Gillis finishes 22nd in men's marathon
LONDON — It was desperately hot on the streets of London when Antigonish's Eric Gillis set out early Sunday to run the marathon in the London 2012 Olympics, his second consecutive Olympic Games.
And Gillis played the 27 C heat to perfection, moving from 73rd position in a field of more than 100 runners to 22nd at the end.
All three Canadian runners in the field placed in the top 30 with B.C.'s Dylan Wykes 20th and Ontario's Reid Coolsaet, Gillis's training partner, 27th.
Gillis, 32, finished in 2:16:00 with Wykes at 2:15:26 and Coolsaet, who couldn't keep his breakfast down, at 2:16:29.
Gillis, who ran cross country at St. Francis Xavier, made a stready run to the front. He was 73rd after 10 kilometres, 57th at the half in 1:06:55; 35th at 35 kilometres and 27th at 40 kilometres.
"My plan was to go out slower and try to pick bodies off and I think I executed that well," he said under a brilliant afternoon sun at The Mall, near Buckingham Palace. "I'm happy with my final placing; happy with how I moved up in the second half."
Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda won the gold medal in 2:08:01 with Kenya's Abel Kirui second in 2:08:27 and Kenya's Wilson Kipsang third in 2:09:37.
Canada's goal wasn't to win, but to get some respectable finishes and to get one of the three runners below the all-time Canadian record of 2:10.08 set by Harry Jerome 37 years ago. The heat took care of any notions of a record run.
Gillis said he had to believe his slow and steady pace was the right way to attack the course. Most of the quick starters were at the back, or out of the race, by the time the Canadians came home.
"I had to have that confidence that would happen. Because the weather was like it was I was able to get a lot of bodies. I just kept passing and kept passing. There were a lot of guys coming back to me.
"Twenty-second, I'm pleased with that. I was hoping for top 16 but I'll take 22nd. It gives me confidence moving on."
Gillis, who scouted the course by watching the women's marathon on television while at a staging camp in Germany, likes to run in the cool. Sunday's heat made him bone dry.
"I took in nine bottles plus of water," he said. "I definitely felt the heat was building. But it wasn't as muggy as southern Ontario. So that was to my advantage. There were a lot of water stations out there and I just kept dousing myself, which I normally don't do.
"I could really tell the way I was passing guys, and the way guys were coming back to me, they were hurting. Guys were dropping out and slowing down. I just kept telling myself there were guys hurting more than I was and I had to take advantage. Relatively, I felt pretty good."
He still had something left at the end and battled a runner over the last kilometre for one more finishing position.
"I was really feeling strong towards the end. I had that sprint that I like to have at the end."
He was unaware where he was in the field until he heard he was 32nd late. He surged 10 more spots from there.
He heard from Canadian supporters in the throngs along the course.
He's going to keep going with the marathon and will pursue 2-3 per year over the next few years.
Canada hadn't had a male marathoner in the Olympics since 2000. Gillis said it was great to have three in London.
"It really took the pressure off us individually," he said. "People were cheering for a team out there and not just one."
It is an amazing feat that Gillis stood at the start line with the world's elite on Sunday morning.
A 10,000-metre runner in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, placing 33rd, he switched to the marathon only two years ago.
In Toronto last fall, he ran a 2:11:28, one second under the Olympic qualifying standard. Coolsaet also qualified in 2:10:55 in the Toronto race.
This spring, Wykes beat both of their times in Rotterdam at 2:10:47, meaning one time better than Gillis's before the deadline in May would bump him from the Canadian roster. Others tried, and some got
within a minute or two, but no one could do it.
The race course, packed with hundreds of thousands of supporters, was designed by former world 10,000-metre record holder David Bedford of Great Britain, who directed Sunday's marathon.
It began with a 2.2-mile starting loop from The Mall, followed by three eight-mile loops, passing most of London's downtown landmarks.
Gillis's run ends two weeks of competition for a record total of 11 Nova Scotia athletes in the London Olympics. Paddler Mark de Jonge is the only medal winner, capturing bronze in the final of the K-1 200 on Saturday at Eton Dorney.