Quebec City Marathon

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Before the race

My wife and I spent the weekend in Quebec City, we took a Communauto car on Friday afternoon and drove to our province's capital.

Parking was a nightmare, as it usually is in the old city. Other than that the hotel was quite nice, we liked the big room that we got. The ceiling is quite high, which is a nice touch.

On Saturday my wife went to the Parc national de la Jacques-Cartier and spent the day there. I did not want to walk too much the day before the big race, so I stayed in the city.

I went to the Centre des foires de Quebec to get my bib. This year my number is 90, which is probably the lowest bib I got in a race ever. Usually the number is in the thousands.

I watched the first conference of the day at the Expo, it was quite interesting, a couple of runners (Joan Roch and Anne Genest) who met through running and have had incredible adventures in ultra-running.

I spent the rest of the day in the hotel room resting my legs.


Race Day

On Sunday morning I got ready, took my bags down and left them at the baggage storage. I walked to the start line.

On the way I passed by the start line of the 10K. They would start at 8 am, so there was already a big crowd there.

At the Place Jean Beliveau I left my bag at the bag check and went for a walk around the place, I visited the Grand Marché (quite a few runners in there escaping the cold outside) and then went to the starting line.

We started the race at exactly 8:25 am, I crossed the start line a minute or so after that.

The first few kilometers I was flying. I left the 4h30 pacer behind, then passed by the 4h15, the two 4h (one continuous, one race/walk) and joined the 3h45. My goal was to qualify for Boston (sub 3h50), so I had to stay with this guy for as long as I could.

At the Expo I had gotten two kilometer bracelets, one for 3h45, another for 4h. They indicated the times I had to beat at every two kilometers in order to get those times. I put one bracelet in each wrist and followed them during the race.

Well, during part of the race, anyway...

At some points I even left the 3h45 pacer behind and joined the 3h40 guy. I was on fire!

But then I started feeling threats of cramps and had to slow down not to have a full-on cramp that would surely throw me to the ground.

By km 16 I threw away my 3h45 bracelet, it was obvious that I would not achieve that. But I still had hopes for a sub-4.

I crossed the halfway mark at 1h54m38s, which is my best time for the first half of a marathon and also my second best half marathon ever. So I was going strong for a sub-4 at that point.

All my split times up to 25K were my best ever. But then I had to start walking a lot.

At km 32 I threw away my 4h bracelet, because the second 4h pacer passed me and I could not do anything about it.

I ended up completing the race in 4h37m05s. Not exactly what I had hoped for, but still my fifth best time in a marathon, so not too shabby.


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PB list Distance PB Event 5K 23m40s FADOQ 2019 (Montreal) (during the 10K!)* 10K 46m41s FADOQ 2019 (Trois-Rivières)** 3K (march) 18m46s FADOQ 2019 (Trois-Rivières)*** Half marathon 1h52m09s Montreal 2019 Marathon 4h00m50s Munich 2022 * The total distance of the event was 9.8Km instead of 10 Km, so this was not a full 5K; close, but not quite; ** The distance was 9.5 Km  instead of 10 Km, so this was not even close; *** The distance was not even 2.8 Km. Race list Click on the city name to read my full report of the event: Date City Country Race type Time Comment 2011/09/25 Montreal Canada Half marathon 2h52m56s Walking 2012/06/30 Båstad Sweden Half marathon 2h41m21s 2012/08/12 Mont Tremblant Canada Half marathon 2h30m22s 2012/09/23 Montreal Canada Half marathon 2h20m36s 2013/05/19 Copenhagen Danemark Marathon 5h24m33s 2013/08/11 Mont Tremblant Canada Half marathon 2h07m3
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