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Posted by gary on August 27, 2007, 12:13 pm, in reply to "Gary at Quebec City Marathon" All I need is another 52.4 miles @ 6:53 pace to get there! This was my 11th sub 3 in the past 20 months [06 and 07 so far] so I think I have a fairly reasonable shot at recording two more.[fingers crossed] The weather WAS a factor. Heat/Humidity and Wind took its toll on everybody, me included.(70-77 F and humid during the race from weather.com) I tried to form a sub 3 group just after the start and had a hard time convincing everybody (many spoke little or no english) to take turns leading into a steady 15 mph headwind coming straight down the St Lawrence River for most of the first 32k. I finally got one runner Gallo Diallo from Segal and Montreal to jump in with me and we took turns powering thru the wind. We quickly moved away from the others by using this strategy. Gallo ended up in 22nd in 3:03. My last 8k were not a pretty thing. Another thing besides the beach like weather that was hard for me is that the kilometers were marked and they counted down starting at 42 km then 41 km and so fourth. I knew this in advance and knew I needed to run about 4:16 per km to break 3, but it was weird with signs every Km then trying to figure out what 33 km meant and if you'd run that far or still needed to? They did have every 5 miles marked so that helped. I really noticed the math mind numbing Km marks when they reached 5 k to go even though I know that is 3.1 miles, it was still hard to see a 5 anything because MILES are so ingrained in my thinking, all I could see was a big 5 then 4, 3, 2 etc. and all I could think was shoot me now because I can't run that many more MILES at this pace. The QC Marathon treated me VERY well by including me in their generous VIP program. Thanks to Johanne and her staff! I was awarded bib number 15. I told her I hoped to do it justice, I hope my 14th place finish made them feel I was somewhat worthy. This race is a good one. I highly recommend this event! I even met a runner from Quebec who recognized the Crow singlet as being of a MAINE club. Pretty cool that even in another country our Crow is a recognizable symbol! I'm very happy to get this one out of the way. I'd don't choose to run marathons because they are easy for me [or anyone] and running marathons in August doesn't make them any easier. Cheers Keep running gary
Link: complete results
Message modified by board administrator August 28, 2007, 9:46 am
Quebec City was fun. Went to this race on a last minute decision. My only goals were to finish and attempt to break 3 hours...Happy to report success at both! Finished 14th overall in 2:59:09, 2nd 50-59. This was my 48th career Sub 3 hour marathon. Now, I'm starting to really believe that my goal of reaching 50 at NYC is within my reach. 
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