After the expo we walked back to the hotel to shower and change and then headed out to dine. We met up with Terry, Richard and Bonnie from the Running Room and decided on sushi at Miko’s. Excellent food. Afterwards we enjoyed a nice stroll up and down Robson. By this time it was around 8:30 and we headed to our rooms to try and relax. I laid out all my clothes for the morning, pinned my number on my shirt, tied the chip to my Asics runners and left a wake up call for 5am. Lights out around 10 and I proceeded to have a terrific sleep, unfortunately room mate Manfred’s was considerably worse as he claimed I snored for the next 6 hours! I was wide-awake 10 minutes before the wake up call. It looked to be a wet, dreary day outside. Had coffee and my oatmeal and put on my racing clothes covered by a throwaway sweatshirt and a lovely blue recycling garbage bag as makeshift rain jacket. Strangely enough I didn’t feel all that nervous, just excited and a little anxious but also healthy and fit.

We took the shuttle from the hotel and arrived at the Plaza of Nations around 6:20 for the 7:15 start. Shortly after I realized that I had left my custom-made pace bracelet back at the hotel. I didn't stress much over this as nothing could be done. I lined up for the porta-potties around 6:45 and didn’t get in till 7:05! Fifty porta-potties are just not enough for 12,000 bladders! The saddest thing was to watch the Half-marathoners still in the line up as the gun went off for their 7am start.

I found Lois and Paul and we made our way to the middle of the pack close to the 3:45:00 pace bunny. This was a bit farther back than I wanted to be but at this point there was no chance of moving through the sea of humanity we were in. Saw Manfred walk by on the outside of the pack but he didn’t hear me when I called out to him as he headed a little farther back. I had many strong feelings while waiting for the gun. They played "One Moment in Time" by Whitney Houston which I used to think was a corny, silly song but at that moment it was perfect and stirring. Watching the people around me I saw raw emotion and a few tears. I was welling up a bit myself... after all the months of training, after all the miles ran in preparation, after not drinking any of my beloved beer since January 1st I was finally here, at the start of my first and maybe only marathon. Then the count down to the gun began and the race was on. I took off feeling great but my right hip began to hurt a lot shortly after. I worried about this a bit but the pain went away after 5k or so. Off came my “rain jacket”. My breathing was a little laboured till around the 10k mark, which is normal for me. I ditched the sweatshirt about an hour into it, which was an indication of how cold it was, I didn’t remove it because I was hot, it was just getting too wet and heavy from the rain. I was running smooth through the city, the first crossing of the Burard Bridge and the Gastown stretch. We came into Stanley Park and started up Prospect Pt. Hill, which is the hardest

I began running again, up the ramp on to Burard Bridge for the last time. Somehow the steepness of the ramp had increased dramatically from the previous two times I crossed the damned bridge! I’m now feeling lonely and scared and I knew that I was teetering on the edge. I had always believed that I would finish; it was just a matter of how fast. Now I wasn’t so sure. The people cheering on the side of the bridge were fantastic. Where before the spectators seemed to be looking at other runners, now they seemed to be looking at me …I guess they tend to focus on the runners with the haunted look of on their faces! The words I heard most were “you can do it” and I remembered what John Stanton wrote on my book. Then…nearing the top of the climb, a young man was holding a sign high above him that read “Believe In Your Self”  This was an incredible mental and emotional boost. I tried to say “thanks man” or something like that but not much more than a grunt is what came out. Then there were only 2k left, all flat. I looked up and saw a runner in front of me wearing a shirt that had the seven stages of the marathon written on the back. I read the list..Ritual, Shock, Denial, Isolation when I got to the fifth stage “Despair” I understood exactly what it meant. I guess I must have said it out loud when I thought, “I know at which stage I am in right now” as a couple of runners beside me laughed. Then I smiled too because I knew I was going to make it. The last two stages are; Affirmation and Renewal...they would come. I could hear the music and cheering coming from the finish line. Then, there it was, that beautiful finish sign with the balloons over it… I pulled myself up as straight as I could and tried my best not to limp. I would cross that finish line looking like a runner and not just any runner…I was a marathoner.

So, I didn’t get my B.Q. time. Perhaps the running gods don’t approve of first timers getting their way so easy. That’s ok, I learned much about my body, my mind and my spirit. 3:32:59 is what my official time was and I’m very happy with it. I’m also very happy with an incredible thought that I had somewhere along those very painful last 5k, it was… "I want to do this again; I want to run another marathon"! I will.

Fred van der Gaag,  Kelowna, BC, June 2003