Ottawa 2024

Back to the index

The day before the race

On the day before the race my wife and I picked up a Communauto car and drove to Ottawa:

We parked the car in the Bytown market:

Here is a view of the market from the parking lot:

We walked to our hotel and got our room right away. That was a nice touch, we didn't expect that:

We left everything in the room and went out for a bite, my wife was a bit hungry:

My wife went to the shopping, I went to the expo. That was a nightmare, the bus 7, which should come every fifteen minutes, took over half an hour to appear, we almost hit the bus stop closure time:

The trip to the expo, which should take eighteen minutes, took longer than half an hour. But I finally arrived at the expo:

Here is the entrance of the expo:

In other years I would just go in and get my bib. This year there was a mile long queue to get in, it took over half an hour for me to get in.

Once inside, getting the bib was actually quick and easy:

At the exit we could see our names on the screen:

My wife and I had a "pasta dinner" in the Social restaurant:

I drank a "mockerita" (margarita without alcohol). It was quite good...

The food was quite good, too.

Race Day

On Sunday morning I got ready for the big day:

I left the hotel at 6h30 and walked to the starting area. I saw some dinosaurs on the way... ;-)

A few minutes before the race:

The race started eight minutes late. My corral only left at 7h20.

Everything was fun and games for the first fifteen or so kilometers. Then stuff got serious, but still manageable. But by km 23 I was already suffering. The suffering did not let up, it got worse all the way.

My wife was following me on the marathon app:

The organizers changed the race course, we got through a farm!. And later on when we joined with the half marathon people, we had to get to the side of the street, because the elite of the half had to go through. Not funny...

The sun came out making running even harder. There was lots of walking on the last third of the race... :-(

My final time was 4h37m21s, almost a repeat of my time three weeks before in Copenhagen. I guess that is my new normal...

I had already decided that I would not run Ottawa anymore (because of the heat) and this year's experience sealed the deal. Next year I'll go to Toronto instead.

The app gave me a slightly better time:

Here I'm back at the hotel, with my big medal:

We picked up our stuff at the hotel's lobby and went to the car. Before beginning the trip back home, I drank the champagne that my wife had bought the day before:

It was still good, even though it was not that cold.

Back to the index