The Road to Ottawa: Pancake Half Marathon

The Road to Ottawa is a grandiose term for my efforts to get ready for my first marathon, in Ottawa on May 25.

OK, there is no "Pancake Half Marathon", as attractive as it sounds. That's just my private name for my long run today, as assigned by my marathon coach, Sherry, who I met through my running club, the London Pacers. I was supposed to do 21K last week, but my schedule and snow got into the way.

Because I knew that tonight is our Shrove Tuesday pancake dinner in the parish, I thought I'd better get this in now. If you're wondering, like some of the grunts at the CO's O Group tonight, what Shrove or Fat Tuesday is all about, that's another story. Theologically, any religion that sanctions the eating of pancakes is alright in my books (see the Simpson's episode where Homer and Bart almost become Roman Catholic). However, my parish, unlike many Anglican churches I've met, doesn't just offer a pancake and sausage dinner for $6. No, sirree, this is the country, and so it's not a pancake dinner, it's a pancake buffet, complete with potato salad (heavy on the mayo), cole slaw, buns (because you've gotta have buns with pancakes) and of course, pancakes, with maple syrup, and finally pie. It's my favourite dinner of the year. But this year, I thought I'd earn those carbs and calories.

Route:


Temperature: About 3 degrees C, damp but not raining. Freezing rain coming in tonight. Melting snow meant puddles all over the place, feet always wet.

Distance: 21.3km.

Time: Between 10:30am and 1pm. Time to complete: 2h 13m 29s. Brutally slow (slower than my two halfs in 2007) but this is the long slow run.

Shoes: Nike New Balance - I like these shoes.

Results: Slight blister front right foot (wet sock, I think), but miraculously no knee pain en route.