Petit Train du Nord
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Petit Train du Nord
For my last marathon of the year I chose a small event that happens to the north of Montreal, it's the Marathon du Petit Train du Nord. Even though it is a small event (or maybe because of that) it is somewhat hard to get into it, it fills up very quickly. They opened the registration around Christmas time last year and when I went to register four days later, the half marathon was already full and the full marathon was filling up fast. So I registered right away and waited ten months for the event.
Unfortunately, on the Thursday prior to the race I got a nasty cold that followed me for the next few days and affected my result in the race.
Unfortunately, on the Thursday prior to the race I got a nasty cold that followed me for the next few days and affected my result in the race.
Even though the event happened close to Montreal my wife decided to join me for the weekend there, so we rented a room in the sponsor hotel.
We arrived at our hotel Friday night and I went right away to get my bib:
The event is so small that there is no expo for this marathon, they just give you the bib, the t-shirt and some advertisement from the sponsors, that's it. My bib was 7282.
The next day I went to the finish line to get acquainted with the place:
How would I be feeling the following day when I would get here?
My wife went to a nearby provincial park to spend her Saturday walking around, but I preferred to stay in the hotel and rest my legs. My cold was still very bad, it seemed to be getting worse as the days passed.
When I woke up on Sunday morning I was not feeling that Olympic... I had breakfast in the hotel and walked to the finish line from where we would get to the buses that would take us to the start line.
It was very cold in the morning but I decided not to pile up too much clothing on me, because I knew that it would warm up a bit later on.
The bus ride took half an hour or maybe a bit more and then we were in Val-David, our starting point.
The organizers had prepared a heated tent near the start line, so we could wait more or less in some comfort for our call.
They divided the runners in twelve groups according to intended finish time. I thought that was a bit too much. There were less than three thousand runners, we could probably have done it with half that many groups.
Also, between each group there was a five minute delay. Again, that was way too much, most marathons put a minute or two between each departure.
I was in group 10, so I ended up starting my race 45 minutes after the official start of the race. Again, in most marathons I start only a few minutes after the elite.
The first kilometer I was stuck behind a human wall of slower runners, so I did that kilometer in six minutes. But after that the wall was broken and I could start running normally, so my time per kilometer started going down, 5m30s, 5m20s, 5m10s, I even did one of the kilometers in 5m03s! Wow!
But things started changing around kilometer 18/19, I started feeling the effects of my cold, I could not force my legs to go as fast as I wanted. I still completed the first half in 1h55m05s, which is a fantastic time for me (actually it is my second best time ever for a half marathon), but the kilometers started taking longer and longer.
Already at km 23 I had to walk quite a bit, the legs were no longer obeying me. I resumed running, more like jogging, but by km 30 I just could not do it anymore, I walked for the next five kilometers. At least I forced myself to do rapid walking, so it wasn't a total waste.
For the last two kilometers I resumed jogging, so that the picture at the end would not be too disappointing:
I ended up completing the marathon in 4h47m27s, my sixth best time. Here am I resting after getting my medal and my beer:
And here getting ready to start the trip back to Montreal:
Considering how sick I was, I'm happy I was able to complete this race.
It was very cold in the morning but I decided not to pile up too much clothing on me, because I knew that it would warm up a bit later on.
The bus ride took half an hour or maybe a bit more and then we were in Val-David, our starting point.
The organizers had prepared a heated tent near the start line, so we could wait more or less in some comfort for our call.
They divided the runners in twelve groups according to intended finish time. I thought that was a bit too much. There were less than three thousand runners, we could probably have done it with half that many groups.
Also, between each group there was a five minute delay. Again, that was way too much, most marathons put a minute or two between each departure.
I was in group 10, so I ended up starting my race 45 minutes after the official start of the race. Again, in most marathons I start only a few minutes after the elite.
The first kilometer I was stuck behind a human wall of slower runners, so I did that kilometer in six minutes. But after that the wall was broken and I could start running normally, so my time per kilometer started going down, 5m30s, 5m20s, 5m10s, I even did one of the kilometers in 5m03s! Wow!
But things started changing around kilometer 18/19, I started feeling the effects of my cold, I could not force my legs to go as fast as I wanted. I still completed the first half in 1h55m05s, which is a fantastic time for me (actually it is my second best time ever for a half marathon), but the kilometers started taking longer and longer.
Already at km 23 I had to walk quite a bit, the legs were no longer obeying me. I resumed running, more like jogging, but by km 30 I just could not do it anymore, I walked for the next five kilometers. At least I forced myself to do rapid walking, so it wasn't a total waste.
For the last two kilometers I resumed jogging, so that the picture at the end would not be too disappointing:
I ended up completing the marathon in 4h47m27s, my sixth best time. Here am I resting after getting my medal and my beer:
And here getting ready to start the trip back to Montreal:
Considering how sick I was, I'm happy I was able to complete this race.
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