Sun
Oct 9th Ottawa Fall Colours Half Marathon (502
participants)
Congrats to
Margie B (Whitecaps "A") on her great half-marathon. She
finished 24th overall, 2nd woman and 2nd in women's 30-34 in 1:30:57 (1:30:53
chip time).
Sat
Oct 22nd Technosport Sprint Meet (U of Ottawa)
Congratulations to the 10
Carleton Masters who swam at this meet: Andrew P (Whitecaps
"B"), Bozena (Whitecaps "B"), Francois A (High
Intensity/Earlybirds), Francois P (Whitecaps "A"),
George (Whitecaps "B"), Gi (Whitecaps "B"),
Jose (Whitecaps "A"), Margaret K (8:30am
Earlybirds), Rob T (7:30am Earlybirds), and Sean
K (High Intensity 1). Unofficially, quite a few Carleton records
were set: Francois A (Men's 45-49 100fs, 100br, and maybe 50fs), men's 200+
4x50FR: Andrew, Sean, Rob, Francois A; mixed 240+ 4x50FR: Bozena, George,
Margaret, Francois P. Full details once we have the official results, which should soon
be available at: http://ca.geocities.com/technosport@rogers.com/results/results.htm.
Here are some photos of the group, courtesy of Gi: http://carletonmasters.tripod.com/051022meet/.
Sun
Oct 23rd Niagara Fallsview Marathon
Louise R (x-Whitecaps "B", 6:30am Earlybirds) finished
921st overall, 315th woman and 10th in women's 55-59 in
5:27:43.4. Here is her race report from TriRudy:
Plastic Poncho Marathon
Weekend in Niagara Falls
March 21,
2005
"Dear Louise Rachlis, CONGRATULATIONS! You are the winner
of a free entry to any one of our races, a free pasta party ticket, and a free
bus ticket...Eventfully yours, Jim Ralston, Race Director, Niagara Fallsview
Marathon."
I had filled out a draw ballot at the Hamilton Round
the Bay 30K sports expo, expecting as always to win nothing except a perpetual
round of telemarketing.
But no, this time I was a winner. And
the timing was excellent. I was approaching the running of my 10th marathon at
the upcoming Ottawa Race Weekend.
My goal had been to do 10
marathons before changing age categories, and then, well, I’d see. I took this
free entry to Niagara Falls in October as a sign to keep going for number 11.
Well it wasn’t exactly free. To motivate myself to actually do long runs, I
kept signing up - and paying - for half marathons, the most recent of which was
the Fall Colours on Thanksgiving Weekend.
And the hotel room
wasn’t free.
But the Niagara Fallsview Marathon was billed as
the only international marathon in the world so I went there to experience
it.
It was raining and cold Saturday morning, so I went on the
“friendship run” to the Falls to help me figure out what to wear for the race
the next day. John - “Hey, I’m from Edmonton” - Stanton was wearing shorts and a
tee shirt, but most others were in tights and jackets.
At the
race I ended up ditched the tights and wearing shorts and my running jacket in
the rain. At about 7 degrees, I didn’t think it was cold, but a woman from
Georgia running near me was freezing in her long sleeved shirt so I gave her my
jacket to run in until I could get a volunteer shirt for her from a waterstation
person.
Some other people felt quite chilled and miserable as
well and expressed a desire to stop. One of them said he found my slow steady
running motivational and it kept him going. I am if nothing else consistent,
surrounded by stop and go-ers who are run walking, walk running, walk walking
and every combination of spurt and fade. I myself faded in the second half as my
sore swollen feet tormented me, but I still slog-ran on, even
slower.
(I had a free massage by a student masseuse outside the
sports expo, but since it was through socks, jeans, a shirt and a vest, I didn’t
really feel anything.)
The marathon route starts at the Albright
Knox Art Gallery and goes through Buffalo for four miles before crossing the
Peace Bridge into Fort Erie. It then follows the Niagara River Parkway straight
to the Falls finish and a plastic bag with chips, a bagel, an apple and a
banana. Well not really straight, it meanders, and I’m sure it’s scenic when
it’s not windy and raining.
It was pouring the whole weekend,
making Niagara Falls itself a blur of neon signs, blaring loudspeakers and
yellow rain ponchos in the dark.
There was no dessert at the
pasta dinner, and we ran into fellow pasta diners at the Hershey store
afterward. It was hibernation weather and everyone was eating and escaping the
rain. The whole international business takes a lot of organization. Sunday
morning we boarded yellow school buses at 7 a.m. to shuttle off to Buffalo where
we had to wait a couple of hours for the race start.
At the
border, our train of buses was boarded by U.S. customs officials to inspect each
passport (again, it had already been done at the race expo). Then a police
motorcycle escort, lights flashing, led us into Buffalo and to the Art
Gallery.
It seemed incongruous to be greeted by a gallery staff
member talking about abstract 1950s art and “don’t eat or drink in the gallery”.
I enjoy art galleries, but focusing on art before a race is not that easy. We
were able to stretch out and pass the time in the auditorium as long as we
didn’t lean on the walls or the radiator, and were observed to ensure we weren’t
eating or drinking.
At the start, most people were wearing the
yellow ponchos from the race bags, and then abandoned them all along the route
like bunches of daffodils on the side of the road.
On the seven
hour drive back in the car Sunday night, I tried to analyze what this 11th
marathon meant to me besides a personal worst time, battered feet and wet
clothing. I guess the significance is this: I am still hopeful that the perfect
marathon race will be the next one.
Sat
Oct 29th Carleton Alumni vs Varsity Swim Meet
The Alumni narrowly
defeated the Varsity 202-184. If you have e-mail addresses for any alumni,
please pass them along to me, as we are trying to improve our list of contacts
for next year.
Sat
Oct 29th Head of the Fish Rowing Regatta in Saratoga Spring,
NY
Congrats to
Melodie A (Whitecaps "A") on great results at this
regatta. In the 4km races, her team placed as follows:
Women's Novice 8+: 7th,
out of 32 boats, with a time of 14:24:22. (Race 07A).
Women's HS Novice 4+:
2nd, out of 21 boats, with a time of 15:32:15. (Race
15C)
Full results at http://www.racetrak.com/ (Click on
"Races", and then on "Head of the Fish" (it's the second race from the top of
the page)).
