As race day approached, I was actually crazy nervous. I'd done this distance (and more) at least three times so I knew I COULD do it. I think what spooked me the most was the unknown - I had no clue how the set up was going to be (I like to know in advance where the start line is, that kind of thing) or what the route looked like so I was winging it, totally.
I'm not a fan of winging it. :)
I was very fortunate that Micheal decided to come along with me to do the driving, see me off at the start line and welcome me back at the finish. Best cheerleader ever.
Race started bright and early at 7am. Insanity. And chilly!
A few minutes after 7 we were off. I'd seen the elevation maps and they looked quite flat with one significant exception where there was a huge downhill then the corresponding uphill. The first few k were rather flat-eque with a few exceptions, then further on Finch as we passed Bathurst and headed towards Dufferin, everything turned to shit.
This is a crappy picture as I was snapping it on the run (pardon the pun - whomp whomp) but yeah, down then up up up up up. Then up some more, just when you thought you were done the uphill part!Flying down the hill was fun, up was a real trudge but I managed.
Once we rounded the corner on Dufferin we weren't on the streets much longer, then it was into G. Ross Lord park. Nice to run through a park for the most part, then the landscape opened up more and we were running on paths amidst the power lines. Lost some of its picturesque-ness but it was nice to get off the main roads where the traffic was less than kind to those of us running, blocked lanes or not.
And I was able to avail myself of a much needed porta potty as we crossed a street into the second part of the park - my first on route rest stop during a race ever. Seeing that blue structure appear on the horizon was delightful, to say the least.
Pit stop completed, I headed back into the park just after the 10k mark. Continued through the power lines, for another three or so k, then as we came out of the park we emerged back into civilization and hit the turn off point for the 25k folks. At that point I couldn't be more grateful that I'd elected to do the 15k. Not that I COULD do the 25, but still. By the split we only had 1k left and they had 11. Zoinks. Noooooo thank you.
Rounding the corner we met up with the 5k runners, a huge volume of whom were nearing their end as well. Kids, strollers, runners of all speeds and expertise melted into one lane of traffic and the dodging and weaving began for me. I was so grateful to have less than one k to go in all this chaos.
So you can imagine my surprise when that one k came and went and I was still running.
And running, and running and running.
We were on Yonge St by then and since it's a downhill it was easy to see a sea of blue shirts ahead of me. Well ahead of me, for a good long time. What the whut? Aren't we supposed to be done by now!?
Seriously, nothing more disheartening than thinking you're done and having to just keep going. Fack.
Before I started the race I was hoping to finish in 2 hours. Actually, I told myself I'd have been ecstatic with 2 hours, all things considered. So you can imagine my glee when my Nike app told me the elapsed time at 15k was 2:00:49. Woot! And yet there was still so much more route to run!
Finally rounded one final corner and made my way through the finish chute. Was an interesting experience because we were surrounded by thousands of other people crossing at the same time, but they'd all done the 5k so it was a completely different feel. 3,600 people did the 5k. 1,000 did the 15 or 25k. So yeah, there were lots of people all crammed into the same space finishing around the same time (the 5k started at 8:30) which just felt...weird. Don't know how else to put it.
Micheal was there right as I crossed and I quickly grabbed my medal and got the hell out of the finish area. He'd had more than enough time to scope out the celebration area so we made our way over there which was good, because it helped me stretch out my legs a bit post race.
Legs ended up being rather okay, which I was happy about. Chiro and stretching are helping! Sadly I've somehow managed to pooch my neck and shoulders so that totally sucks now, but I digress.
The food pickins were fantastic after the race. There were bins full of chocolate milk containers everywhere, and ones with bananas, too. Liberte had a truck there with free yogurt, and there were separate food stations serving pizza, grilled cheese and burritos throughout the space. I had a hankering for grilled cheese so that's the direction we headed in. After making it through the massive line we made a beeline for the car so we could get out of there and head home. At that point it was just too many people for me and I needed to GTFO, so we did.
Tried to eat my grilled cheese in the car but surprisingly I didn't like it so alas, no grilled cheese for me. I was fortunate, however, to finally find a Starbucks that had a pumpkin scone on hand so my quest for that was over and I enjoyed my well deserved reward.
All in all it was a good experience. The volunteers for the event were fantastic - they were everywhere, cheering us on, always smiling. Really really helped, and they should all be commended. I think I was most disheartened that the race was longer than it was supposed to be only for the mental aspect at the end, but in the long run it actually worked in my favour as there's 18k on the schedule for this week and I was never going to get to that (no desire to run an extra 3k after a race!) so 16 will have to do.
Very glad it's done. Now to sleep in tomorrow and make up for getting up so insanely early this morning.
Next race? The half marathon in less than a month. Eeps! Getting close, oh so very close.
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