Michal Kapral Joggling the Ottawa Marathon in 3:08:26

I crossed the finish line with a big goofy grin. I had forgotten just how fun and how tough it was to run a marathon while juggling. In my first joggling marathon in eight years, I finished the Ottawa Marathon in 3 hours 8 minutes and 26 seconds. That's an age-group joggling marathon world record for the 50-59 category (if anyone cares except me). My age-graded equivalent time is 2:45:56, which is 4 minutes under my world record of 2:50:12 that I set as a young lad 17 years ago, so all-in-all a solid effort.

The spectators went completely wild as I joggled past, so I could not stop smiling and laughing. After a clean start, I settled into a good pace near the 3:05 pacer and did a bit of a tortoise and the hare routine with that group as I had to come to a complete stop at the fuel stations to chug a few cups of sports drink before taking off again to catch up and pass them. It was a pretty hot day so I stopped for water and fuel much more than I usually would for a joggling marathon.

I dropped a ball for no apparent reason at around 8k and it was actually a bit of a relief not to worry about a drop-free race anymore after that point. I dutifully stepped back to behind the drop point and continued on, following the official joggling rules, to make sure I was juggling every step forward of the 42.2km.  

The race had some welcome misting stations, but when I ran through the first one, my glasses got completely covered in water droplets and I had to stop to wipe them off, costing a good 20-30 seconds.

Eventually the 3:05 group pulled ahead and I let them go knowing the pace was a bit too hot for my 52-year-old self. It's hard to adjust your running pace as you get older because you just assume you can still run as fast as you used to. I knew that my 2:50 world record time age-graded to about a 3:13, so my goal was to stay under that and hopefully keep the 3:10 pace bunny behind me.

I hit the half feeling good in a little over 1:33 and had thoughts of a negative split, but some sizable hills in the last 10k of the race put a damper on that idea. I had one more random drop somewhere around 32k and then just focused on staying smooth and relaxed. 

I couldn't look at my watch so had no idea what any of my splits were except for the half because there was a clock. I just knew that the 3:05 bunny was ahead and the 3:10 was behind. The kilometre marker flags weren't easy to spot so I often didn't know how far along I was, either. I remember seeing the 35km flag when I thought I was only at 33k, a pleasant surprise!

At some points the course doubled back on itself so you can see other runners going the other direction. One of these times, Dianne and I crossed paths and I was excited to see that she was ahead of the 3:50 pace bunny.

I heard lots of funny comments from the crowd, but as usual I forget most of the good ones. When I passed by one of the doubling back points, I heard a guy shout, "Oh my god, he's still juggling!" I told some of the kids who had outstretched arms for a high-five "Sorry, no hands." Lots of people yelled, "Go, Olympus Burger!" because I secured a hilarious sponsorship with my local burger joint in Port Hope, Ontario, and had their logo printed on my singlet.

At certain points, I got pretty emotional out there, laughing and tearing up at the same time. It takes a lot of hard work to train for this kind of thing, so to finally be celebrating the frivolity of running a marathon while juggling got me all choked up. There was a huge roar near the finish line. I soaked it all in as I finished my ninth joggling marathon only a minute off my first joggling marathon time in 2005. It's good to be back.

Dianne, meanwhile, kept ahead of that 3:50 pace bunny and finished in an amazing 3:49:21.

Dianne and Michal Kapral, celebrating the 2024 Ottawa Marathon
finish with a Kichesippi beer.