I woke up very early on the morning of May 13th feeling cautiously optimistic.
Not because I thought that I could win the marathon, or that I could run a
personal best time. I felt optimistic because there was a good chance that I
could actually just *finish* the race. That's a feeling that was not on my mind
even three weeks earlier, following my last long, long run of training.

Let me back up a bit:

Since my very first run of the new year I'd been nagged by hip, groin and
iliotibial band pain in my right leg. It was nothing new actually, because I've
had similar issues over the last three years at that time of year, usually due
to running on uneven surfaces in the winter months. What was different this
time was that the pain did not subside, even long after the ice and snow had
melted away.

Someone famous once said that fear is a great motivator, and with less than a
month to go before the marathon I was getting scared. Over the seven years that
I've been a long distance runner I've raced while undertrained, overtrained (and
even untrained!), but for the first time in my life I thought that I'd be racing
injured.

Call it laziness, or pride, but I forgoed seeking outside help and chose to
research my leg issues on my own. An online search led me to a web site that
described my symptoms, and following their directions I was able to incorporate
a couple of new stretches into my stretching routine, hoping against hope that
they would help. The last three weeks of training saw me taking more time off
from running than I would have liked. Three or four days off in a row became
the rule rather than the exception, but I figured it was better to err on the
side of caution rather than risk getting hurt any further.

Little by little I could feel the effects of the new stretches taking shape, and
with a little more than a week to go before race day I was optimistic that I
could run 42.2 kilometres.

---

One of the things I probably enjoy the most about racing in Sudbury is seeing
like-minded people on the start line. We all share the same passion for the
sport and it's always nice talking with the regulars who lace up for an event
such as the SudburyROCKS!!! races. In smaller events, there's always the
challenge of finding a competitor with the same speed as one's own. Over the
years I've done my share of racing alone, and for those who've done the same can
surely attest to the mental aspect of running solo. Thankfully I've been quite
blessed in being able to race against people who've given me opportunity to
challenge myself even more. I'm thinking Sara McIlraith in the 5K, Jordan Nurmi
in the half marathon just to name a couple.

However, there's one person whom I can truly call a "race running partner" as of
late, and that's Lindsay Moreau-Verlaan. I met Lindsay less than a year ago at
one of the Finlandia trail runs. The two of us had run the Ottawa marathon two
months earlier and our finishing times were separated by less than a minute. In
many races since then our times have been eerily similar. So when I heard back
in February that Lindsay was going to be running the SudburyROCKS!!! marathon I
was pleased, thinking that I'd have some company at my speed for the vast
majority of the race.

I think most distance athletes have a vision of how a race will unfold. From
experience I can truly say that how things play out in our heads rarely
translate into what actually happens on race day. In fact I didn't see Lindsay
at all in the first half of the race, but then my mind was focused primarily on
not going too fast, and making sure I wasn't doing anything dumb to get injured
again.

At the halfway point I was already feeling tired, and the doubts began to slowly
creep in. I think that if I had been running alone in those last 21-plus
kilometres my race would have turned out a lot differently. Fortunately I could
see a good number of marathoners and relay runners in the distance, so I began
to focus on playing catch-up in order to take my mind off the mental anguish
that comes from running solo in such a humbling distance race. Before I knew it
time began to speed up and the kilometre markers somehow kept taking less time
to appear.. 25 km, 26, 27... At around that point I caught up with Francois, a
Quebecois who was in Sudbury for the race. He was heading to Alberta for work
and stayed in Sudbury solely to run the marathon. It turns out that Francois
had run a marathon just two weeks earlier in Quebec, but his 3-hour 30-minute
goal time for SudburyROCKS!!! meant that I'd have to pass him eventually, which
I did, but so much sooner than I would have liked. (I'd see Francois cross the
finish line in 3:29:59 -- right on his goal time for third overall.)

It wasn't until I hit the turn onto Falconbridge on the second loop of the
course that I could see (faintly) the lead bicycle, and another little while
before I could see who the leader actually was. Well, it was more of a
confirmation, really. It was Lindsay Moreau-Verlaan, and I was chasing her
down. I caught up with her at roughly the 37-kilometre point and I don't think
I've ever felt a weight that heavy lifted from my shoulders in any race before.
The next 25 minutes felt like a blur. Everything I imagined happening in this
marathon was starting to materialize. There was no "hitting the wall," my legs
had new life and I finally got my chance to run neck-and-neck with Lindsay, if
only for the last 5 kilometres of the race.

The two of us crossed the finish line 1 second apart.

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I'd like to express my sincere thanks to Brent, Vince, Andrew, Glen and all the
other volunteers who made the 2018 SudburyROCKS!!! Race, Run or Walk for
Diabetes such a memorable day.

I cannot wait for the registration process for the 2019 SudburyROCKS!!! events
to open. Next year's race will be my 11th straight.

Oh, and my leg? It feels better now than it has since, well, a very long time.
Knock on wood...

Ryan