Scotia Half Marathon Race Report

Race weekend started off with  a bit of a bang..we checked into our hotel and were upgraded..to the 35th (top) floor and a named room:

This suite was (a lot) bigger than our first apartment and included dining room, living room, powder room, huge bedroom and another bathroom.

Race day dawned after a primo sleep, even with the people beside us who apparently got their party on the night before.  We drifted off to sleep with the ladies yelling:  “Shots!  WooHoo!” down the hallway.  I remember those days..now I go to bed at 10pm and run races.

I win.

My friend S and I walked down to the start line and made the completely wrong gamble of which side of street to walk on to get into the corrals.  We went right resulting in a whole bunch of extra walking.  Left for the win.

The marathon itself was filled with great stories:

• 2 Canadians qualifying for the Olympics
• 80 yr old Ed Whitlock setting a record for the marathon – in 3:15. 3:15 people!
• 100yr old Fauja Singh finishing the marathon.

and the awful in that a 27yr old died on the course.  So sad for his family.

Other than the clusterf*ck that was the corrals, the race itself was great.  Very nice course, amazing volunteers, great specators etc.  The only tough part was the wicked wind that was along the first 10km of the course and the finish itself.  The last 500m is a bit of an incline..enough that it tore my poor quads up.  The hubs grabbed some icky shots of me with about 300m to go.  Notice I am looking down AGAIN!

I didn’t make my PB goal.  I kept going through the course thinking:
“I’m too fast..slow down..I’m too slow..speed up”. Around 16km I knew I wasn’t going to PB so I didn’t quit.  My splits show I was trying to make up time but it just wasn’t quite enough.  I finished in 2:33, my second fastest half marathon.

So with legs still sore, I registered for the Road2Hope half marathon on Nov 6th to give’er another shot.

I don’t quit, I just try again.