Hi team! Well I made it through my 30K yesterday!
Thankfully the weather was nice for most of the morning yesterday and the rain held off until the afternoon. Here's my race report - feel free to skip, it's a little long.
The Around the Bay race was held in Hamilton, ON which is about an hour outside of Toronto. I didn't realize exactly how the old the race was. The medal says 116 year anniversary and the shirt we got says "Older than Boston". DF and I met up with Kim and Mike (DH) on Saturday for lunch to check out the expo. Kim looks fabulous and you can really see the efforts from weight loss!
Lunch was too short (as it usually is) so we'll have to catch up again before Scotiabank or Midsummer Night's. Are you guys in for that race again?
Skipping ahead to Sunday morning... DF was nice enough to drive me out to Hamilton and wait until the end of the race. I didn't think it was really necessary - at first
After the race, I was very glad not to have to make the drive home by myself. We arrived at about 8:30AM, parked the car and waited indoors at Copps Coliseum until about 9:15AM or so and headed out to the start. I guess I should mention at this point that my left ankle wasn't feeling that great. I knew about my ankle the week before the race so I tried to stay off as much as I could but it definitely wasn't back to 100%. I found the 2:45 hr pace bunny but that was waaay faster than I could ever hope to run. DF spotted the 3:00 hr and noticed his sign read 10R/1W. I thought if I stayed behind his group, I'd be okay. So I waited about 10 people or so behind but lost him even before I crossed the start line. I was chatting with someone before the start but I didn't think he'd take off that quickly.
The course winds through most of downtown Hamilton, crosses the highway and then goes into some residential neighborhoods by the waterfront and then heads back to the start. The downtown area was filled with row houses - definitely nothing to look and actually quite boring. The roads themselves were pretty beat up so not the easiest on the feet plus you had to watch out for potholes and dips. The nice thing was seeing the residents coming out to cheer on the runners. I thought that was really nice since we were blocking all of their roads!
I crossed the 10K mat at about 1:03 which not bad. Unfortunately, my ankle was already sore and achy. But I didn't wake up at 6AM and drive for an hour to quit at 10K so I told myself I'll see what happens at 15K. I figured at least there would be buses and food at the 15K point - there were relay teams doing the race so there were exchange points at 10K, 15K, and 20K. At 15K, the ankle pain had become quite noticeable but thought "What's another 5K?" At the very least, I'll have done a half marathon distance so on I went. Just after the 15K mat, the 3:15 pace bunny caught up to me. She was doing 10/1 so I ran with their group for a bit but couldn't keep up after the 20K marker
By this time, the top of my foot and ankle were burning so I had to slow down.
At 20K, the course goes through a really pretty neighborhood. Some of the houses back onto the lake but really, the area seemed almost like part of the countryside rather than part of a city. The cool thing about this part of the course was that some of the residents had set up their own aid stations and were handing out water cups, orange slices, bananas and candy. Definitely not something I've seen at many races before.
Here, the course had changed into rolling hills - I was okay with the uphills but the feet were unhappy with the downhills and I actually had to force myself to slow down. At 25-26K, there was a massive downhill which I wished I could have just run quickly down. From this downhill, you could see a big hill on the other side of the lake that you had to go back up. This is the hill that everyone talks about. But as much as I was hurting, I didn't think the hill was that bad. I did feel some burning in my quads when I got to the top but I had done some hill repeats so I felt prepared. I spotted the grim reaper and company at 27K. I've heard they come out every year. I got a real kick out of them trying to get runners to "rest" at the side of the road. Definitely put a smile on my face!
The final 3K was a slight downhill and lots of people out on the streets cheering us on! The race ended back at Copps Colesium with the runners entering the building through a loading dock area and then onto the finish line! So my finish was 3:36:01
not very impressive but something I'm glad I got done! And hey, I'm still upright and walking today so that's got to count for something. I posted my race and medal pictures on Facebook. So if you're on there - you can check it out!
Will catch up with everyone later! Have a training session and then a family dinner afterward. Thanks for reading (if you made it this far)
!
We miss you!
which means I have to wait a little while longer before we have the money to get them. I'm hoping in the next month we can go to the local running store and check it out. I have switched to technical socks and am liking them. So far I have only noticed the blisters when I have run on the TM though. Thanks for all the tips and tricks!!
For your ankle/foot issues!
Defiantley at expo for Scotia. We are there and I think I talked Kevin into another go at it....just cause this is the 3rd in a series of medals and he has the first 2
I have got one down and taken off the decorations that I can reach on the other two, but they are low on Dh's list so they have stayed up!!!! I think if our HOA where not so strich we would still have the lights outside.
