The Runner | Saying goodbye to alcohol and getting started on second chances at the 2020 Hong Kong Marathon

The first marathon I ever ran was a disaster. After a few sub 46-minute 10K races, I was chock-full of confidence and ego as I set out in Vancouver’s BMO Marathon in 2018.

I went in fit, playing high-level hockey and soccer in Vancouver, running regularly and feeling great. But the weekend before the race, after six months of stringent training and healthy eating, I lost the plot at a friend’s bachelor party and had one too many beers and ingested one too many tequila shots.

The next morning it felt like I’d been hit by a bus, but it was the shame that really stung.

It was during my ninth split along the 42.2km route seven days later that I realised the grave error I’d committed. Averaging around five minutes, 30 seconds per kilometre up until then, I was flying. But then I hit “the wall”, the point in marathons where everything goes to hell. Glycogen stores become depleted, the liver starts screaming for relief and the body becomes the mind’s worst enemy.

My legs cramped, my vision blurred, and I slowed down to a virtual crawl. I watched as runner after runner passed me, and I was forced to walk most of the final five kilometres, only picking back up to a jog in the home stretch as onlookers cheered me on out of pity.