Bib Pick-Up Thursday, April 30
Arrived after an after work run to the Sporting Life store on Yonge Street. Parked in the store lot without much issue (unlike other years). Only 30 seconds in line to pick up the bib. Then got the timing chip activated and then went to retrieve my tech shirt. Don't like the bright colour but it will do. Armed with a 10% coupon, I bought 5 gels at $1.79 - 10% off. Then off to home I went.
A corral system is being used this year. I'm surprised I got placed in the Yellow Corral as the purple corral is over 1 hour and the blue corral is a few minutes under 1 hour.
Race Day
Left my house and did a slow warm-up run (7 K) to the starting line. The one lesson I learned is to ensure the Garmin is fully battery-charged; I forgot to recharge it and could only give it 25 minutes of juice. I arrived at the starting line with a few minutes to spare and quickly found the Yellow Corral and entered it. At this time, my Garmin was already low on battery but it'll do. The weather was sunny and cool. A wonderful day for this run!
From start to finish, the route was crowded. There were an additional 800 spots at the last minute at a reduced fee of $40.00 -- no tech shirt or finisher's medal. In total, 12 800 spots were sold (compared to last year's 9000 spots).
It was mainly a downhill race :-) There were 2 uphill inclines but that's it. Down Yonge Street passing Eglinton, Davisville, St. Clair, Dupont, Davenport, Bloor, College, Dundas, and Queen. Then west on Richmond Street until Peter. Then it was downhill incline until Front Street. Then west on Front Street until Bathurst and down to the finish line at Fort York.
The race, as advertised, was fast! I slashed my PB by 6 minutes and ended with a chip time of 52:05.9. Wow! I had set my Garmin 10:1 intervals but choose only to take a walk break at the fluid stations. The average pace at 10 minute intervals was 6.01 min/K, 5.07 min/K, 4.46 min/K, 4.37 min/K, and 4.41 min/K. Never gone that fast for such a sustained period of time. Thank goodness for the downhills! It was tough maintaining that pace on the flat surfaces. I reminded myself to enjoy the race. Good thing I was familiar with the route as it didn't take long to get to the finish line. Boy was I excited to see the finish line!
The challenge was the crowds, as I said above. Fortunately, the streets were well supervised by the police. There were a few bands along the route and the crowds were good.
Good thing I bought along my own water bottle as fluid stations were scarce -- one at the 3.5 K and another at the 7 K marks. Gatorade was first and then water. At the first station, the volunteer was struggling to fill the Gatorade -- and there were only a dozen cups left on the table. At the second fluid station, I had to help myself as there was no volunteer.
The one-time use of the Time Chip was to avoid the disastrous stand-still finish line. That didn't change this morning and I know how dangerous it is to stand still after running at full-steam. Fortunately, I was able to move to an open field (with some cars parked) and was able to cool-down with walking. This happened after getting a finisher's medal. There was no Gatorade until way over the hill :-( Once cool-down, I made my way to the congested Gatorade stand. I wanted some post food and found it a ways more walking -- there wasn't a line-up for the bananas (very ripe) or the great tasting red delicious apples. I ate 3 whole wheat bagels as well. Got a copy of yesterday's National Post, sampled some of the Oasis juices, and then exited the Fort York on Bathurst. Walked home and then took Bud on a walk -- both of us happy as I got in more recovery.
My chip time is 52:05.9 [PB]
Overall place = 3263 out of 10 758 (thrilled to be in top 1/3)
M35-39 Category Place = 405 out of 733
Gender Place = 2489 out of 4858
http://www.sportstats.ca/display-results.php?lang=eng&racecode=44706&first=l&last=lim&bibnum=&page=&sortby=place&city=toronto&sizeofpage=200&limit=2000
Rest until at least Wednesday. Probably will get in 1 run this week before the Mississauga Marathon next Sunday. Looking forward to running my first marathon.
