Rio de Janeiro Marathon

First off, I (unexpectedly) fell in love with Rio right away so that certainly colours my perspective on the race. It was hard to leave when the time came.

The race expo was big, fun and easy to find. They had a section just for international runners where everyone spoke English (you don’t find that many English speakers in Brazil). I actually really liked the race swag and have worn the shirt a few times, although the race bib was printed cheaply and the shirt I wore on race day got ruined from the ink rubbing off.

We were staying near where everyone stays by Copacabana beach, and took a taxi to where the buses would be going to the start. It was a cab ride neither of us will ever forget. The guy ran all five of the red lights we hit. Every single one. And had a near accident at a pretty high speed with a van, though we all emerged unscathed. A cab ride to get your adrenaline pumping for sure.

Since the race was a point to point ending in the city, it was quite the drive. They had tons of buses and were well organized, except that the driver didn’t know where to go because of all the construction so we kept driving in circles until a local on the bus went up to act as navigator, from which point we got right on our way. Since we had to be there so early to get a bus, we still had plenty of time before the start. The atmosphere on the bus was electric and everyone was getting pretty excited and taking selfies.

While on the bus, since we left at 5:30am, we got to see Rio’s wilder side with late night partiers and ladies of the evening. It was fascinating and a side of the city we would never have otherwise seen. We considered it like a tour of the city…

The start ha lots of porta potties, some reserved only for women. They were in a terrible state inside but we got our business done and got out of there.

I enjoyed the start, the energy and the enthusiasm. We went around for a little bit and then ended up running next to the beach, which we’d be doing for a long, long, long time. I liked it because I got to see another side of Rio,with the early morning exercisers, and yet more partiers who were still going strong at 8am. Crowd support was, as I expected, nonexistant until we got into the heart of the city. There were absolutely no facilities available for our use from the start of the race until the halfway point, the start for the half marathoners. Fortunately there were plenty of bushes nearby.

The other runners more than made up for the lack of crowd support. I really felt the vibe and the energy throughout the race. By the time we hit the tunnel I was very relieved and excited for the change of scenery, so much so that I got a crazy burst of energy and felt like I was flying, after the beautiful, but monotonous, stretch by the beach.

It felts like there was a water stop every time I opened my eyes. I was really impressed by that, and by the baggies you could just tear open with your teeth and suck down the fluid so you didn’t have to worry about spillage. Also, the sports drink was Gatorade, so it worked well for me. I have never, ever drank as much during a race as I did there. Though it was hot, I never felt dehydrated.

I’d heard about the laser show but was unprepared for how hard hitting it would be.The music, the lights, it was incredible and a really great idea. Gives you a lot of pep halfway through the race!

Right after the tunnel we came across a bay that, for me, was the most scenic spot of the entire course. I felt like we were flying over it and that was my absolute favourite moment of, not only the entire race, but the entire trip.

I’d heard the entire race was flat. That’s not true. It’s mostly flat, until you come to the one long hill (reminiscent of Cape Town). I wisely decided to walk the uphill, but I still lost my legs on it and ran using mostly arm strength for the next 15-16 kilometres. Still, we got to go through a favela at the top of the hill and I really enjoyed that, seeing the people and interacting with them.

The downhill was very welcome, though my leg muscles were really throbbing at this point so the pounding was quite painful. At one point I saw a runner off to the side, obviously in exruciating pain, with two of his fellow runners tending to him. I thought of him often for the next several kilometres and how I was so fortunate not to be in pain like that.

From about the 32 to 40k mark we were back running along the water but in the area I was more familiar with. Here there was lots of support, but with the state my legs were in I was down to a run walk. Still going though. I somehow made it to the Windsor Atlantic, the 40k mark, and turned inland for the final stretch.

I do believe the course was long, by a significant margin. Nonetheless, I struggled but I made it to the finish line and got my fastest time since January 2009 by a margin of more than 10 minutes.

All the hard work paid off, I made it to the finish line and felt wonderful about it.

After the finish there was a really long single file corral to go through. The thing is I just needed to get off my legs but I had to wait in a long slow line behind other runners getting food and water. My stomach couldn’t take anything but I still couldn’t get past them so that was frustrating. Also, to get your bags from bag check you had to walk literally almost another kilometre. I was in so much pain that I felt that was unnecessarily cruel, especially because there was so much room closer to the start where they could have stopped anywhere.

Fortunately we were able to snag a cab back to the hotel, despite the massive throng of marathoners who went across the street from the finish to one particular pub. We weren’t sure why but they all seemed to be having a blast.

We waited for weeks after the race for an email about where we could see our race pictures, there’d been photographers all along, and when we never received anything I contacted the race organizers. They wrote me back explaining that you had to go to the Facebook page of one of their sponsors to get the pictures. I don’t understand why wouldn’t have been advised of that. On the plus side, they gave us all the photos for free and there were lots of them!

Overall, a great experience, though the organization isn’t yet quite to the standards of the world’s big marathons. Still, there are some points on which they really do shine and I’m confident they have the potential to make this a world class event.