You try to sketch every possible aspect of your day out when something this meaningful is about to take place. I am running a marathon, after all. 

What pair of shoes to wear? What should I eat? How many hours must I sleep? Nothing is supposed to catch you flat-footed on a day like that. 

And yet 99% of the times at least one thing does. I went out for the day I decided to run my marathon – Sunday, May 3 – but I did not know what to listen during the race. It sounds utterly silly, I know. 

But I didn’t want to get either overly pumped or too relaxed. Believe me: music has the ability to flip a switch in me rather quickly. So I made my mind on the fly and went with hip pop. It ended up being a very fitting choice and started like this:

Toronto Marathon organisers came up with a very interesting approach when the race’s cancelation was imminent. A large array of options was presented to participants. 

My option was to run a virtual race. It was pretty straightforward: you run the distance, upload the file with your tracked performance and a medal and a shirt are delivered to your place. 

I decided to run on the original date set for the race because this was the obvious choice given my training schedule. But make no mistake: COVID-19 requires extra awareness and making sure I stayed 6ft away from people was a must throughout the course.  

Three hours, forty minutes and fifty one seconds later and I had accomplished what I could not even have dreamed of a couple of years ago. I finished a marathon. All the effort put into it had paid off and it couldn’t feel better. 

I must say running 42,195 metres by yourself is quite challenging. A nagging left calf injury rendered me very reluctant to start off as strong. Without the dose of adrenaline stemming from a crowd, I only picked up my pace as I left Steeles Avenue down to Yonge Street. 

From Yonge I took a right at the waterfront and enjoyed 5 kilometres to the BMO Field and back. Just as I crossed Yonge Street again and finished my race, Notorious B.I.G.’s “Sky is The Limit” was next on the playlist. 

It could not get any better than that, could it?