Scotia Bank Half-Marathon Race Report!

"The goal you set must be challenging. At the same time, it should be realistic and attainable, not impossible to reach. It should be challenging enough to make you stretch, but not so far that you break."

Rick Hansen

We're off! :)

The things I could control, I did, the things I could not, well, they couldn't have gone any better. The weather was amazing, a sunny 65­F with a nice light breeze, just perfect. I was lucky enough to not be injured through this whole training cycle and on race day! The course was relatively flat and we ran next to the Olympic bassin, on trails, and on the F1 circuit...very cool. Only little blip is that my Garmin died on me, but luckily I wasn't alone. 

The most wonderful part of this whole race was being with my daughter. Just having her by my side was a huge boost. 

The first 10km truly flew by and we crossed the 10k mat in 1h01m53s, practically a 10k PR! It continued to go smoothly for another 3km, but by 14k, I was starting to find it more difficult to maintain my pace. I noticed that km 15 and 16 were my two slowest. As we neared km 17, I asked my  daughter how long we'd been going: Jess, "1h44m" - Me, "I don't think I'll make it" - Jess, "We'll make it mom, let's go" as she took my hand. When we crossed the 17K mark, she said, "We've got this mom, even if we go 7min/km we've got this." This was exactly what I needed to hear, and so I just took off again. All I kept thinking was, "It's all mental now, until the end, it's all mental." At this point, I realized that my daughter wasn't next to me. I knew that her knees were hurting her and that this was causing her grief, but she had made me promise to go for it if she had to slow down. She wanted this for me as much as I wanted it for myself and I knew I couldn't give in now. 

I didn't have my Garmin, so I didn't know how I was doing, but I knew I was pushing it as much as I could at this point. When I crossed the finish line, I knew I had done it, but I didn't know by how much. I waited for my daughter, who arrived a few minutes after me. She was under the 2:15 mark and she was so excited for me, even though she was hyperventilating a bit! 

My official time is 2h12m37s!!! A 5 minute 20 second PR!! 

I am so proud of my daughter for running her first half-marathon with me and for being there when I truly needed her. I love you so much Jess! Myself, I'm really proud of the fact that I followed through. I did the intensive training and achieved my goal...and because of my training, I have hardly any post-race pain, which is pretty cool!

Congrats to our whole group and thanks to my brother for being the official photographer!!

I love you all :)

Next up is a 9km trail race in June with Uber H! Then, at the end of June begins marathon training for Philly, which is in November. We will be celebrating my Super SIL's 50th birthday (she's second from the right on the photo). Another exciting event!

Thanks for your encouragement everyone!

Cheers!