My running has been progressing quite nicely over the last year, so I felt ready to try a new challenge - the half-marathon. At a distance of 21.1km, this running event is more than double the usual 10km distance I’ve been competing at the last couple years, but I do like to constantly improve and challenge myself, so I decided to see how I would do at the Goodlife Fitness Toronto half-marathon (http://www.torontomarathon.com/races/half-marathon.html), held on Sunday, May 3rd, 2015.
The half-marathon started at Mel Lastman Square (in the North York region of the city), continued south down Yonge St, turning slightly southeast down Rosedale Valley Rd and onto Bayview Ave, before turning west running through the downtown core along Front St, with the finish line at Ontario Place on the Lakeshore Blvd.
The weather was ideal for running - around 13C and mostly sunny in the morning, and 18C at the end of the race. No sleeves or jackets required, but still not too sweaty nor humid for endurance running.
I set myself off at a slower race pace (5:00min/km) for the half-marathon and I was pleased that I was able to maintain it as planned for the majority of the race (with the exception of the Yonge/York Mills hill at the 4km mark where I slowed down to 5:15/km). Looking back, I think I could have challenged myself to keep a faster pace (maybe 4:45/km) as I was able to pick up my pace quite well for the last 3km (4:20/km) for a strong finish, indicating that I wasn’t as spent as I could’ve been. I will definitely run harder during my next half-marathon this autumn. Looking back, I think I may have paced too conservatively as I had never raced this distance before, and I think I played it too safe. Next half-marathon race I will run more aggressively now that I have the experience and confidence under my belt.
Overall, I really enjoyed this distance and race. I found the first 7km or so were a little difficult, partly due to the hill at the start, and settling into a pace I was comfortable with, but after the 7km point I fell into a nice rhythm and felt like I was cruising along. The scenic and gentle slope down Rosedale Valley Rd was an especially nice stretch to run.
I was fortunate to have a friend waiting for me near the 9km point (just north of St. Clair/Yonge) and captured this video clip of me, which was nice as I hardly ever see what I actually look like running (look for me in blue #4880 during the last 10 sec of the video).
As with many road races, many of the spectators offer their own style of inspiration, encouragement and support for the runners, and I find myself scanning the sidewalks, looking to them for both entertainment and encouragement. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many people holding boxes of kleenex for the runners so that they could clean their runny and snotty noses. (BTW I’ve developed a decent farmer style nose-blow from all my long runs). These are things other runners understand and appreciate!
There were some pretty good signs along this race route as well. Besides the usual personal signs posted from family members, I drew encouragement from the “Kill the Hill” sign at the 3.5km point, as well as the “Free Bananas in 13km” sign at the 7.1km point, but my favourite sign, by far, was the bright yellow bristol board with “Never trust a fart after 20km” in bold black lettering warning the runners at ~17km. That was a good one! A little comedic relief to help you through the last stretch. It really does help. So kudos to them and all the race volunteers.
The last few km of the race went really well. I was stronger running across that Bathurst street bridge than I ever had been before, but I was momentarily discouraged when I realized the finish line wasn’t at Fort York (where I was used to it being for the Yonge St 10km races in the past) and I still had another 1.5km to run to get to the actual finish line further along at Ontario Place! Geez! But I kept pushing hard and I was able to finish with a strong kick across the finish line in a time of 1:45:52. I was hoping for a finishing time of 1:45:00, but that was honestly just a best guess since I had never ran this distance before. I’m happy to say that I’m pleased with my race results and will definitely be doing more half-marathons in the future.
My race stats: (via Sports Stats: http://www.sportstats.ca/
Official time - 1:45:52
Overall place - 501/3890 (12.8%)
Gender place - 109/2034 (5.4%)
Age category place - 19/264 (7.2%)
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