5-4-3-2-1, I close it and run!
I don't care about the temperature, the wind or even the route. You could tell me that we go around 53 times a running track, that it would pass me 21km above the head.
I just want my 1400, my endurance team camisole, a pair of shorts, my bracelet for lap times and my watch.
"What are you doing Dom for the Montreal marathon?"
- I resume my place where I left it in April 2015.
I will have 3 weeks left before my event A of the season, the Chicago Marathon. And it is time for me to put a real time on my current physical form. 1h15, 1h16, 1h17? I don't really care ... It's not the result that counts, it's the process.
"Do you have a time in mind"?
- Yes, I want to make my first km in 3 minutes 40. Because a race is 1 km at a time.
It's always the same, the week before an event… Real food for me. I run less, I feel marabout, I am more hungry, I have the impression of feeling full of sores that I had not had for a long time, I feel heavier, I am nervous and I am afraid to have made all these efforts for nothing and not to have improved myself!
I will not cross the line first Sunday, like about 20,000 other runners. I don't care, I will have only one opponent ... My body that wants to slow down. But I have a steel mind and it is my determination to want to overcome this course which will ultimately win.
Pasta, water, gatorade, protein, not a lot of fiber, I drop the lipids and I reduce my running volume. My recipe is simple. Don't share your miracle product with me, keep it for someone else. I did the work, I don't need a prodigy to be satisfied with my race.
I'm going to leave on a conservative pace, despite my excess energy at the start. It would be easy to get carried away, but what good is it to gain a few seconds at the start of the race if I know it will make me lose several minutes towards the end. It's a new idea to run fast when it's easy ... Anyone can do that. But that would be to doubt my training and my ability to finish strong.
My clock will go off at 4.30 a.m. on Sunday morning, but I will already be standing up like an overly excited kid on December 25. I will eat my pasta dish about 2h30 before departure and I will listen to my favorite video ` ` why do we fall '' in loop until I leave the condo. A little warm-up in addition to educational with the most beautiful racing club in the world a few minutes before kick-off. We clap our hands, we look each other in the eyes and we admire each other, before leaving each other towards our corrals.
As I head for the start, I will be emotional. I will have a tear in my eye during the national anthem, because I love this moment of peace before the storm…
5-4-3-2-1
For a single passing, the passing of myself, I close it and run.
Dominic Royer, kinesiologist and registered massage therapist
