| | |  News from Around Banderas Bay | January 2009 
Canadian Marathon Champion in Vallarta
 Bob Cohen - PVNN
| | Louis-Philippe Garnier, three time Canadian Masters champion in the marathon has been training in Puerto Vallarta this winter for the upcoming prestigious Boston Marathon. | |
Unknown to me until two weeks ago, Puerto Vallarta has been a part time home to a very talented French Canadian 44 year old marathon champion this winter. Louis-Philippe Garnier of Montreal has been training in sunny Puerto Vallarta since late November for the upcoming Boston Marathon, which he has run in the Masters Division (40+ years old) since 2005. Through an email introduction by a fellow Canadian I recently met, Louis-Philippe and I were finally able to meet for an early lunch after an exchange of a number of emails and a few phone calls.
When we met he sure looked younger than 44 and I almost asked for identification for proof of age. He didn't start to take running seriously until he was 26 years of age, opting for sports such as hockey, badminton and weightlifting. At first he started to run to stay in shape but he wasted no time and ran his first marathon a year later in an incredible time of 2 hours, 39 minutes.
Keep in mind that the world record for the marathon is 2 hours, 3 minutes and 59 seconds and that the distance is 26 miles and 385 yards or 42.195 kilometers. The world record for a 40 year old is held by Andres Espinoza of Mexico and his time was 2 hours, 8 minute and 46 seconds. The record for a 45 year old is 2 hours, 14 minutes and 16 seconds and the record for a 49 year old is 2 hours, 19 minutes and 29 seconds. Louis now runs a very consistent 2 hour, 30 minute marathon, so he is just 15 minutes off the pace of the worlds best at his age.
Louis limited his early marathon running to only events in or close to Montreal. During the ages of 30-34 he had a number of minor injuries that limited his races to just 5K or 10K runs. Starting at such a late age in life for such a demanding sport, his dreams of breaking any world records or winning races looked bleak, but once he was physically healthy again, he trained, and trained and trained. If I got nothing more from our talk is that Louis is extremely cerebral in his approach to running and training.
Reaching the age of 40 and then eligible for the Masters Division, his perseverance began to pay off. He was the Canadian National Masters champion in the years of 2005, 2007 and 2008 in a marathon that is run annually in Ottawa, the Capital of Canada, running times within the range of 2 hours, 28 minutes - 2 hours, 32 minutes. With his success as Canada's best 40+ marathon runner, he hooked up with some fellow Montreal runners and chartered a bus to run in the prestigious Boston Marathon during those years.
His best time ever was in Ottawa in 2003 in the Open division, where he recorded a time of 2 hours, 26 minutes. He ran in the Boston Marathon Open division for the first time in 2000 but "hit the wall" at 32 kilometers and his last 10 kilometers was a marathon runners nightmare, just doing anything to cross the finish line as other runners passed him.
He ran his first Boston Marathon in 2005 in the Masters division, finishing 4th and hasn't missed one since. In 2008 he ran his best time in Boston but finished 10th, running the course in 2 hours, 30 minutes. His best finish in Boston was 3rd in 2006 and was only a minute from the second place finisher. He was 5th in 2007 and in the four years his times haven't varied much. His best was 2:30 and worst was 2:33.
Louis had visited Puerto Vallarta five times for only a week or two in previous years, but this winter season, he extended his stay to 9 ½ weeks for two reasons. The first reason was to introduce a training program to vacationing runners from Quebec. He reached them through a website for French speaking runners at www.courir.org. He was successful enough to consider a four month stay next winter as he will reach out beyond the French speaking market. To reach Louis to learn more about his training vacation, one can email him at lprunner@yahoo.ca. The second reason he chose to spend more time here was to train in our perfect weather for the 2009 Boston Marathon.
Training is a religion for Louis, a ritual that must be followed to be successful. Some of his racing strategies are "never race against a man or a front runner, race the race. I have seen too many people try to keep pace with a front runner and abandon their strategy and finish far back." Louis mentioned another practice of "each mile I run at exactly the same pace, which leaves me more than enough strength and energy to pass others and weakening runners after 2+ hours." He doesn't consider a marathon long in reality; he is comfortable with running 50 kilometers and he stated "the longer the race the better." I was thinking that driving that far in Puerto Vallarta would tire me.
A normal day of training here in Vallarta brings Louis out to the track at the stadium at about 8:00 AM runs 12-15 kilometers, sometimes on the track and sometimes around the perimeter of the stadium. Later in the day he does some work at the gym that includes stretching, some yoga and a bit of weight training. He often goes back at 6:00 PM for more running. He trains for speed three times a week, which involves sprinting two laps (1/2 mile), running a slow lap followed by another two lap sprint, until he gets the needed training to complete the early evening workout.
Through out the years I have been living and writing in Puerto Vallarta I have had the opportunity to meet many professional and spectacular athletes and had opportunities to interview them. Louis- Philippe Garnier without a doubt falls into the elite category of athletes I have come to know. We wish you the best in the upcoming Boston Marathon and we will look for you blazing around the track next winter. |
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