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Ed's Sk8toronto Website
CASINO NIAGARA MARATHON -OCT 2002 NOTE: The skating portion of this marathon was cancelled a few years ago. It was a big disappointment for the skating community because it was a good route and close to Toronto. The casino Niagara Marathon starts in Buffalo, goes across the bridge at Fort Eire and ends up following the Niagara Parkway along the side of the Niagara River almost to the Horseshoe Falls. It is a really cool route for a marathon. All in all, the Niagara Marathon was another wonderful learning experience for me. In a lot of ways it was quite different from any of my other attempts at this distance. Weather conditions were pretty good for late October as the temperature reached perhaps 10 degrees C but there was a pretty strong west wind by race time and this was bound to slow things down. I decided to hammer a little harder than usual at the beginning of the race to ensure that I caught a ride with the fastest possible pack. For a little while I skated behind Morgan. Then he let a gap open up and by the time I realized he wasn't going to close it I had to fight really hard to get back in. I scolded myself and vowed to keep a closer eye on the skaters in front. At this point (perhaps 3 miles into the race) Herb, Beth and I were in the second pack and only 10-15 seconds behind the lead pack. We went up and over the Peace Bridge without incident, navigated the tight right hand turn at the end of the bridge and started into the big loop in Fort Erie. We passed the 10k mark in exactly 20 minutes. Now I knew for sure that there would be few PBs this day. As we passed under the Peace Bridge on the way back, I waved to my wife and daughter for the second time and realized that Herb had slipped off the pace. I hoped that he and Morgan would find a good group to skate with. Our pack had a secret weapon in the form of Mr. Bob Tysen and not long after we started down the Niagara Parkway he took a tremendous pull and the two packs merged. I would never have imagined that I would be skating with the lead pack at the 10-mile mark in this race. I could see Peter, Ian, Kevin Smith and Mike Murray closer to the front. Of course, I knew that this would never last. A big push came soon enough and I felt lucky just to avoid being dropped altogether. Self-doubt surfaced as I started to wonder if perhaps the proper pack for me was a minute or two behind. I could picture Herb and Morgan relaxing somewhere in the middle of a long drafting line A little voice told me to slow down and wait for the next pack but another voice told me that I'd done great up until now and I should keep on fighting as long as I could. Beth and I skated for a few miles with a group of 6 or so and we started picking up stragglers from the pack in front. Finally we picked them all up and the second amazing thing had happened. I was skating in a pack with the legendary Terry Holm. He was on the cover of my very first copy of FASST Magazine! I was feeling so special that I took a pull just so I could say I was ahead of Terry for a while. Well, all good things must come to an end and pretty soon, there was a big shakeout. That's when Beth and I found ourselves all alone with about seven miles to go. We talked confidently about being able to stay ahead of the pack behind us but we were worried. Then, in a lucky break for us, we picked up Roy Nave from Akron Ohio. He helped a lot by pulling for a good long way and really saved the day for us. Our pace had slowed down but we knew our positions were safe and we enjoyed the last few miles into the finish line. For two years, I've dreamed about beating Beth in a marathon. When it finally happened I was kind of sad. It's hard to explain but it's sort of like when a young man realizes that he could beat his father in an arm wrestle. As a teenager you can't wait to put the old man down but by the time you know for sure that you could win it doesn't matter any more. It boils down to respect. When it's important, nobody in our club fights harder than Beth for a good finish.
I finished the race in 19th place (7th Canadian eh) but only came second in my age category (50-55). Alan Marcosson from Cleveland -I'd like to meet you sometime so I can congratulate you on a great race! My time of 1:26:16 was pretty slow but that was due to the cool and windy conditions. I've met Alan a few times since this race and (for an old man) he can really go. I've never beaten him.
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This picture of me was taken by my coach Peter Doucet a few hundred meters into the race. I like it.