November 2013 recap

November stats. One of my lower mileage months in a while!
Run: 146.6 km
Time: 14:19:09


My primary focus this month after the Road 2 Hope has been rest and recovery. After an intense fall training/racing season,  I was tired. And there were a few nagging pains here and there - the groin problem from Scotiabank that kept coming back, a random pain in my thigh that come out of nowhere (and disappeared about as quickly). Nothing particularly major, but enough to know my body was saying it needed a bit of a break. So I took some days off, and now I've dialed back the mileage and taken my running slow and easy for the last couple of weeks. Other than that one LSD with Sam where Sam forgot the 'slow' part - although it's pretty good evidence of how far my running has come that a 5:34/km pace over 14k wasn't hard to maintain. But I'm mostly skipping speedwork for a while and sticking with easy running. I'm now ache and pain free and feeling really energized and excited about winter training.

Why do I haul my ass out of bed early to run? This helps.

My husband and I managed to get in a run together (yay for ditching the children!), and my brother came out to Burlington to run part of the Around the Bay route. I get way too much enjoyment out of taking people on the hilly section of the route for the first time.

Beautiful run along the lake on a very very cold day.

I've also visited the Chedoke stairs twice, which is always a good time. I'm not doing any speed work right now, but climbing those stairs really bumps up the heart rate. I love how there are always at least a half dozen people running up and down, too. Very motivating. It's a terrific low impact but very intense workout.

289 steps. I can get about 2/3 of the way up running before I have to slow down and walk the rest. Future goal: Run the whole thing without stopping.

The view from the top of the stairs. It's prettier in summer and fall, that's for sure.

I made it back to my once a week TRX class, and started doing some TRX/kettlebell work.  I've been doing this workout that I found online somewhere or other and I like it because I can do it at home with my knock-off TRX and kettlebells:

warm up
10 burpees
15 pushups (full pushups, on toes)
10 burpees
15 TRX rows (suspending as much body weight as possible)
10 burpees
15 TRX pikes
10 burpees
20 bodyweight squats (or pistol squats if feeling particularly peppy)
10 burpees
20 kettlebell swings

Take breaks when needed to complete each exercise with perfect form. Repeat entire sequence x2.That's a hundred burpees total. It's painful, but in a good way. Sort of. Admittedly the first time I did it I was sore for 4 days afterwards.

I need this shirt.

I've also been doing more yoga, especially this video. Feels good. All part of laying the groundwork for marathon training in January! It may be the off season, but I'm not slacking, that's for sure. Not with all that yummy holiday food to eat in December. I plan to keep running easy (around 40k a week), strength train 2x a week, and then in mid-December I'll start increasing the run mileage to 50k a week so I'm prepared to start my training plan in January.

Oh right, time for this sort of thing again.

Basically, it's all good. I am really enjoying running easy and without much of a structured plan right now (other than a general target for weekly mileage), so I plan to continue like that for a bit.

And now the countdown is on to Christmas vacation. Bring on the holiday food!

Random: I asked my husband to buy me some chocolate. This is why he's not allowed to have a Costco membership.

Race report: Downsview 5k 2013

(I knew as soon as I hit post yesterday the photos would finally show up for this race!)

One last race this year, this time with my husband. Since we both tend to be pathologically early for everything, we arrived way early at the race site and had a lot of time to kill. That did mean we got a sweet parking space only minutes from the start line.

Start line. Grim weather. Note how very very empty and wide open it is. With nothing to block the wind. That's important.

We'd picked up our kits the day before (lots of samples, hooray! especially the Sports Suds, I'm a big fan), so we wandered around for a bit, checking out the start area. We quickly realized that the wind was going to be a huge problem. It was strong and cold, so after finding the indoor bathrooms (which had a way shorter line than the porta potties, score!) we retreated back to our car to keep warm until it was time to go to the start.

The lipstick sample was exciting. The colour is... something. If I'm ever playing the Tin Woodsman in a production of The Wizard of Oz it'll come in handy.

After a short warm up, we made our way to the corrals - yes, corrals! At kit pick up we were asked our planned finish time, and since we both planned to be under 26 minutes we got placed in the first corral. I loved that they did this; people self-seeded really well and I barely had to do any weaving or passing in the first km of the race.

Waiting for the start. Freezing my ass off. So glad I grabbed my vest on the way out the door.

After the start my husband ran with me for about 400m, then pulled ahead, as I expected him to (he's faster than I am). Once I'd confirmed I had managed to start my watch correctly (didn't want a repeat of the scotia screw up ), I hid it up my sleeve so I couldn't see my pace.

My thoughts through each km:

1k: 4:43
Ugh, gravel. Hope this doesn't last long. Onto a paved path, excellent. This is going well. Feel strong. Hey a photographer! Smile! No idea how fast I'm going but I feel pretty good.

I know it's the beginning of the race because the gloves haven't come off yet. The literal gloves, not the metaphorical ones. I actually like this photo but $30! Holy crap! I'll wait and hope for a discount code or something, because damn.

 2k: 4:47

There's the wind. This sucks. Gotta find someone to run behind. No one close. Oh good someone is coming up behind me, I'll tuck in behind them. 

And it's a nine year old boy. How is that helpful?? Gah. And he's stopping to walk. Even less helpful!

(much of the 2nd km was run into a headwind, so maintaining that 4:47 took a lot out of me. I'm impressed I ran it that fast)

3k: 5:03
Oh yay, uphill with the wind coming across the path instead of a headwind. That's a fun change. We must be getting close to the turnaround. Ugh it's uphill too. Surely at some point all this uphill will translate to downhill? No? This is one of those races where it all feels uphill even when it isn't? Delightful.

There go the leaders. Huh, haven't seen that many women ahead of me. Pace must be OK. Oh there's my husband! He looks strong. I feel like I'm going to die. One foot in front of the other, just keep going. I hate my music. Shut up Britney, I don't want to work. Bitch.

4k: 5:05
Another photographer. And another one? 10 feet behind the first one? Ok. In theory this means I'll get at least one decent photo. Or maybe just a huge number of terrible photos. 

The answer was none of the above. I got a small number of mostly terrible photos. I do love that vest, though, and damn it looks good in pictures. How'd my watch sneak out of my sleeve?

This sucks. I hate 5ks. Why do I keep running 5ks? I am so stupid. Oh there's that crosswind again. I can't believe I pay money for this. Still no one to draft off. And there's the 9 year old boy again blowing right past me. I hate kids. Oh, he's stopping to walk again. Loser. I'm better than a 9 year old! Yay me!

WTF another photographer? How many photographers are there on this course? Oh look, the guy in front of me is pulling a total Nicole, I should do something more than grimace at the camera. Watch, this will be a random guy with a DSLR and not a race photographer at all.

He was a race photographer. I'm...getting arrested?

 5k: 5:02

More uphill. There's the finish. Fucking gravel path, screw you. Ugh. God I hate races where you can see the finish from like 500m away. It's SO FAR. Try and speed up. Except there's that damn headwind. And there goes the 9 year old again. Damn it. He is totally useless for blocking the wind. And why is he sprinting so fast? Enough of this. I hate 5ks so much. 

Chip time: 24:58 (I didn't catch the 9 year old. You never catch the 9 year old, don't even bother to try)
Gun time: 25:06
Age group place (30-39): 6/78 nothing wrong with a top 10 finish; plus it was a 10 year age group instead of the more usual 5. I'm going to assume that everyone ahead of me was 30-34 and I totally won the 35-39 category. HOORAY!
Gender place: 24/331
Overall place: 102/579

Not a bad way to round out the fall season. There was a lot working against me this race - only a week after Road 2 Hope, I developed a cold the day before that gave me a super sore throat and had me light headed and feeling generally shitty the morning of the race, the nasty nasty wind, and the unfamiliar course that turned out to be hillier than I expected. Even with all that I got under 25 minutes and I'm pretty confident without the wind I'd have come close to my Canada Day time.

No skirt! I know! But I'm pretty sure those purdy tights made me faster.

As curious as I am to know how fast I could run a 5k properly rested, not sick, etc, NO MORE 5ks until spring. Or summer. Worst distance ever. So much pain for so little reward.

Race Review

Would I run this race again? Absolutely. Great kit, nice fitting t shirt (women's sizes, yay!), extremely well organized start area. I found it an enjoyable course, and admittedly the race director can't do anything about the wind. Probably. I mean, he's not a wizard. I assume.

The 5k is entirely within Downsview park, so no worries about traffic, and the route was set up nicely so that although it was sort of a double loop, it didn't have the soul-crushing horror of running through the finish halfway through the race. Since the park is so new it's a bit barren, but it's going to be really nice in a few years when the trees start to mature. The hills aren't really that big, and I would love a chance to run that same route on a less windy day.

Bow before my epic Paint skills. That wind coming across the side really sucked.

My only complaint is that the Running Room location where the kit pick up was held was kind of a pain in the ass to get to via car, but we could have picked up our kits on race day so really that was our own fault. And they ran out of men's medium shirts so my husband got stuck with a large shirt he can't use.

(Oh, and speaking of my husband, he finished in 24:19 - he was a bit disappointed, he wanted to be under 24. Pretty good for his first ever race, though, and later in the afternoon it became clear he had some sort of stomach bug going on, so he also ran that not feeling well. I'm betting the next time he runs a 5k he crushes that time by a minute or more.)

All in all, a pretty satisfactory end to 2013 racing. Now, a few weeks of easy running and lots of core/strength training before training for spring race season starts!

Spring 2014 plans

I am taking rest and recovery very seriously this week, so not much running going on. I have a recap all ready for the Downsview 5k, but the photographers are taking forever to get the photos up, so here's a post on my 2014 plans. Since so many of the races I wanted to do had early deadlines to get the cheapest price, I'm already registered for my main races through May:

1. Chilly Half Marathon. I have a soft spot for this race because it was my first half marathon. Plus, it's my hometown half, which means I run the course all the time and it makes race day logistics so much easier. I would like to at least match my Road 2 Hope performance on this relatively flat course, and possibly take a run (HA HA) at a sub 1:50 half. My husband will also be running this race as his first ever half, so that'll add some extra excitement. Patty will likely be a pacer, which means I might have to be responsible for my own paces (yikes). Maybe Janice will run it with me; she's making lots of crazy plans.

Pre-Chilly last year with my "little" brother.

2. 30k Around the Bay. A favourite local race that is on my must run list every year. First off, I want redemption from last year, where I lost 5 minutes waiting for a train and missed going under 3 hours by...4:53. AUGH. How much under 3 hours I aim for is up in the air. Most likely I will be doing whatever Patty tells me. Last I heard that was 2:45. Patty's nuts, but in a way that results in me getting massive PBs, so lead on Patty and I will follow. Also it will be Amy's first Around the Bay, so now we won't have to kick her out of Burlington (I wasn't sure you were even allowed to be a runner living in Burlington and never run Around the Bay - gotta get Amy across the finish before the running police find out about this).

This train, man. I am still not over this train.

 3. Mississauga Marathon. My first ever marathon. Eep. And that's all I'm saying about that right now.

4. Sulphur Springs 25k trail run. The Run for the Toad gave me a serious trail running bug, so I'm really looking forward to this. I'll be running it with Sam for fun (unless she decides to abandon me in the woods, what with her being way faster than me! Don't leave me Sam!). It's also completely hilarious that running 25 kilometers is now something that I consider fun.

"Hey, you want to run around in the wood for 3 hours or so? And I mean actual running, not hiking. Running. With hills and everything."
"That sounds super fun! Sign me up!"

So those are the 4 races I've already signed up for.  Lots of training to do this winter, that's for sure.

Also in the plans, maybe:

5. Some sort of 5k. Some sort of 10k. Maybe the Moon in June 5k, just because I enjoyed it last year and placed for my age group for the first time ever. Patty's in my age group now, though. Curses. If Amy shows up too I'm gonna have to bust some kneecaps. Also I'll take a look at the MEC race series because their races are only $15, so I could actually afford a few tries at new 5 and 10k PBs without going broke. I think they had at least one 8k last year and my 8k PB is super out of whack with my actual abilities, so I wouldn't mind tackling that distance, too. The husband is going to want to run some 5 and 10ks, so we'll have to figure out what will work for both of us.

With our age group swag from the Moon in June 2013. Photo swiped from Patty. What, you've never gotten a lawn ornament as a prize before?

 6. Canada Day 5k, maybe. What can I say, I have a red and white outfit all arranged for this race (I may or may not have purchased a white running skirt on sale specifically to wear for Canada Day. I admit nothing). Having an appropriately festive outfit is a good reason to run a race, right?

Lots of big plans! Right now, however, my plans are to curl up on the couch with a book and a mug of tea. This rest and recovery thing is pretty sweet.

Race report: Hamilton marathon Road2Hope half marathon 2013

This was sort of a bonus race for me - I hadn't originally been planning to run a second half marathon this fall, but then the whole Burlington Skirt Brigade signed up and hell, I didn't want to be the only skirt sitting at home with race envy. I wasn't sure if I was really fully recovered from Scotia, but figured nothing ventured, nothing gained, so what the hell let's try for another PB. The several km of downhill couldn't hurt, anyway.

Amy picked up my kit for me, saving me a trip (thanks Amy!). Nothing too special, and the shirt is...not really to my taste, although it does fit me nicely and is a good quality tech fabric. I'll save it for Canada Day but probably won't wear it otherwise.

No name on the bib? What kind of low-rent race is this? /race snob

I don't really do a big carb load for halfs anymore, but the pre-race burger and fries has somehow become a tradition (um, not the morning of, but for dinner the night before). Hey, whatever works, right?

Why is there no Five Guys in Burlington?? On second thought, that would be bad. I would eat way too many burgers.

Carpooled to the finish with Amy, Patty, Sam, and Nicole, and we got ourselves onto the shuttle buses and up to the start with plenty of time to spare (kudos to the organizers for this, the shuttles were plentiful and it all went very smoothly). In preparing for this race I spent as little time as possible thinking about overall paces and such, figuring I'd just stick with Patty and Amy and hope for the best. The stretch goal was to go just under 1:50, and the main goal finish faster than Scotia for a new PB. I went in with only the vaguest idea what sort of paces would accomplish either of those goals. Running blind!

It was leg-numbingly cold outside, so thank goodness for the community center to hang out in pre race. Check out Patty's sweet pink throwaway front and center there. Amazing what you can find at the dollar store.

We did the usual pre race stuff (line up for the bathroom, hang out, run into people we know, line up again, etc). One of the people we ran into was the lovely Irina, who I've now met twice and she's just as adorable in real life as she is on her blog (although her blog is dangerous territory for me, since reading it really makes me want to do a triathlon. Must resist the dark side.).

Photo via Irina. We were, as far as I could tell, the only people crazy enough to be wearing skirts. Also I kind of like this tallest one in the group thing, that never happens to me.

Soon enough it was time to venture outside and get ready to race. Did I mention it was COLD? I knew I'd be fine after a few km, but damn my feet were numb waiting for the start.

Start area, sort of? I think? I don't even remember taking this picture. For all I know it's from a totally different race.

We tossed our throw away clothes and huddled up for warmth while they counted down to the race start. And we were off!

When we started, I couldn't feel my feet. It was the strangest thing; like running with bricks instead of shoes. I crossed my fingers they would warm up, because it felt really really weird. Fortunately by about 2k they thawed out and felt normal again. The first 5k were fairly flat, and as usual at the start of the race the kilometers felt short, although my watch was beeping them off right on target (I couldn't see my watch, because it was under my sleeve - a deliberate choice. I'm including the splits in this post but at the time I didn't see any of them).

5k: 26:21
 5:23/5:18/5:11/5:11/5:18

Red Hill Valley time! This was FUN. All caps fun. Hello big old downhill. The only unfortunate thing was there was a bit of a headwind, and I was really hoping that the wind would only be while we were up high and maybe it wouldn't be so windy by the lake (FORESHADOWING).

Seriously, the downhill at this race is awesome. I loved that section.

Took a gel at 8k; felt good and strong through the downhill and through 10k. Fortunately the downhill doesn't end abruptly; it's fairly gradual so I didn't notice my legs objecting too much as we switched more to flat running. Splits do show a bit of a slowdown through km 10, though.

V for victory! Except we're only 9k in. Oops.

10k: 51:28 (ha, that's technically a 10k PB)
4:49/4:46/4:57/5:06/5:20

Off the Red Hill and onto the trail to get the rest of the way down to the lake. Here the wheels started to come off a bit. It all started to feel a lot harder. On the trail there's one very short but steep climb and that woke my quads right up and they were not at all happy. In addition, I was starting to really feel the same groin pain issue I had during Scotia - not nearly as painful as it was during Scotia, but it was really distracting.

Things are getting serious now. No more antics or shenanigans like up there on the Red Hill.

The start of the out and back section on the beach path at 14k was mentally really tough; knowing we were running away from the finish line and would have to run all the way back was harder than I expected. Here I think my familiarity with the area worked against me, because it seemed to be taking forever to get to the landmarks I know from long runs. It was also in this section that the 1:50 pacer went past us, which was demoralizing. Basically, this part was a struggle.

And I haven't even mentioned the damn wind yet. It was blowing across the path, off the lake, so at least it wasn't a headwind, but every time a gust would hit me I would swear a bit because it wasn't fun to run with, at all.

15k: 1:18:12
5:16/5:20/5:28/5:09/5:22

At this point I'd been holding a second gel in my hand for about 3k, trying to talk myself into taking it. I was pretty sure a shot of sugar would be helpful, but I just could not seem to bring myself to actually rip it open and eat it. Finally around 16k I managed to get about half the pack down, and tossed the rest at a water station. It did seem to help a bit. I also had a side stitch, but lately I always seem to get a side stitch during races and I'm getting pretty good at ignoring them.

At 17k we finally reached the turnaround to head back towards the finish. Amy was pulling away at this point and Patty and I kept yelling at her to just GO when she would slow down to wait for us. Since she didn't run Scotia I had been figuring she'd have a bit more left in her legs towards the end of the race, so I wasn't surprised.

The good part of the turnaround was we were finally heading towards the finish. The bad part was now we were on the beach side and were getting the full force of THE WIND. It was not good (master of understatement I am). Towards 20k Patty started to pull away from me and I couldn't work up the energy to keep up with her - my legs felt so heavy and tired and it was a constant battle with my brain telling me to stop and walk. I had to keep thinking about what I had written on my hand to force myself to just keep moving forward.

20k: 1:44:47
5:25/5:24/5:19/5:23/5:23 (I'm laughing at the 5:19, I distinctly remember that was the km where Eminem's Berzerk came up on my playlist - I seriously should have just listened to that on repeat for the last 5k)

About 500m from the finish there was a runner lying on the ground being given chest compressions with a huge group of people around him. I hope he's OK - news reports say he was taken to the hospital.

As I rounded the corner to the finish I tried to kick a bit but that wasn't happening. All I could think about was the race finally being over and that I just wanted to stop running and maybe never ever run a race again (as usual, the 'never race again' thoughts vanished pretty much the moment I crossed the finish).

Yeah, that face pretty much sums it up. Can I stop running yet?

Final km: 5:20; final 270 ish metres (or whatever) 1:16 (allegedly a sub 5 pace, so I guess I did manage a bit of a kick after all)

Chip time: 1:51:24
Gun time: 1:52:19
Age group place: 54/157
Gender place: 248/1003
Overall place: 639/1746

Good medal - I like the bridge on it, which I assume is the skyway, what with the boat and all there.

So on the one hand, I felt like the last part of this race was a huge struggle. Way harder mentally than the last 5k of Scotia, that's for sure. But on the other hand, I did take a couple of minutes off that Scotia time. Looking at my paces during the last part of the race I didn't fade nearly as badly as it felt at the time - I would have sworn I was running 5:50s through that last 5k. And I didn't stop to walk even though I REALLY wanted to. So now that I sit down and look it over, I feel pretty great about this race overall. The dream of a sub 1:50 half feels a lot more achievable!

Post race, with PBs for almost everyone. Great race skirt brigade! Even if we totally failed to talk Nicole into a skirt. Since she technically doesn't live in Burlington we'll forgive her. For the record, I was quite comfortable temperature wise once we got running - I tend to overheat really easily when I run and the skirt was the right choice for me.

I would run this race again for sure, and in fact I've already tentatively penciled it into my fall 2014 plans. The organization was great  - lots of buses to get to the start, warm place to wait, well organized finish area, and super sexy warming jackets at the end instead of space blankets. I really enjoyed the route, and it was a great final half for the year to take advantage of being in fall race shape.

Hot off the Paris runways. You know you are jealous.

When I got home, my wonderful husband had a plate of pancakes ready for me. I don't know if they were actually the greatest pancakes of all time, or if they just tasted so good because I was literally shaking with hunger by the time I sat down to eat them. Thanks to him, not just for the pancakes, but for being so supportive of all this crazy running nonsense. I promise, not as many races next year!

Next up is a visit to my physiotherapist to figure out just what the heck is going on with that groin strain - I thought it was fully healed but clearly not. Then, Sunday is the Downsview 5k. I have no expectations for this 5k. I plan to spend much of this week lounging around like a great big slug, and even with that I doubt I'll be fully recovered from this half before that race. Downsview is really my husband's day - it's his first race ever. I'm so excited to see how he does and to share the race excitement with him.

Replace Hedonism Bot's grapes with chocolate and you pretty much have my recovery plan.

Recovery and Road 2 Hope plans

It's been over a week now since the Scotiabank Half and I'm feeling pretty good. I took a few days off to let the suspected groin strain heal, did some foam rolling and yoga to stretch out (seriously these videos, use them!), and then a few easy runs during the week. My legs were still feeling pretty blah when I joined Patty and Amy for a 13k long run on Saturday, and let's just say I hope we don't get that weather for the Road 2 Hope half this coming Sunday!

That was not my favourite run ever /understatement. I don't think cold, windy, and raining is anyone's idea of a good time, other than maybe the half dozen people we saw running in a pack all wearing tutus. I still have not figured out what was going on there.

Sunday I did an easy 8k and it was the first run since the race where my legs felt back to normal. I also hit a downhill near my house to get some downhill running practice before the Road 2 Hope, since the race has a significant downhill section that should, in theory, let us take a few minutes off that Scotiabank time. And it also let me enjoy some of the fall colour while we still have it, before we get into dreary grey November.

Probably would have been smarter to do the long run this day, when it wasn't pouring rain and windy and horrible.

So the plan for this week is to get in some easy miles (and test out possible race outfits*), with a tiny bit of race pace tempo Wednesday just to remember what that speed feels like. The race plan is again to stick with Patty and abdicate all pace setting responsibility, since I seem to run better when I have no idea what's going on. We're going to attempt to take full advantage of the downhill section, and then I hope my quads have enough life in them after the downhill to get me over the finish line under 1:50 to qualify for corral C at Around the Bay. Amy will be running with us, too, which will be fun, because she's going to get herself a massive new PB. Plus Patty will probably have to repeat everything she says an extra time so we both hear her, which I'm sure will be super fun for her (sorry in advance, Patty!).

Elevation profile for the Road 2 Hope half.

I would have preferred 3 weeks between the two races instead of two, but I'm feeling pretty good and ready to really go for it. If it turns out I just don't have the mojo working or the life in the legs on Sunday, then so be it. I've achieved what I wanted to this fall already, so this is gravy (no one tell Rob Ford there's gravy here).

*damn weather forecast keeps changing. Right now I'm thinking a black and pink combo (sophisticated!), but if the forecast temperature keeps dropping I might have to change my mind. Whatever I end up wearing, you can be assured a skirt will be involved.

Race report: Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon 2013

Spoiler alert: this race was awesome!

Saturday my husband and I successfully pawned our children off on some helpful relatives and headed into downtown Toronto. First stop, the race expo. Packet pickup was straightforward, but the expo area was crowded and neither of us does well in crowds of slow moving people (especially when half of them are on their smart phones and not paying any attention to where they are going). So we decided not to do much shopping, although we did snag some free yogurt.

Kind of sad I didn't manage to spend any money or buy any fun new gear. I love new gear.

We checked into our hotel, where we got a free upgrade to a corner suite (fancy!) and a stunning view of the ass end of the CBC building (not fancy!). Headed out for dinner where I had a burger and fries, which I know isn't exactly a traditional pre race meal but it's worked for me in the past.

Yeah, I don't think this hotel is known for its views.

Made sure all my stuff was organized, hung out for a while in the hotel bar with my husband eavesdropping on people, and eventually went to bed. There was some sort of wild party going on on our floor of the hotel, so iDevices to the rescue with some nice ocean noises to drown out the idiots. What the hell is the appeal of partying it up in a hotel room, anyway?

Making sure I didn't forget anything! Flat Emma ready to run. Although she might want a pair of shoes.

I woke up a few minutes before my 6 am alarm, feeling fantastic. I rarely get that good a sleep the night before a race because I'm usually waking up every 30 minutes in a panic that I've slept through my alarm - but in this case our hotel was only 1 km from the start line, so I knew I would have lots of time even if I did miss my alarm. I choked down my preferred pre-race fuel (half a bagel and some caffienated NUUN), messed around for a bit with my iPad, got dressed, and headed for the hotel lobby breakfast to see if I could find a banana. It was quite amusing watching people approach the breakfast buffet - I played spot the runners, who were all stocking up on bananas and oatmeal and leaving the eggs and bacon untouched.

I wanted a strategy for the late race mental suck, and I thought this might be helpful.

I gave my husband my post-race bag of gear, put on my throw away sweater, and headed to the start area to rendezvous with my little brother and various Daily Mile friends. It's always so much nicer to spend those nervous pre-race minutes commiserating with other runners instead of standing around lonely! We unfortunately failed to get any group pics, but people were coming and going from the bag check and I don't think there was a moment we were all there at the same time.

I did remember to grab a picture with Patty, at least! You can find her take on the race here.

The grey and pink coordination wasn't planned, but don't we look great? Team Ruffle Skirts! Although mine only has ruffles on the back.

Patty also let us in on the secret of the bathrooms, aka how to find an empty bathroom close to the start with no line up.

Hello swanky deserted bathroom incredibly close to the corral entrance. Score!

We wandered aimlessly around a bit, went back to the bathroom again, and eventually made our way to the yellow corral to wait for the start of the race.

Start line waaaaay off in the distance.

I was feeling surprisingly warm in my sweater, arm warmers, and gloves while we waited for the start, so with about 10 minutes to go I decided to toss the sweater. After Oh Canada, some booing of Doug Ford, and the start of the red corral, it was our turn to move forward to the start line. At this point my watch lost satellites because I had locked on too early and it had been idle too long (gah!) and I made the hasty decision to also ditch my arm warmers and gloves, so I was a bit frantic as the horn sounded and we were off. The last second wardrobe toss may explain how my watch didn't actually start when I crossed the start line - I SWEAR I hit start, but about 300m into the race I looked at it and saw a big fat 0. Ack.

So basically my watch was totally whacked for the whole race. This, I think, ultimately worked in my favour, since I was able to ignore it and just focus on staying with Patty. She told me our splits after each km and I just worried about successfully dodging the slower runners we seemed to be continually passing.

The first part of the race went by so fast! Every km marker for the first 10k or so seemed to come up way sooner than I was expecting it. There was some decent downhill in the section on Bathurst and we took advantage; I remember Patty telling me some splits that seemed crazy fast, but it all felt pretty easy at that point. And we needed to make up some time after a slow first kilometer anyway. There was one problem - at around 7k the top of my left inner thigh muscle really started to hurt. It was very distracting but didn't seem to be affecting my running at all, so I ignored it as best I could. The kilometers continued to tick by, and other than the sore thigh, I felt great. I was in the zone, not really thinking about anything at all, which is ideal, because it means my brain wasn't bothering me with doubts. I wasn't even listening to music, although I had my headphones in just to keep them in place.

Once we got onto Lakeshore, I could definitely feel the difference in running flat vs. the previous downhill. The pace started to feel more challenging, but still well within my abilities. It was really fun to watch the elites go past in the opposite direction and scream encouragement at them (especially Lanni and Krista, who both broke the Canadian's women's record! So thrilled when I saw that after the race!). It was a nice distraction from the pain in the my leg/groin, and I also managed to spot my brother heading the other way before the two sides of the road separated and we couldn't play 'find our friends' any more. After the 10k timing mat, I felt like I needed a little boost so I put my music on. Which is probably why every time Patty said something after that point I was all WHAT? WHAT DID YOU SAY? Sorry about that Patty!

First 10k, sort of (since I didn't start my watch until we were 300m in, my splits don't reflect the actual course km markings): 5:21, 5:30, 5:21, 5:10, 5:05, 5:08, 5:10, 5:19, 5:24, 5:16

Official 10k mat split: 53:48 (pace 5:23/km - the 300m my watch missed were fairly slow, due to how congested the first km was)

Hey Patty, wait for me!

Overall, not looking at my pace really worked for me. Not looking meant my brain couldn't be all "OMG WE ARE GOING TOO FAST AND WILL DIE!!!" like I'm sure it would have if I'd actually been able to see some of those under 5:20 kilometers as they were happening. One of these days I will work up the courage to run a 'naked' race with no watch at all.

After the turnaround at 12k on Lakeshore I knew there was an unpleasant hill coming, both because we'd driven it the previous day and Patty pointed it out to me on the out part of the out and back. We made it up fine (focusing on even effort) and our split was I think pretty consistent through that km. Hill conquered!

10-16k, sort of: 5:21, 5:24, 5:21, 5:16, 5:24, 5:24

After 16k, though, my brain was starting to object to this whole running thing. Right on schedule. "This is too fast. let's walk a bit. Oh hey now both of your inner thighs are hurting, you better stop. Let's just slow down. Just for a few minutes. Let's walk a bit. C'mon. Just for a minute or two." I kept glancing down at 'believe' written on my hand and thinking, no, I'm going to keep going. I believe in my training. I'm doing this. 5k to go. Less than half an hour. I can do this.  4k to go. 20 minutes, I can do this.

We kept going. It hurt, but we kept going. If Oakville and this race have taught me anything, it's that I need to have a mental strategy in place for the late stages of the race.

17 & 18k-ish: 5:27, 5:13

I knew Paul had said he would be waiting around 19k to cheer, and I latched onto that. Just get to Paul. Look for Paul. Don't think about how much this hurts. And then I spotted him and freaked out, waving my arms in the air like a total idiot, but seriously, I was so happy to see him! It really gave me an energy boost, so thank you Paul!

Under the Gardiner - photo swiped from Paul.

 19 & 20k or so: 5:21, 5:21

Finally, we turned up Bay St towards the finish. I swear it felt like we were running over sand at this point (especially since it was uphill, OMG why is there always an uphill at the finish???), and I have no idea how fast we actually went because between the Bay St. tunnel and the tall buildings, my watch freaked out and recorded some really bizarre stuff. And Patty's watch couldn't deal with it either, so we have no idea. There were markers for 500 meters to go, 400 meters to go, etc, and they DID NOT HELP. Every one of those 100 meters felt like the longest 100 meters of all time.

21.1k: ???? my watch claims 4:50 but it also seems to think we were about 150m west of where we actually were and then we levitated over a bunch of buildings to the finish, so clearly that's not right.

That's the best of a terrible, terrible set of photos. Yikes. 

Crossing the finish felt a little anti-climactic because I had no idea on our time. Patty said we were under 1:54, so yay, but it wasn't until my husband met us as we came out of the finishing area that he confirmed I'd run 1:53:57. 'A' goal achieved!! I have to give a ton of credit to Patty for this one, she believed I could run with her even when I wasn't convinced it was remotely possible, and I don't think there's any way I would have run sub 1:54 without her there to push/pull me along. Left to my own devices I would have gone for 1:55 and possibly cheated myself out of over a minute (or more) on my time. Thank you Patty! Having someone to run with makes such a huge difference.

Chip time: 1:53:57 (PB by over 4 minutes!)
Category place: 136/776 (17.5% - this is blowing my mind, I still think of myself as a mid-pack runner)
Gender place: 893/5371 (Patty was 892nd, I knew I should have tripped her when I had the chance)
Overall place: 2947/10093

Post race - sweatier, but happy. Once again I had my medal on backwards. You'd think I'd learn to check that before we take pictures.

The finish area was kind of insanely crowded and I was starting to get cold, so I said goodbye to Patty and headed off with my husband to walk back to the car. I also managed to steal Patty's sunglasses. That'll teach her to finish a race one second ahead of me.

Nathan Philips Square finish area and the funky bike sculpture in the background. Can you spot Sam and Nicole?

Ran into Sam and Nicole, talked briefly about our races but we were all tired and holy crap, when not running it was cold! So we headed our separate ways to find our cars and head for home.

Hello salted caramel hot chocolate, with your nice hot cup to warm up my freezing cold hands.

Things I liked about this race: Hello new PB! I enjoyed the course, other than that stupid hill at the end. Really fun. The t shirt is great. Decent crowd support along the way, especially the drummers at the Ex. Some amusing signs ("You are running this city better than Rob Ford" "You know you want me" held by a guy dressed as a bottle of beer). Running along Lakeshore back towards the city with the CN tower in the distance was pretty cool (even if that was a bit of an 'oh shit we have to get past there to get to the finish it looks so far' moment).

Not a particularly impressive kit overall, but the shirt fits very nicely. I demand more samples of products I will never buy!

Things I didn't like: The crowd at the finish - too many people waiting for runners blocking the runner's exit so things started to back up. I think they needed some volunteers to keep the crowd back. Spending the entire race dodging around people; I kind of wonder how much extra distance we ran due to constantly passing people. I had to do a lot of back and forth especially through the first 10k. The woman who almost ran into Patty with her bike when she decided she just HAD to cross the road during a marathon. The cost - it's an expensive race!

Overall I think I prefer to run smaller races where the runners are more spread out and you have a little more room to breathe and settle into your pace. But I would run Scotia again; it's just not going to be a must do every year race for me the way Around the Bay is.

Nice bling. I like how they put Toronto landmarks on the medals (ROM this year).

So what now?

Next up is the Road 2 Hope half marathon, assuming the groin thing is fully resolved (I think it was a mild groin strain of some sort - what am I, a hockey player? It feels better but I have to test it out with an easy run). Then the Downsview 5k because my husband asked me to run it with him, it's his first race, and although I swore no more 5ks until spring, how can I say no to that?

And of course there's this, which I registered for in a fit of post-half marathon PB euphoria...

Wait, what did I just do?

I probably won't do weekly training updates now that my A goal race is over, because frankly even I was getting bored of me the last few weeks. I'll update the blog with race reports (of course) and then probably monthly training updates until marathon training starts. Oh my god, I'm going to train for a marathon. !!!