Hi Everyone,

If you've been reading this blog, then you know I've been training for my first Half Marathon.  Yesterday was the big day!

The reason I'm blogging all the details, is because part of the reason I felt comfortable enough to sign up for the Half was this blog:  www.ohsheglows.com where Angela Liddon blogged, in great detail, everything about her first Half Marathon.  After reading that, it made it less scary for me, and it gave me a really good idea of what to expect.  So, thank you Angela!  Hopefully, some of you reading this blog will be inspired to give it a try, or feel comfortable signing up for one after hearing the details of my day.

It wasn't too long after I read Angela's post that I saw Tosca Reno's invitation on her blog to join her team and complete the exact same Half Marathon that Angela had blogged about.  The timing seemed perfect, too, since the date of the Half was just two days before my 39th birthday.  And, that Tosca's Eat Clean Diet Team was in support of Team Diabetes Canada fundraising for the Canadian Diabetes Association.  My Dad, whose birthday just happened to be the day before the Half Marathon, has diabetes and checks his blood sugar daily.  He is able to maintain his condition with a combination of watching what he eats and walking, thankfully.

Anyways, once I signed up for the Half Marathon - I though "Oh crap...now I'm really doing it!"  And, the training began.  I decided to follow Hal Higdon's Novice Half Marathon training guide.  It has you running at least three times per week, gradually increasing your distance.  One of those runs per week is a "long" run.  The longest run I had before the big day was 16.1k.  The actual distance of the Half Marathon is 21.1k, so I hadn't ran that far before.  I started Hal's program early, to give me a little extra time in case I missed a week here or there, and I was planning to try at least an 18k run before the big day.  I had some knee "issues" though, and didn't make it that far during training.  Then, I was nervous I would make the knee even worse if I kept training for further and further distances, so I decided to stick to Hal's plan so I wouldn't wreck my knee before the marathon day even arrived.  That would have sucked!!

Here are all the details...

My (wonderfully supportive) hubby and I drove to Toronto on Saturday, had a delicious pasta dinner, then checked into our hotel.  I had decided on the Novotel in North York, since they were one of the host hotels for the marathon, and they were the closest hotel to the starting line.  This turned out to be a good decision.  Our room was on the 19th floor, and overlooked Mel Lastman Square, which was basically right at the starting line.  This was perfect, because the other hotels were more downtown and you would have had to catch a shuttle to get to the start of the race. 

The Half Marathon started at 8am sharp, and I needed to meet up with Tosca and the Team at 7am sharp!  Before all of that, though, I had to get dressed, get hydrated and fuelled up on a decent breakfast AND make sure I had plenty of time to use a real bathroom so I could avoid the dreaded Port-a-Potties on site.  Yes, I am a bathroom snob!! 

I wanted to be in bed early, so I hit the sack at 10pm.  I fell asleep at around 11pm, woke up at 1am feeling like it should be time to get up (I hate when that happens!), finally fell back to sleep around 1.45am, then woke up just before my alarm at 5.25am.  Oh.  That's early!!  I had a Kashi Bar and some water right away, and turned on the coffee pot.  Normally, I'm a tea drinker, but I only like tea in my own house.  Weird, eh?  So, coffee it was.  I had the coffee while I got myself ready, then Brent and I headed down to the breakfast buffet that was included in the room price.  It was excellent!  I ended up just having fresh melon, which I knew my tummy could handle before a big run.

Back up the room, I gathered everything on my checklist - PowerBar, Garmin watch, MP3 player, Powergel for the 10k point, sunglasses, hat....got everything? Check.

We headed down to meet Tosca and her Team.  Soon after that, the whole team had arrived and we began our warm up and "moment of inspiration" lead by Tosca.  I have to say, she is such a genuinely warm and nice person.  She's very open, kind and so friendly.  Very down-to-earth.  It was such a pleasure to meet her.  Her story is so inspiring, and she is in such great shape.  Her arms are AMAZING!  At one point I touched her bicep, and told her how great her arms looked (Poor Tosca, being groped by me...!)  She says something like "Oh, that's just because my t-shirt is too tight and it squeezing my arm in that spot..."  Nope.  It's because she's worked her butt off to have great arms.  That's my new goal - Thanks Tosca!  Anyways, I have to say meeting her and chatting with her was one of the highlights of the entire experience for me. 

Around 7.40am or so, we all headed over to the starting line.  My friend Judy had told me about "Pace Bunnies".  These are people holding signs at the start line with expected finish times that you can join to help you stay on pace.  It's so hard to keep your regular pace when running with thousands of people!  So, for me, this was a must.  I found a very friendly Pace Bunny named Shaunna who held a 2.30 sign.  I asked her a few questions, and found out that she was planning to run 10 min, walk 1 for the entire duration.  Although I think that's a great strategy, I was a little nervous about stopping, since I've been training to run the whole thing, and didn't want to change at the last minute.  But, I figured, if I started running with her group, it would even itself out and we'd be close enough for me to stay on pace.  Then, I ended up meeting Elaine, a really nice person who happened to be standing next to me.  She travelled from Montreal to run, was 41 (or 42?), and has two daughters.  She was planning to run the whole thing too, and her finish time goal was the same as mine - between 2.30 and 3.00 hours.  

It was so crowded at the start of the race that it took us 3 minutes to get to the start line!  We ran with the Pace Bunny for the first 10 minutes, but then when they stopped to walk, Elaine and I just kept running together.  We hit the huge Hog's Hollow Hill early in the run, and I have to say it was pretty intimidating.  The Pace Bunny had told us that she planned to power walk the hill, and that she felt a first time racer shouldn't try to run up it...but Elaine and I just powered up together.  It was so hard but it was a great feeling when I got to the top and knew I ran up the whole hill.  This was sooo hard.  When I got home I checked my Garmin, and I was at 103% of my heart rate maximum at this point in the race.  Whoa!  After that, we slowed our pace a bit to let the heart rates come down a little.  Here's the pic of that hill from last year's race...  

We fell into a great rhythm running together.  It was an absolutely PERFECT day to run, just cool enough that I wasn't overheated, a really nice breeze, and best of all SUNSHINE!  It was so cool to see so many people all running together.  All ages, all shapes and sizes.  I loved it!  All the colours were changing on the trees and it really seemed like a dream, it was really that gorgeous.  At one point we were running (I think this was the Rosedale area) and that was one of the best moments of the race for me.  I was just thinking how hard, and how long I had trained for this, and how many times I had wondered just how this day would be, and now...here it is.  I was so grateful to have met Elaine to run with, and we were chatting a bit and keeping each other company, passing the kilometres together, and encouraging each other while we shared the whole experience of the run.

Around 8km, my knee started to hurt.  My worst fear!  I kept running, and it got a little worse...then it got better.  I was really thinking, mind over matter at this point, and trying to think of everything else I possibly could to stop from thinking about my knee.  Around the 16k point, I thought "Wow, only 5k left!"  I was thinking about the ladies in my running group in the spring, and in August, and how many times we ran 5k together - and telling myself "5k is nothing, this race will be over before you know it!" 

Then, at 18.5k, I hit a wall!  I felt like my body was forcing me to stop - like I had nothing left in me at this point.  I had to slow to a walk and try to recover so I could build myself back up to running.  Many, many people were walking at this point.  But, many people were still running past me!  I told Elaine to go on, and watched her run as I tried to gather myself together so I could run again.  I was feeling horrible, mentally, because I knew there was less than 2k left, and I knew I should be able to do it.   There were lots of spectators cheering, just random people who must have done it before and wanted to be there encouraging the runners.  Let me tell you, encouragement was what I needed!  I walked for a minute, then tried to run again for a bit, then slowed to walk again.  Then I saw this one guy holding a sign that said "Pain is temporary, but Pride is Forever!"  Well, that was just exactly what I needed to see at that moment, because I thanked him and got my buns running again.  Then, I saw a member of the psyching team, saying "Less than a minute and you'll be at the finish!" which I really didn't believe because at this point it seemed like forever.  Then I came around the corner, and there was the finish line!  I picked up speed and tried to look like I wasn't dying, since I knew that the race photographers would be there taking pics as you cross the finish line, and damn it, I wanted to look as good as possible in that pic!! 

It was great to see my hubby right at the finish line waiting for me!  He had tried to catch up with me at the 10k and 15k point, but all the roads were blocked off because of the race.  And, I told him my expected times, but I was a little ahead of those times, so I had a feeling I wouldn't be seeing him before the finish.

I got my medal, which is like an Olympic medal!  Seriously, it is huge and heavy!  It kind of looks like pewter.  Very nice :)

After the race, I headed over to the First Aid tent to get some ice on the problem knee.  All of the volunteers were super-friendly and very helpful.  Then, Brent and I walked around 2km (my knee was not happy with this!) to meet up with the Team at Cora's Restaurant for a "restorative" breakfast.  Honestly, food never tasted so good!  Brent and I sat a table with Vinita (who has the best job ever at Robert Kennedy Publishing), and her boyfriend Guy, and had a nice conversation.  Tosca, her husband and some other people from the team were beside us.  I'll definitely be back to Cora's for breakfast next time I'm in the "big city", it was truly wonderful - fresh, tasty food that is also wholesome and healthy - what could be better!?  After thanking Tosca and the Team, and being thanked right back, Tosca gave me a hug (I'm sure I was very nasty smelling, and I warned her, but she hugged me anyways!) Brent and I started the long trek to the parked car.

We happened to drive by Lululemon on Yonge Street, SCORE!!  We got a parking spot right outside, and I was lucky enough to get myself a couple of self-congratulatory and pre-birthday gifts.  I seriously have a Lululemon addiction, and am admitting I NEED HELP!!!  Seriously.  It is a real problem.

However, it was the PERFECT way to cap off what was one of my best weekends ever.  I really believe that GOOD THINGS HAPPEN WHEN YOU GO FOR IT, and I think this past weekend is proof!

Thanks everyone for reading this looong blog report, but mostly thanks for your support, not only in this weekend's events, but also in my Weekend to End Women's Cancers and Race for the Cure.  Your encouragement and support really means the world to me!!

Have a great week everyone!

Dawn  :)