The last we met Whitehorse runner David Eikelboom, he was preparing for the Shanghai Marathon on Nov. 17. He got the invitation to China based on his results in the Vancouver Marathon last May.

In Vancouver, Eikelboom finished the marathon in two hours, 25 minutes and 26 seconds, making him the seventh overall finisher and second Canadian to finish behind only Robin Watson. When Watson declined the invitation to China, it opened the door for Eikelboom to go.

Heading into the Shanghai race, Eikelboom said he wanted to get his time down to 2:20 because "opportunities really open up in the 2:20 range."

Things did not go according to plan in China; he finished the race around the two hour, 40-minute mark.

"2:40 isn't even close," said Eikelboom. "The opening half I did in 1:13, which is good, but I did faster than that in Vancouver. I could tell by then it wasn't going to go well."

When looking back on the race, he said, he can't target one thing that went wrong.

"It wasn't one thing," said Eikelboom. "It was 18 C at the start and 22 C during the race, so it was a warm day. There was the travel and my sleep did not get adjusted, and there was some injury stuff. I had some right foot and calve stuff and couldn't pound out long runs before.

"There was no one thing, just a bunch of little things, and the race reflected that."

After a race, Eikelboom said he will do a reflection of what went well or what to improve, given the circumstances during the Shanghai marathon he said it made the reflection harder.

"It's hard to see what went wrong and what to do better," said Eikelboom. "There is no overhaul I have to do."

The race featured 38,000 runners and was the second-largest marathon he has competed aside from Boston. Some outside factors that may have contributed to a slower time.

"It was wild," said Eikelboom about the area around the start line. "I've been to Boston, but this expo was like Boston on steroids. There was nothing calm or peaceful about it. The race itself was like that at the start the music was loud."

Eikelboom was classed with the other elite runners, so he began the race out front of the crowd. Getting registered didn't go as smoothly as one would have hoped.

"We arrived separate from the other elite runners," said Eikelboom. "The morning of the race, they gave us different bibs, then we learned we needed both bibs. It was almost a comedy of errors. The ability to deal with the bad stuff is not lost on me.

"I could have went into panic mode, but I stayed relaxed."

That resiliency is what Eikelboom said is one thing he was proud when he was looking for positives about the race.

"If you set hard goals and don't reach them, it feels awful," said Eikelboom. "I did a good job running what I was capable of that day. I could have gotten negative with myself.

"Next time I'm feeling good, I'll have much more ability to focus on the positive and now I have all this practice when it isn't fun. The ability to deal with unforeseen circumstances is the theme of this experience."

He also said that he "nailed his nutrition plan."

When Eikelboom spoke with the Star before heading to China, he said he often cries at the end of races because "it takes a great deal of personal and emotional investment and that requires you, at times, to bury things in the basement."

It was no different in China as he approached the finish at the Shanghai Stadium.

"I just wept at the end," said Eikelboom. "There is a lot that got invested into it, and I cracked up in the stadium."

The race started in downtown Shanghai, and when looking at the race route, the course passes well-known monuments in the city like Longhua Temple. Eikelboom said he didn't see any of the popular destinations.

"The course was really good and had lots of people around," said Eikelboom. "Since I wasn't feeling great, I focused on the positive and thought, let's externalize and look around the course.

"I was looking for the monuments but didn't see any of them. My wife was there and she has a picture at one of them."

Shanghai was Eikelboom's last race of the year. He has done four long-distance races.

"I raced too often this year," said Eikelboom. "I did two marathons and two ultramarathons, and it's way too much."

When he races again, he said, he wants to have a full build-up to it. For training, Eikelboom said he is still going to focus on his 10-km speed. Eikelboom hones in on areas he deems weak. Before Shanghai, he was working on his sprinting to improve his running economy to become a more efficient runner.

"I still think that's the right thing to focus on, and now we will go back to that," said Eikelboom.