So this was my first race in over a year. I really should not have committed to this but i didn't want to quit because i wasn't fast. I knew i would be pretty far from my PR (1:50 set in 2010 or 2009?) and even from breaking 2 hours. Something i could do handily before. Anyway, i don't think that is much of a big deal - i have to be where i am today and I just wanted to run so that it didn't hurt too much. My longest run of 1:45 in training really hurt and i knew my fitness wasn't great.

I planned to make it a sort of long training day. I set my run walk interval to 8 and 1 and planned to run a conversational effort for as long as i could. If i needed to walk, or take a bathroom break, so be it. After the half way mark i could assess the situation. I packed one gel and planned to live off the aid stations otherwise.

I stayed in back and it was pretty small field. The gun went off and i was very happy with my ability to moderate the effort. I stuck religiously to the intervals. I hopscotched with some ladies and started to pick out those that i eventually wanted to pass. The morning was hazy humid and it was going to be a warm day for this time of year. The island has some really stunning views of the lake and the city and i tried to make sure i appreciated that. It was hazy on the first loop and we couldn't see the CN Tower clearly yet. As we made our way to the Hanlans end it seemed a ferry had let off so quite a few people were biking and walking on the course which was fine. Around the half way i crack my gel and took a cup of water. I carried the cup with me for while and a kind gentleman on a bike offered to take my garbage (I kept the gel).

The sun was coming out so it was getting hot and i was feeling good. I dropped a few ladies i had been passing back and forth with walk breaks. After that half way i wanted to pick up the pace but the diaphragm cramps were threatening. I told myself to hold back to the 16k mark. 12 km was too soon to push it. After the 16 k i decided to run to the aid stations, foregoing my walk interval so that i could walk through the station and get down my hydration and nutrition. There really wasn't one at the end and i was able run the whole last three km. I had a great negative split.

Oh and for most of the race i used my vivoactive set to just show the countdown on my run walk interval and getting a lap split every km. that way i wouldn't worry about how fast or slow i was going. worked really well.

I executed well given my circumstance.

Found my family - Darren had gone off to his work thing but my sisters were with the kids. We went back to the ferry.


Being 4.5 months post partum.


This was the last year of this race but it is a lovely venue for a race. Really can't beat the scenery of the island. It was a bit subdued, probably not as much effort put into it. I could have used one more aid station. And the weather was really nice so by the time i was finishing there were tons of people on the island not for the race and crowding up the road (but there are no cars)/