Prince Edward Island Marathon
I’ve been returning to the ‘home land’ every year since moving to Calgary in 2003 (like a good Maritimer does) however I thought that I maybe able to ‘hold off’ this year. However, by the end of August … I was missing my annual return. I began to think about running the PEI Marathon on October 14/12. I pulled out Hal Higgdon’s guide to running a Marathon … set my sights on a 3 hour Marathon (I did it 10 years earlier in PEI) … and pretended the race was not just 7 weeks away.
At about 16 km … my legs were hurting. I was kind of concerned … as I had never experienced this. I was thinking … “hmm, just 16 km in … why do my legs hurt?”
I was very pleased with myself at the half way point in a time of 1 hour 27 minutes. (I had an extra 3 minutes to hit my goal of 3 hours.)
At Kilometer 25 … my legs begged me to stop … and they won.
I seen quite a few old friends along the course, at water stations … stopping for hugs. In my mind … I figured I would try to enjoy the finish … and be okay with a 4 hour time. I was very pleased (and surprised) to finish in 3 hours 17 min.
… I’ll be back. I figure that I have another 3 hour marathon in me … before exiting my 40’s. (I’ll need more running miles and pace myself in the first half.)
Bryon Howard - Gangster Style - at PEI Marathon
