Scotiabank Waterfront Half-Marathon

You might want to grab food or coffee or something. Just warning ya.

Sept 26 2010

Gun Time: 2:21:00
Chip Time: 2:12:49
Gender: 2334/4402
Age: 521/884 (W25-29)

I had a rough night; I kept waking up, not from thinking I slept in just from the OMG of it all. At 4:45am my alarm went off and up I got. I quickly posted about being up early on Facebook and attempted to eat some breakfast but a couple bites in I had to give up. Thankfully I had packed a couple bars to try on the way there. I got out the door and walked to the streetcar stop. I wasn’t dressed quite warm enough so I felt the chill of 5:30am. I read a book and got a couple bites of food in me on the way downtown. I followed the crowd of other crazy people and got to the hotel that was doing baggage check and was happy that I could hang out there instead of outside for a while. While in line for the bathroom I started talking to some other ladies and one of them was from Nova Scotia, she came here just for the race(came the day before, leaving the day after, wow).

At 7:00am I headed to the corrals, and thankfully I did since it was crazy packed out there. I a spot I guess in the middle of the green corral. I was next to the 2:15 continuous pace bunny and just wanted to at least keep in my sights, since that would mean the 2:30 bunny would be behind me. I listened to the buzz around me and just kept thinking “OMG I’m doing this!” We didn’t hear the national anthem at all but we heard the buzzers go off and I remember being a little sad I couldn’t watch the elites go. But then we got to move up. Most people started running but then of course congestion had us walking and running repeatedly till we got the official start.

I started my watch at the first mat and off we went. I kept at it slowly and decided to not weave through people and just take it easy until the crowding eased up.
I did my best to stay consistent and decided to keep a couple people in my sights since I lost the pace bunnies before the start line. I went without music for the first 3km, just enjoying the feeling of energy from the other runners and the spectators; I loved reading signs people had. I completely abandoned my plans of drinking water/Gatorade every 2km when I hit the first water station at 3km. I remember seeing the line up for the porta-potties and being thankful I wasn’t there. Suddenly we were at 5k and all I could think was that I was ¼ of the way done!

I don’t remember to many details for most of it, except for seeing a bunch of water bottles on the ground and thinking that sucks. That the 2:15 pace bunny group that was doing 10 and 1s could move over since half of them were on the other side of the pylons and there was tons of room on the road. There were lots of times that I remember thinking I should slow down a bit and not kill myself, but I was back and forth with that constantly. I found the original pace bunny and ran with him for a while or did the 10 and 1s if I was near the other bunny. I was really all over during the race but it worked well for me apparently. At 10k I was so happy that I was feeling ok still and that the turnaround was coming up soon. At 12k I pulled out my secret weapon, gummy bears! I had about 5 of them while running which was easy and so much better than those gels (shudder).

Just after the turnaround I saw Tom’s cousin’s wife and waved to her. Someone had a shit load of Fiber 1 bars and they littered the ground, I stepped on a couple and that felt weird. A bunch of the signs and the cheering sections had me teary eyed and almost crying a bunch of times. I had to think about anything BUT the race. If I thought at all about what I was doing I was going to breakdown in tears. 15k was only 6 more to go and I couldn’t believe I was still feeling great. My legs were feeling it a bit but really only at the water stations since I cannot drink and run out of those cups at all. More awesome signs near the end “That’s not sweat, its your fat cells crying.” “Your legs will forgive you eventually”. But even the “Go Daddy Go” sign I saw almost had me crying again. The turn up Bay towards the start there was a guy running behind me (who I thought was a pace bunny keeping the people going) shouting things like we’re close! Kick it up! Everything you got!

The 800m to go sign saw me picking it up a bit. That’s when it started feeling like there was something on my chest.

500m to go had me fighting back tears and I kept pushing. I was trying to look for Tom but had no clue where he was.

From there, there was signs marking every 100m and I wanted to just stop but I didn’t and at 100m when you saw the finish line and the clock I just sprinted with energy I didn’t know I had, about to ball my eyes out (I’m sure I got some “awesome” pictures coming). I clapped my hands above my head as I crossed the finish line. I DID IT! I kept moving and was wiping at tears. Mostly amazed that I was sure I beat 2:15 which I was only hoping to come close to when I started. I couldn’t stop staring at my metal when I got it. I got my senses back and found a stop to get some stretches in and went looking for water and food.

I found out after that Tom and his friend who came down didn’t actually see me since he thought I was wearing pink or purple. Because apparently the outfit with the white shirt I had out the night before wasn’t enough of a clue as to what I would be wearing. But he saw the elites finish and thought that was amazing so we’re going to go check out the finish line of the Goodlife Marathon next month.

All in all, it was a fantastic race, I would definitely do it again and I loved practically every minute of it. It was such a positive experience and I was floating on air for the rest of the day.