Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon Recap

Well I did it!
My first half marathon is completed and I am so happy that it is over!
The morning of the race I was up at 5am and I felt sick. My nerves were getting the best of me. The whole drive into Toronto my stomach was turning and cramping, I was not a happy runner. Even with all the road closures my hubby was able to drive me right up to the corral section of where I had to go. He dropped me off and I went to do a warmup jog inside the corral fence since they had said they were shutting the corrals down at 7:15am and I was so nervous that I would not be in my corral and have to be at the end. This race was huge. There were over 22,000 runners and being in the middle corral I could not believe how far I was from the actual start line. When the announcer announced we had one more minute, everyone started walking forward to use up all the empty space. A minute later the gun went off. Everyone was just walking forward, there were so many people you could not run yet. As we were walking (I really did not like that) two guys beside me asked, has the race started yet? I thought that was hilarious! I had started my watch when the gun went off (yup bad move) but I was able to see exactly how long it actually took me to get to the start line......exactly 2mins and 50 seconds. This is where I think the chip time should be the time that they count.
I was actually able to jog once I crossed the start line and I had the 3:50 marathon bunny right infront of me so I told myself to stick with him as much as possible and I will get my sub 2. I did lose him somewhere and at that point I didn't care. The first half of the race was fine. I felt good and my ankle and knee were doing fine, just my back muscle was bugging me a bit but it was bareable. At the turn around mark which was just after halfway I strated to feel my legs very heavy. This race is advertised as "flat & fast" but seriously on the way back there are several hills, not big hills but still hills and my legs were feeling it! My pace really slowed down the second half and I was really disappointed but I tried the best I could to get moving. I was so happy when we did the turn onto Bay St. because that meant the finish line was just a few blocks away. As I was running towards the fininsh line I saw the time of 2:01:20......I was so disappointed I did not do a sub 2 but I speed up so much to be able to cross at 2:01:30 and I did it. Here are my stats:

Official Time - 2:01:30
Chip Time - 1:58:13 (there is my sub 2)
Gender Rank - 807 out of 4411
Category Rank - 118 out of 700

I think overall I did pretty good for my first half marathon. I did get a PR/PB....woohoo and hopefully I will do better on my next half marathon.

Here is a picture of the finish line after I passed:



Here is one of my cheerleaders. What did my husband and daughter do as I was standing in my corral waiting? They went to the Marriott Hotel and has a yummy breakfast but they said they saw me on tv as the news was broadcasting the start live!



And here is the new half marathoner!

I really did enjoy this race. I thought the course was overall very good. The streets are nice and wide so you are not bumping into other runners. There are several cheering sections throughout the course which is nice and very motivating. It was well patrolled and very well organized. I really enjoyed this experience and the Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon will definately be on my 2011 race schedule.

So what do you do after you run a big race? I'll tell you tomorrow what I did. My friends all thought I was crazy to do this but you need to cease the moment! Isn't suspense great!