Since I was warmed up, did some stretches. With about 10 minutes to go, got into the corrals and stood just ahead of the 2:15 pace bunny -- not much else to go since it was crowded. It was cold just standing around.
At 10:05 am, the gun went off. It took 3 minutes 8 seconds for me to reach the time chip mat. I went off a bit too fast and slowed down. From the Lakeshore, it took 5K to make it to New Street, where we ran until the 11K, and then south on Burloak Dr., then the remainder west on the Lakeshore Rd to the finish line. What I liked about this race, in particular, was lots of downhill running. There were a few uphills but either it was flat or downhill. It was scenic, the volunteers and police were great, and it was organized.
The finish line was fine as it wasn't a stand-still. I was able to walk a bit to cool down. The finisher's medal is great! The chilli was hot.
The race proved to be both physical and mental. More mental in the final third of the race (and the downhills helped). My chip time is 2:03:53 (gun time 2:07:01). I placed 1299 overall (out of 2260); 125 out of 149 in my age group; 764 out of 995 in my gender group. http://www.chiptimeresults.com/
Today = 21.25 K (according to Garmin) + 2.59 K = 23.84 K
YTD = 299.21 K
Very pleased with the organization of this race. It's definitely one of my favourite races! The only negative I can find is 7 runners all in 1 line. There were other instances of 3 runners in a line (and they took the entire width of the runway -- maybe a wider runway? I didn't like the no race day bib pick-up rule but oh well...
The bus driver was funny: "I feel guilty. While everyone was running, I was eating donuts" :-)
