Successfully finished the Ottawa Marathon: bagged my 200th marathon, my wife completed her Seven Continents half marathon journey, and our family of four took our 4th overseas medal group photo
On Sunday, May 25, 2025, I participated in Canada's Ottawa Marathon. The full marathon started at 7:00 AM, and the half marathon at 9:00 AM. My corral started at 7:20 AM, while my wife, daughter, and son were in a corral starting at 9:14 AM. The temperature for the entire day was between 7 and 18°C, and 9 to 14°C during the full marathon. The course passed by several famous Ottawa landmarks, such as Parliament Hill, the Canadian War Museum, Kiweki Point, the National Gallery of Canada, Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica, Rideau Hall, Dow's Lake, the Rideau Canal, the Ottawa River, and numerous parks. With beautiful scenery and lush greenery, it wasn't nearly as crowded with runners as the Paris or Vienna marathons. The course featured many bridges along with some rolling hills, making for its share of ups and downs. Thanks to the cool weather in the first half, accidentally wandering into Corral A and starting early at 7:07 AM, and being constantly passed by other runners throughout the first half, I clocked 1 hour, 56 minutes, and 19 seconds for the first half marathon.
In the second half of the marathon, the sun came out, and fatigue set in rapidly. Although the temperature didn't exceed 20 degrees, the sun felt intense, leaving me struggling with little energy left. When you don't accumulate enough mileage, this is the result. In the end, my finish time was 4:02:40, successfully completing my 200th marathon.
After finishing, I went to retrieve my gear bag, pulled out my phone, and quickly checked the live tracking for the other three. My son finished first, and we cooled down and stretched; then my daughter came back, and finally, my wife crossed the finish line. Congratulations to her on completing her seventh-continent (North America) half marathon! Afterward, we happily went to take our family marathon group photo—following the Angkor Wat Marathon, Australia's Gold Coast Marathon, and Thailand's Chiang Rai Marathon, this completed our fourth family marathon photo.
# Ottawa is 12 hours behind Taiwan # The pacers for this race were divided into very fine intervals; since I lined up quite near the front, after the start I was gradually passed by the 3:40, 3:45, 3:50, 3:55, and 4:00 pacers # The Ottawa Marathon course has no cobblestones, but the asphalt isn't completely flat—having weathered winter snow and thaw cycles, there are quite a few patches on the road surface to watch out for # Results search website: https://sportstats.one/event/ottawa-race-weekend?eventid=42662
