Before the race

For this race I decided to go to the departure by bike, I did not want to be packed in the subway early in the morning like last year, and to wait too long to drop my bag.

Bike ride went well, bag drop off like sending a mail, then plenty of time to queue for the last popping session.

During the race

I will say the corrals were a bit chaotic, I see the pacer I want to follow behind me but too many people packed to reach him.

Not a big issue, departure is slow, first 4km too slow the next 26km too fast (around 5:00 to 5:10 a km instead of 5:20) with a pacer trying to recover his delay. At km 26 going to the North of St-Laurent he will stop pacing, leaving a large group a bit disoriented or disorganized.

But I like the new Montreal marathon path, we hit 20k at the end of Park Jarry and 30k when we come back from the North. A good reference point.

From that I’m happy with my time of 2h40 for 30k, I should have enough energy to reach the finish line in 3h45… and I will not. Hard to change pace so often (trying to find excuses other than not being trained enough).

I will run a pace of 5:45 for the best until the end, even walk a bit at 41k but that will be the only time. also no stopping and no cramps (I almost got one a the amazing cheer station at k 40).

Official time of 3h52, my second best and the possibility to do better next time!

Map of the race

Using folium I managed to overlay the gps run traces on the top of a map, and you can interactively zoom in and out.