Mississauga Half Marathon - YEAH BOYYYYYYYYEEEEE

Mississauga ON

BIB # 3386

Chip Time 1:57:31

Official Time 1:59:35

Pace 5:35

Place 1022/2911

Gender Place 360/1639

Category Place 120/530

Finally a race shirt that I will wear!

Aaaaaaaand 2 weeks after I add 'completed 10K' to my race list I am now adding 'completed half marathon'! Crazy! I can't believe how far I've come since last June when I started running again. My goal this time last year was just to get a 5K done, and I had absolutely no intentions of ever running more than 5! That was my limit, I was happy with that. And look at me today. 21.1K!! I freakin' rock!!!!

On Friday I went down to the Expo to pick up my race kit. It was BUSY! I had to drive around a bit to find a parking spot, but once I did I hustled in and moved through the crowds quickly. I bought some gels at the Running Room booth, cashed in on some free samples at various others and then went home to dig through my bag of goodies. Saturday I didn't do much, I ate a lot of carbs and lazed around the house trying to keep my legs fresh. I went up to bed early and caught up on Game of Thrones (I love this show but always feel like a total perv watching it. I hate how HBO has to push the envelope just because they can!) then went to sleep. I didn't wake up again until my alarm went off at 5am. Thank goodness!

Race day I got up at 5am, showered, ate, and walked the dog. My friend Sarah was being picked up at 6am by her friend Heather and then driving up to my place to hook up with me. I returned home from my dog walk to find a text saying that they had left early and would be at the meeting spot in 10 minutes. Looking at the time that the text was sent this was now!!! EEK! I wasn't even dressed. Thankfully my bag was already packed and my clothes laid out so it only took a few minutes to throw my clothes on and my hair up and I was out the door. Oops. Without my bib or chip. Thankfully I realized right away (not on the highway like last time with my phone!!) and was able to run in and grab them.  Phew! In no time we were at Square One and ready to race! We made a quick pit stop to the nasty porta potties (why are they always so digusting?!?!) stretched and made our way over to the starting line where we said goodbye. I was planning on running with the 2:00 pace bunny, Sarah & Heather were aiming for 2:15. With this being my first half I really had no idea what I was doing and I wanted to play it safe. The pace bunny that I found was a walk/run but I figured that was fine. I really didn't know how the continuous group was going to do it. I can't do 21K without stopping so 10's & 1's were fine by me, even if I haven't done them since last August! OMG, 10's & 1's are the way to go. I had so much energy in this run! I don't know if it was the run walk, or the major carb load I did this weekend, or a combination of both but I felt amazing from start to finish!

And we're off! There's me in the white sweater (that I ditched at the 2K water station) and pink headband. My pace bunny Leah is there on the right. She carried that sign the ENTIRE race!!

I kept pulling ahead of the group and then having to slow down to catch back up to them. Just as we got to 'The Hill' around 9K (holy crap this was tough!) the pace bunny suggested I go on my own. I really wasn't confident to leave her just yet so I stuck around, but I knew at one point I was eventually going to have to let go of her apron strings and go on. A few other members of the group also thought that I should pull away ("You're in great shape. Look, you're not even breathing hard!" one of them said to me) so around 15K I had once again pulled ahead but I didn't bother slowing down for them, I just kept on going. There was another girl from the group with me (her name was Lisa) who had on a Garmin so we decided to run together and continue with the 10's and 1's. Around 19K I asked her if she was going to take anymore walk breaks because I was just going to keep on. "I don't think I should" she said so we went for it. Unfortunately she couldn't keep up with me any longer and that was the last that I saw of her. I tried to find her at the finish to say thank you, but I never got the chance. At the 20KM marker I turned on everything that I had and went for it. This. Was. The. Longest. Kilometer. Of. My. Life!!! Honestly. I never thought it was going to end. It was like a bad dream where you're running in a tunnel but the tunnel has no end.

Just past the 20K mark and I'm still smiling!

Longest KM ever!

Finally we crossed a bridge, turned a corner and there it was!! Hello! As I came down the home stretch I saw that the clock was in the 1:59's so I found that last little bit in myself and brought it in! Yay! My goal was to finish under 2 hours and I did it. With 10's &1's!!

Hitting the mat.....gotta turn off my RunStar app!! I came down the homestretch so fast it caused my Simple Hydration water bottle to pop out of my pants!!!

 I got my chip cut off my shoe, grabbed some gatorade & water, found my pace bunny and thanked her (she thought that I did terrific for my first half --- thank you very much!) grabbed my food and waited around for Sarah. We finally met up and did the post race mortem on the way to the shuttle bus. What a great morning. The weather was amazing, the course was terrific and I am so full of pride. I went from doing 1's & 1's less than a year ago to a sub 2 half marathon. Yeah Boyyyyyyyyyeeeeee!

My 10K split was 54:30...not too shabby!