Midsummer Night's Run 15K





 

Toronto ON

Bib # 1691

Chip time: 1:19:39

Official time 1:19:49

Pace 5:19

Place 224/1314

Gender Place 73/860

Category Place 18/185

 

 

 

Rewind 1 year ago to this race..... My worst race experience ever! Obviously I had to go back for redemption, but half assed redemption because I may be crazy but I'm not stupid. I opted for the 15K distance this time around. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice yada yada yada.

 

Same as last year I had no idea what to do with the day leading up to the 5:45pm race time. I took the dog for a long walk, cleaned the bathroom, did some laundry and watched tv. I didn't have a nap this time around because I had to leave so early to catch the ferry in time. Fast forward to 4pm and I was really regretting not squeezing one in. Zzzzzzzz. I wasn't really all that hungry during the day either so I didn't eat a whole lot, something else to have regrets about. Midsummer. The race of regrets.

I met Emma and Nicole at the Bronte Go Station slightly later than the planned 2pm meet time. As the girls found out, if it's not in Burlington, assume I don't know where it is. Obviously I got lost but eventually made my way over there. We all hopped into Emma's car and headed into the Big City. The drive in didn't take long and we were able to find parking fairly easily and then made our way over to the Toronto Island ferry dock. Thank goodness we had Nicole with us because obviously with the dock not being in Burlington I had no idea how to get to it. I was really surprised at the amount of people waiting for the ferry! The only ferry that I know is the one to get to Bell Island by my in laws house in Newfoundland and the only time it sees more than 20 people on it is for crazy coming home gatherings! Mind you they seem to have those every other week, but I digress....

Did I mention it's a car carrier? Slightly bigger than the Toronto Island ferry but still has the same musty life jacket stink

 

We got onto the ferry and made our way over to the island. Toot toot. It was around this point when I realized that I was hungry. Like ready for dinner hungry. Emma was nice enough to give me a granola bar but that didn't really cut it. *sigh* We then made our way over to the designated DM meeting spot but unfortunately only saw Heather and Roxane. It would seem everyone else was waiting for a ferry on the other side. As we sat amongst piles of goose crap and ant hills we chatted amicably and I found myself trying to make the same decision as last year. Hat or headband. It was hot out which made me want to choose the band, but it was also sunny. Then I remembered how I got crapped on by a bird last year so choice was made! Hat it was. I also couldn't decide if I wanted to go with long socks or short. I decided to go with long because they look cuter and I was sitting in the shade so they wouldn't be too hot at all right?! Midsummer. The race of regrets. We then made our way over to the bag check linnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeee. Yeah, this line was long. We finally got our bags checked, hit the porta potties, got our prerace photo taken (which doesn't seem to be posted anywhere! Boo!) and then made our way to the start line for Nicole to begin her 30K race. Hey! Where the hell is the start line?!?! As we wandered around looking for the start thoughts of the ghetto Georgina 10 miler came into my head. I wondered if we would also be doing any prerace Zumba. We finally found the start and wished Nicole luck. "Keep an eye out for Mari" I said to Emma. Then I turned around and there she was. I guess she must have read the word bubble over my head. We wished Mari luck and I went to hit the porta potties one last time as I chugged back a Vega preworkout energizer hoping that would help me out in the empty belly department. By the time I got back Emma was nowhere to be seen so I went looking for the 1:15 pacer. I found him with a few minutes to spare so I pushed my way into the crowd as best I could and waited for the gun to go off. At least I had the random late 30k arrivals to keep my attention. People kept pushing up and before I knew it the pacer was pretty far ahead of me so I tried to keep him in my sights as the race started. Thankfully I was far enough up front that the race congestion didn't really affect me all that much. I would assume that the same could not be said for people behind me mixed in with the walkers. Less than 500m into the race there was a water table which I thought was really strange. What was even stranger was that people were actually taking the water! It didn't dawn on me until later why there was a water table at this location. Obviously the hand drawn course map didn't make much of an impression on me. The first km clicked by and I was feeling good. But hot. Good'n'hot. Kilometer number 2 came along as did the sand! WTF? Sand? Ok, I got this. I can run on sand. Pfffft no problemo! Just feeling a little hot is all. And thirsty. So thirsty. Why the hell did I wear this stupid hat? And long socks? What was I thinking?! OMG I'm sooooooooo thirsty. I need a drink. Where's my gum? Why aren't I chewing gum?! If I was chewing gum I wouldn't be so thirsty. But God I'm so hot. What am I doing out here? Didn't I vow not to return to this race again?! Hey?! What's going on? Isn't this the start? Why are we back at the start? Oh wait, there was a drinks station by the start! I'm beginning to really regret signing up for this stupid race. Maybe I should just give up racing. Races are stupid. This race is stupid. I'm stupid. Hot'n'stupid.  Finally the water station appeared and I'm able to get my sanity back. I made the decision here to drop my pace and adjust my goal. 1:20 time is still respectable right? I should have asked that guy on the boat who told Nicole that pacing 3hrs was 'respectable'. Probably I shouldn't ask the lady who told us she had the worst marathon ever last year and ran 4 hours. Good Lord! Why would you even admit to that?! Things are not going the way I had hoped but hey, it's 12 hours later than I'm used to running in the day, I haven't had dinner, I'm hot as balls and this route is weird! Alright, feeling better about things already. I'm still hot though. Really hot. I still can't make heads or tails of the route, but somewhere around here I saw Nicole with her pacer group who I gave a quick thumbs down to, and then Mari who I gave a wave to.

My first 5K paces were

4:54

4:49

5:02

5:25 drink break with a little sanity collection

5:09

I stopped for Gatorade at the 6K water station because I was really starting to feel depleted of energy and saw Henry. I chugged back the Gatorade, waved at Henry and declined the water that he was offering me. I quickly wondered if I looked as brutally hot as I felt but looking around I noticed everyone else covered in sweat, although probably not as red faced as me, and put it out of my mind. Shortly after this I saw Emma, Pierre and Laura. I gave them all a wave and started to feel my energy returning. Yeah! I got this! Yay Gatorade! I'm still hot though. My face feels like it's going to spontaneously combust! I really wish I could take off my hat! Why did I decide to wear this thing anyway?! I'm starting to notice a lot of random people wandering on the walkway now, and those weird bike things that people are riding? I'm really loving dodging those. I hit a pot hole and rolled my ankle a little but was able to recover quickly, thank goodness. I soon passed the 9k sign only to look at my Garmin to find it reading 8.5k. Amazing. I am now going to run the longest km ever. Lucky me!
Next 5K paces

5:32 drinking the Gatorade Koolaid

5:23

5:26

5:20

5:21

Around the 10K mark the lovely boardwalk came into play as did a stomach cramp. As I ran along here I reveled in the breeze coming off the lake all while trying to keep my footing on the rickety boards that were not very securely attached. I passed a lady who obviously  had tripped and fallen, getting medical attention. The boardwalk seemed to go on forever and as I passed the 30K markers I realized that those poor people had to run out here more than once! Suuuuucccckkkks! After about 2kms we were finally finished with this part of the route. Yeah! I played leap frog with a guy in a blue shirt for a little while and thought to myself that my splits have got to be all over the place right now. Boy I was right on the money with that one. We eventually came upon a grassy area to run on......of course we did, we've run on everything but tile flooring tonight!, and were directed to run through two trees in the middle of a field. I laughed to myself and wondered who the hell made up this course. Just as we came up to a bridge a lady caught up to my shoulder and said 'Good job girl. You've got this. I've been pacing off you for a while now'. Oh. Really? Well pace this! And off I went. I sped up with each footstep until I rounded the corner and had the finish line in my sights. My legs moved so fast, I was full on sprinting and everyone on the sidelines cheered me on. I saw Patty out of the corner of my eye, waved (or apparently thumbs upped her as the picture she sent me says) and then picked off everyone in front of me until I crossed that finish line. B goal accomplished! Yay!



I wonder if this is Thumbs up I got this or Thumbs back, trip this chick behind me?

Final paces

5:40  no idea what happened here other than my stomach cramp.

5:17

5:31

5:22

5:13

3:17

Consistency. Thy name is Sam.

 

Will I come back and test the Third Time's a Charm theory? Maybe. I have a crazy habit of forgetting how much something sucks until I'm back in that situation again. I have two kids don't I?

 

My new favourite race picture thanks to buddy in the tank.

 Kenny suggested I do this. Obviously it just shows that buddy is having a rough time and not as pissed at being
passed by me as I'd like to think.

 

 



Look how happy we are. Things will change in about 5 minutes when
we see the line up for the ferry

 

The city looks so nice. Where the hell is the ferry?!

 

I WANNA GO HOME!!! It took about as long to run the race

as it did to wait in line for the ferry.