The race started. My strategy of this race was to start at 9:00 per mile pace and try to maintain the pace till the end. At this pace, I would be finishing the race at 3:55:50, just making my goal of 4 hours. It would also give me a little cushioning for things like water breaks and possible restroom breaks.

I started a little bit slower but picked up my pace slightly after a couple of miles. The first segment of the race was a 5-mile loop that crossed Burrand Bridge and went back to starting/finishing area. There I saw my wife and kids. They were standing in cold rain without rain jackets to watch me run. I felt terrible for them. How could I forget to bring them their rain jackets? They would be standing there for next the three to four hours. I must do better next time.

I reached 10-mile mark at exactly 1 hour and 30 minutes. That was right on target of my pre-determined 9:00 race pace. I was not tired at all, and I thought my goal of 4-hour finish was quite possible. At a little over 1 hour and 57 minutes, I reached the halfway point. I felt awesome. My legs still seemed fresh and my breathing wasn’t hard. But little did I know how quickly my awesome feeling would fade and how much struggle was ahead of me for the next two hours.

Almost immediately after the halfway point, there was a big hill. It was a little over half a mile long at about 8 to 10 percent incline. Today a hill of this size at mile 13 will not bother me at all. But at that time I had had no hill training whatsoever, so the hill looked really intimidating. I wisely decided to slow down my pace to jog just a portion of the hill and walk the rest of it. I covered the hill without too much effort, but I lost a little over 2 minutes. At this point, I was about right on the 4-hour goal pace.

I managed to run a bit faster during the next two miles at the average of 8:45 pace. At that point I need to make a pit stop. This portion of the race was in heavily wooded Stanley Park so it was really convenient to do so but it still cost me one minute. Now for the first time in the race except for the first mile, I was behind my goal pace and was off by about 30 seconds. Needless to say, I tried to pick up my pace. But my legs started to feel tired and heavy, and all I could do was 8:50 for the next mile. In a long run or a marathon race, there is no recovery at later stage, at least for me. Once I feel tired, I will get more and more tired until either the end or I get completely wiped out physically and unable to continue. What is worse is that the pain and fatigue seem to be mounting at exponential rate as run/race goes on.

I knew at that time I was in trouble. But I still hung in there trying to keep the pace. At mile 16, the race went across Burrand Bridge again. 12 miles ago, the same bridge did not slow me down much. Not now. The long and gradual incline dropped my pace further and further. Even though I was trying my very best to keep up with the runners ahead of me, these guys were still slowly pulling away from me. I managed to run 9:20 pace for the next 3 miles. Knowing that I was over 1 minute off the pace, I tried, for the last time, to pick up my pace. My feeble attempt only resulted in a 9:00 mile.

Mile 20. Welcome to hell. I am sure all marathon runners know what 20-mile mark means (as least those who are accustomed to English distance as opposed to Metric distance). Human body isn’t designed to run for more than 20 miles. Apparently that ancient Greek warrior did not know this. He tried to run 26 miles. Everyone knows what happened to him. I don’t blame him. He didn’t know it, and also he had a valid reason to run. But we do know. Still every year, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people (or shall I call them idiots?) worldwide are trying to mimic what that ancient Greek warrior did, for no apparent reasons. This is insane.

Of course, I wasn’t thinking about all these during the race. I was too tired and had too much pain in my leg joints and muscle to think of anything. I covered the 21st mile in 10:40. And for the first time in the race I was forced to walk. I knew my goal of sub 4-hour finish was in serious jeopardy and it would take a miracle for me to pull it off.

(to be continued)