Hamilton Half Marathon Race Report

This was only the second race I've ever run with Tammy as this was all about her race after coming out to watch me frolicking around with triathlons for the last two years.  It was also the first half marathon she's ever done.  The babysitter arrived at our house at 6 am sharp and we left to meet Don (my bro) at our parent's house for 6:30 am.  One good thing was that Daylight Savings ended the night before so actually it was like meeting at 7:30 am instead.  The drive to Hamilton was pretty uneventful and we got to Confederation Park in good time.  We ran into Lisa in the parking lot with a guy from her office.  I guess he was going to pace her for this race.  The race ended at Confederation Park and we were bussed to the start line where we waited inside a school until the race started.  It was a cool and brisk morning but there were several people wearing shorts.  I'm not sure it was that warm.  The weather was pretty good but cool.  Thankfully it wasn't rainy or windy.  I wore my vest as I figured it might be a little cooler than if I ran at a normal pace and I was pretty much bang on.

Once the race started, we were running at a good clip.  Don took off almost immediately as he was looking to run at a much faster time (two hours) than what I was planning.  I figured we'd be aiming for around 2:15 which would have been pretty good.  The first 10 km was at a pretty good clip and in hind sight, a little too fast as Tammy began to flag around the half way point but hung in until the the last four kilometers.  We were ahead of the 2:15 pace bunny until around the 17 km mark and I thought we could keep pace until the end but Tammy really ran out of gas.  The last 3.5 km were a real struggle but she finished at a good clip for the last 500 meters.

I was very worried about being able to keep pace as we'd be running at a pace of over one minute per km slower.  In all, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be as I would amuse my self by running ahead and taking a couple of pictures and emailing it to Paul and Tammy's parents.  Its really hard to type and run at the same time.  Almost as hard as texting and driving at the same time. Ha Ha not that I would know about that!! Another time, I stopped to take a very long leak in the industrial section of the town and had to sprint hard to catch up.  That felt good (the sprinting).

All in all, it was a pretty good course as I liked running down Red Hill Valley Parkway which was shut down. Even towards the finish line the course went through a park along Lake Ontario which had a nice wide path unlike the finish to the Ajax and Mississauga Half Marathon which is quite narrow.  I really hate running in races where its a narrow path or very crowded like the Sporting Life 10 km down Yonge street which is so packed, its solid all the way.  I'm scheduled to run the full marathon next year as I think it would be a good race except for the finish as it loops around a water park the path turns to gravel for a couple of hundred meters which really sucks.  Also the water stations were a little disorganized as high school kids were in charge of handing out the drinks.  Some of the cups only had a mouthful of water so I grabbed three or four cups.

Oh, one lousy thing.  It took 45 minutes to exit the park as there was only one exit for all the cars to leave. Good thing the kids we're not with us or they would have flipped out

Race Results:

Don:   2:07:11 - he was on pace to break two hours but cramped up bad near the end
Lisa:  2:13:59 - end of the year race
Tammy:  2:19:09 - great race
Peter:  2:19:11 -  at least I wasn't sore after the race

Next Up:  Around The Bay (Hamilton) March 27, 2011 but maybe the Ajax 10 km Snowflake Run Dec 19th, 2010

Later this week I'll update thoughts of the 2010 race season