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.

Jean-Marc Doiron Misses Joggling Marathon World Record, But Joggles Blistering 2:52:39

Fellow Canadian Jean-Marc Doiron of Moncton, New Brunswick, ran the fastest debut 3-ball joggling marathon on May 12, finishing the Fredericton Marathon in 2 hours, 52 minutes and 39 seconds. It was also the third-fastest all-time behind my 2:50:12 world record at the 2007 Toronto Waterfront Marathon and Zach Warren's 2:52:15 at the 2006 Philadelphia Marathon.

"Disappointed," Doiron told CTV News after the race. "I was just so sure that I would get it, and to come so close, that's the first emotion."

Doiron joggled the race with a chest-mount GoPro to document the run for a Guinness World Record. He took off at a blistering pace, hitting 5K in 19:05, 10K in 38:24 and the half-marathon in 1:21:40, but then he says he hit the wall at about 32K and it was a fight to finish. Doiron says he dropped a ball about 10-15 times, and the fatigue from turning back and picking them up reminded him of running cross-country on a course with lots of turns. 

So is my world record safe? Probably not for long. Doiron says on Instagram that he plans to have another go at it this fall.

VIDEO: 5-Ball Joggling GoPro Footage from Toronto Waterfront Marathon

Zach Warren captured some pretty cool GoPro footage during my 5-ball joggling Guinness World Record attempt at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

"Juggling Show"

I took the day off from running and instead did some cross-training at home. The kids and I often do a thing called "Juggling Show," which involves me juggling and jumping around to music while the kids dress up as ballerinas and jump around and sometimes try to juggle. This was followed by an intense strength-training workout, including push-ups with a four-year-old girl sitting on my back.

I read an article recently about Anthony Gatto's practise methods. According to this write-up, Gatto practises 1-2 hours a day and during that time only spends about a minute working on any particular trick. He switches around continually between different props and numbers. This avoids the frustration of trying and failing one thing over and over, and that one minute per day per trick eventually leads you to mastery of many, many tricks. I've been following this training method and it does seem to work.

The Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon just announced that CBC Country Canada and cbcsports.ca will broadcast the race LIVE on Sept. 30, so if they happen to film me, it would likely be the first-ever live TV coverage of a joggling marathon.

From 0 to 60 in ... one week

Some cars can go from 0 to 60 in four seconds. It took me a week.

But I'm talking about running a total of 60 miles rather than reaching 60 mph. My top joggling speed is about 14 mph. Some day I'll find out my 0 to 14 performance rating. Until then, I'm pleased with my first full week of quality marathon training, which I just wrapped up with an early-morning 19-miler (the family's still asleep).

A couple of night's ago, we watched the movie 'Wordplay,' a surprisingly gripping film about crossword puzzles. Benjamin from Chump Change Productions said he's making his documentary about record breakers based on a similar formula. 'Wordplay' has no voice-over narrative, the story is told in the words of the crossword maniacs themselves.

I haven't done a crossword in several years, but Dianne and I recently subscribed to the Sunday New York Times, so we're going to tackle Will Shortz's puzzle today. Let's see if we can do it in the time it takes me to joggle a marathon.