest K's into the wind, RACE ON! Let the watch run to k 36, look down, 6:16.... just ran a 3:15 kilometre and no hill to blame it on. Remember thinking, well now the race is REALLY on, and it aint going to be pretty! Yep, the following 6.2k was tough, very very tough! Energy was there to fight but with that head wind it felt like a loosing battle every step shortening to a point going up the DVP overpass I felt like I could technically be race walking?!?! Seeing the 40k split gave me some life that I hadn't totally lost it the last few k. With some rudimentary math figured standard was still within reach but it might be close, bit of foreshadowing there eh. Can't say I really knew how close it was going to be until 300m to go when Trent was there again screaming "YOU HAVE TO GO NOWWWWW!!!!!! Checked my watch to confirm, yep, he was right, I REALLY GOTTA GO!! haha.. If you've seen the video of my final 100m I check my watch again, yes with less then 100m and the finishing clock in sight I look down at my wrist with no hope in hell of it helping me in the slightest. Though I've told people after it was because I wanted know if 2:11:29 had passed already so I could slow down and stop torturing myself ;) The crowd started a countdown with 10seconds to go, maybe after seeing the watch check? It was pretty cool, add more in next day or two...... till then.

Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon Goes LIVE on CBC TORONTO, September 30th, 2011 — Scotiabank, Toronto Tourism and Canada Running Series are delighted to announce a partnership with CBC to provide live broadcast of this year's Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, taking place Sunday, October 16th. Broadcast Schedule: Live TV starts at 8:30 am ET, October 16th, on CBC's digital channel BOLD. Live web streaming will be available on www.cbcsports.ca until 2pm. Later the same day at 3.00pm local times, a highlights program will run on CBC [main channel, national network], including special features and stories on the Canadian professional athletes' pursuit of the Olympic qualifying standard. CBC's Scott Russell will host, with international distance racing expert and analyst Tim Hutchings joining the team to present a full day of racing broadcasts.