Ottawa Race Weekend
It was a smaller, but speedy, contingent participating in Ottawa than we’ve seen in recent years. This may be explained by the fact that race organizers eliminated the early start for walkers in the full marathon and did not separate results for walkers in either the full or the half events. We had a much larger showing in Cleveland last weekend where walkers had separate divisions, bibs, and results postings. Ottawa walkers have no way of knowing how they compare to other walkers on the course as their results are listed with the runners and participants who run with walk breaks.
Still, I'm confident the results are times to beat. We had four power walkers entered in the full marathon. Jeff accomplished a PB with a time of 4:48:32. George, Domenic and Nancy can go home with outstanding first-time results. George finished in a sole burning 5:14:24. Nancy and Domenic can be really pleased with a finish under six hours! Amazingly, their chip times were identical - 5:56:27. These two know how to avoid marital conflict!
Have a look at the results for WoW Walkers in the half marathon too! Jane Heath led the pack with an amazing PB of 2:23:41. Myra was guided by Krista to accomplish a personal best with a chip time under 3 hours. Myra’s got more amazing ideas hatching for the upcoming year of her 65th birthday. She has set a personal challenge to walk a half marathon in every province and territory between September 2007 and September 2008. Myra is doing this as a fundraiser for the CNIB Braille Library.
Congratulations to all of you...including those that have been left un-named here. Results like these don't happen without commitment to training.
Now, it's back to the race directors to see what we can do about getting them to reinstate separate walker registration and results postings. Ideally, they will also bring back the early start for the full marathon although this is not critical if there is sufficient support on the course. They might want to take their lead from some other race organizations that have moved beyond recognizing the walkers to embracing the growth in walking and the participation of walkers at race events.
Check back to the thread following this posting as our chief cheerleader in Ottawa, Vera, will be reporting with an eye-witness account of the race, WoW Power Walkers, as well as walkers everywhere.
Labels: Race review
posted by Wow Power Walking Founder @ 8:25 PM
5 Comments
5 Comments:
Congrats to all who raced in Ottawa. We are trained to do our 'best' at whatever level and this race again proves that WOW POWERWALKING allows people to set their goals and complete them with the support of fellow walkers, family, friends and of course great coaching and have this all come together in the best venue in the world - OUTSIDE! Keep it up!
George...I can still hear you breathing down my neck at the Mississauga half marathon even though that was already a couple of weeks ago! I can just imagine how strong you were as you crossed the finish line at the Ottawa Marathon. Ligia....Two personal bests in as many weeks!! And for anyone not familiar with WOW Powerwalking, just take a look around you at the next 10K, half or full marathon you are at. WoW PowerWalkers are strong and unique in their amazing form and posture throughout an entire race. GO WOW POWERALKING!!!!
My friend and I just completed our second Ottawa marathon and as you mentioned it was a different race being alone on the course at different points. There were two ladies with the WOW Power Walker banner who encouraged us on... thank you.
Thank you for continuing to try to work with race organizers to recognize walkers... an earlier start time is a great motivator to feel like part of the larger group along the way.
Wish we lived closer to be part of your wonderful group. Not to mention the awesome finishing times WOW! you are definately all power walkers!
Just a quick summary of the Ottawa Half Marathon from this stroller's perspective:
Cold at the start.
Rain after 2K.
The Half now visits Hull following the full marathon.
Rain.
Finish line let-down, only apples left and plenty of gatorade. And rain.
I now have another medal, another silver blanket and another technical shirt. And a hole in my new socks -- that's my excuse. Not a personal best, but I had fun.
With day like this, I can hardly wait for Niagara.
On the brighter side, I must pass along my highlight of the day:
Towards the finish, as I was strolling along (at my clip it is called strolling) I received the best compliment yet. A gal along the canal told me it was "great to see someone whose walking style was completely legal." That was my WOW moment of the race.
Who knew cheerleading could be so much fun! Even in the rain. Despite experiencing some initial pangs of loss arriving at the Ottawa Race Weekend as a bystander not a participant, I was looking forward to cheering for my husband Jeff, WoW Power Walkers, and walkers everywhere.
Fortunately, I had the assistance and support of one of the best cheerleaders anywhere – Lani. Lani was at the event to support husband George, who was walking his first full marathon. Among her many outstanding attributes, Lani also does a fantastic job in her supporting role to keep sales moving at the race expo.
I probably speak for most walkers when I say that the elimination of a walking division in the full marathon and no walking division for any of the other events are huge disappointments. It is also in contrast to the trend in so many other races – especially in the U.S. Jeff appeared to be the first walker across the finish line in the full marathon but we have no real way of tracking this. I hope the race organizers will have taken notice of the large number of walkers and make some changes to the registration next year.
The past few years have been so hot and sunny in Ottawa that I really didn’t expect Lani and I would be out cheering for more than two hours in the rain. Kudos to my two sons who stood out in the rain at the 27k/15k area for an hour, after their father passed by, to cheer for many more walkers (and runners, of course) before heading to the finish line. And kudos to all of you kept up your pace in difficult conditions – especially you full marathoners who really had very few supporters at the finish.
We cheered for everyone but when the walkers approached we put in an extra effort to break any noise bylaws Ottawa may have. I think we were successful judging by the positive response to our efforts. Our Wow walkers were incredible and we were so proud of them. Ottawa’s own Bytown Walkers also stood out with great form and speed. There were a great many walkers who seemed almost apologetic for being there. We told them to stand tall and stay strong; show the spectators that you’re proud to be walking the marathon.
While I’m proud of my own walking accomplishments, it was even more rewarding to be out on the course as a WoW Power Walking coach and cheerleader. To all my High Park walkers: you were amazing. To all other WoW Power Walkers: it was so easy to see you in the crowd walking fast, strong, and tall.
Congratulations to everyone who raced this weekend. You’re an inspiration to so many people.
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