My First Marathon

My day started at 5am. I had granola cereal, herbal life, pita with a banana for breakfast. I rode the skytrain down to BC Place and the timing was perfect! I barely had to wait in line for gear check, and the lines to the washrooms were decent. I went for my 'last pee' and then warmed up by running around the stadium including the last 200m stretch of the course. I went for my 2nd last pee and got back to the start line with 5 mins to the gun.

My pace should have been 4:36 min/km over the first 32 km. At the halway mark I was 3 minutes ahead of schedule, making my average pace 4:27 min/km over the first half.
My projected time, if i could keep the pace, would be 3:08:30. I slowly started dying because from km 21 to 32 my pace dropped significantly. My time at 32 km was two seconds off what I wanted. 2:27:28. Trouble was, I wasn't feeling good. The plan was to pick up the pace, and stop taking water breaks. But since I was half dead already this wasn't likely to happen. I started getting tight on the inner thigh near the knee and the hamstrings were getting tight. I pulled off to the side to stretch my quads, BAD IDEA!. my hamstring tightened on me and put me in extreme discomfort. I essentially hobbled from 38km to the finish line.

I would cramp, massage the cramp, slowly start walking, jog and then hobble-run before cramping again and repeating the process. It was nice to have other runners encouraging me to keep going! almost there!

To give you an idea, my first 10km was run in 44 minutes, next 10 were run in 45 minutes, next ten were run in 49 minutes, and last ten were run in 60 minutes.
I've got alot of pride and I took my walk breaks when the crowd was thin. However, the last 500m was LINED with people and so i couldn't walk in front of that many people. I looked like a mess and my aunts/uncles were there to take pictures and laugh at me. haha. They said "Look at that guy he looks so funny, oh wait it's allan!"
I heard a big yell of "ALLAN" and looked over to see Mel, Andrea, Karina and Kristen. I was super happy to see them, but my physical reaction was an unenthusiastic grunt with a look of 'get me out of here' on my face.
After i crossed the finish line.....somehow bao had gotten into the 'runners only' area and was there to give me a high five.

The summary.
1) I beat last year's half marathon time by 2 min and 35 seconds.
2) I finished my first marathon in 3:27:18
3) I got to run through beautiful Vancouver
4) Lesson learned - Start out much slower. Too fast = cramp = 3:28:00. I could run that time comfortable and with alot more enjoyment so it's not worth the pain and embarrassment.
5) Stepho's is a great place to celebrate.
6) The ocean is cold and is a good place to ice your legs.
7) I've got great friends and family.

Unanswered questions
1) Did i hit the wall at 38km?
I seriously considered puling out of the race...is that what defines the wall?
2) Was the cramping due to dehydration? inadequate training? lack of calcium in the days prior to the race?
3) If i trained faster would I have been able to keep pace? and is 3:15:00 achievable for the next race?

Congrats to Norah, Amy, Nick, Keenan, Keenan's mom, Pat, Don, Alice and everyone else at Kensington RR who completed the race!