Story
I ran the Toronto Half Marathon today along with @rebeccamlambert - and 15,000 other people! Also in from Ithaca were @Tristan_Lambert, @jonlewis and @peter.i.frazier, who did the full Marathon race.
This point-to-point race race involved getting up TOO EARLY and taking a shuttle bus to the start. The start was chaos - the scale of the interior spaces, park area, portapotty zone, etc. was immense - and I was disappointed with the organization - there seemed to be hardly any. I had signed up for the “corral” that went from something like a 1:47 finish to a 2-hour finish, and the sign-up system was very clear about how if you couldn’t break 2 hours, don’t sign up. I thought that I had always wanted to break 2, and this could be my year for it - not like I’m getting any younger, so I actually put a lot of effort into training.
I just felt kind of unsupported because I had worked so hard and there did not appear to be any organization to the start. I had to climb the fence to get into the start area - who knows how far back the actual entrance was and then I had to try to wiggle through a tight crowd of mostly 2-hours-and-slower runners to get farther ahead - everyone was confused. We had been told our corral would start at 8:50, but Rebecca crossed the start mat a bit ahead of me and I crossed at 8:47, and we both spent most of the race passing people.
Once the race started, it settled into being fun. A lot of it is a gradual downhill, and that is my best kind of running. So, the first 10 miles were a floating slightly breathless effortlessness and glancing at my watch and reminding myself that the goal was just to break 2 and I was probably going too fast - I kept trying to dial it back, but it kept on feeling smooth and strong. The last three miles were harder, and the noise of the crowds and all the signs were great - and very loud - and I felt that I had that sub-2 in the bag until I hit about 12.3 miles. I felt… bad… and like I couldn’t breathe well. It took me about a quarter mile to relax and get my breath back and then that last mile just… wouldn’t… end… turned out the course was 13.3 miles - that’s on both my and Rebecca’s Strava. Looking back at my Strava readout, as I started mile 12, I didn’t realize, but I dropped into a sub-8 pace, like I felt that I could kick and it was only a mile… that is probably what caused me to feel bad for a bit there - I guess I had no kick. I made it in with a 1:55:16 chip time, so, yeah!
After wending my way through a seemingly endless finish chute and collecting my bag, I eventually found my friends - cell service was spotty with so many people around - and then a miracle - a family member who did not run fetched us pizza and root beer, and we lounged around on the grass and had a picnic.
The photos are of the Princes’ Arch by the finish line and of the pizza picnic.
