Marathon!

On Sunday Ken and I spent a delightful few hours absorbing the energy of the Victoria marathon. For a few days we had been seeing signs along the streets in the James Bay area alerting us to an upcoming special event on Sunday, when from 2 am to 3 pm no stopping would be permitted along the streets. 

We finally learned the day before what the event was to be: a race, and not just a small one. Almost 8,300 people participated, with 1,500 competing in the full marathon (over 42 km), 3,400 in the half marathon, and 2,500 in the 8K race.

The energy was palpable.

Runners, joggers, and walkers along Dallas Road. The race started at 8:00, this photo was taken around 9:30 am. However, there was an early start (6:30 am) for those who estimated that they would take more than 5.5 hours to do the full marathon.

A rainbow of colours streamed past

In some sections, the runners were so focussed, that the only sound I could hear was the slap of shoes hitting the pavement.

I felt emotional seeing this little girl cheering for her mom!

Community support included signs like this, applause from onlookers, and bells, drums and other noise makers encouraging the runners and walkers. 

Volunteers handing out water at one of the aid stations

I was impressed at how many people were pushing themselves to complete whatever objective they had set for themselves.

We saw so much evidence of individual grit and determination, as shown in the above photo.

Another man was half walking, half jogging, holding onto the arm of another man. I later learned his story. Eleven years ago he had a stroke moments after finishing his first marathon. For years he was in a wheelchair and could not walk. Now he has started running again, and has completed three half-marathons. The man whose arm he was holding is his brother, who was quoted as saying that he is inspired by what his brother has accomplished.

I think this man must have laughed the whole way. Somehow he had attached a contraption to his head, with a beer can dangling just out of reach. "Motivation", he called as he went by.

A lead vehicle and bicycles cleared a path in front of the lead marathon runner. The runner's time is shown on the car's roof. At this point we were about 500 metres from the finish line. The time shown is 2:16:10.

The lead runner, Eric Finan of Oregon, who won the race with a time of 2:17:52 over the course of 42 km.

I missed catching a photo of the top woman runner, Andrea Lee of Black Creek, a small community on Vancouver Island which has spawned other runners. Her time was 2:46:46.

The finish line. The emcee, in the tent on the left, gave a "play by play" of  some of the runners as they arrived. He seemed to know a lot about each - their personal bests, how many races they had participated in, and where they were from. I was impressed at the amount of knowledge he had at his fingertips.

As I watched the numbers of people participating in the race, at all levels of ability, I realized that it is time I set an objective to do something like this, and not let problematic knees stop me.

Next year, I intend to be a participant - rather than watching from the sidelines!