Niagara Falls Half Marathon

In the short:

Goals- Under 1:45, Top 10 age category.

Achieved- Chip time- 1:39:57, 6/132 Females 30-35. 19/851 Females overall. 136/1457 Overall Male and female.


In the long: Mostly just written for my own memories.

I actually really wanted this race to be a marathon- but between an injury and the stress of going back to work, I just wasn't able to get enough long runs in sooo a half. I had felt that the 21km distance was a tad jinxed as two previous attempts had been aborted. Once related to injury and another due to the growing fetus of Ever.
We went down to Niagara falls on Saturday and spent the night in a hotel and praise be to God I was able to get a ride to the start with another Saugeen Tri member. Ever was awake q 2hours just wanting to nurse and fussing. He fell asleep late and woke early so basically I don't really know why I even went to bed. Coffee was a good thing. I bought my morning porage and the hotel heated it up for me.
The biggest concern was what to wear in relation to the weather. The wind can be nasty along the river and it threatened rain but in the end I decided upon long sleeve tech shirt and carpi's. I wore a long sleeve cotton that was for the salvation army until the first aid station then just left it. At times I wished I was in shorts but overall felt good- and cute.
Started out with the 1:45 pace bunny but really didn't want to limit myself to that time so set out to go as fast as I could for as long as I could and basically that lasted for seven miles. I then did three at a more relaxed pace. Then I felt bad and really wanted to make it in under 1:40 soo I did my best to pick it up. It hurt- alot. I spent alot of the race running with a man from Trois Rivere Quebec who spoke broken English, and men. I didn't see a single female from about Mile four until the end..and those were already finished. Although there was a woman who finished less then a minute before me.
I found the course pretty, but slightly boring. The aid stations were staffed by very enthusiastic high school kids so there was alot of energy when you passed through them. The course is harder to access so there wasn't alot of spectators. As it is a very flat course there wasn't any hill challenges either soo I can't say that I am desperate to do it again.
Used Honey stingers chews for energy- just didn't give me the kick like GU's do. Lesson learned. As well they are bulky to carry. Took in a mouthful of water at about half of the aid stations.
Finnish line was COLD and windy....and Luke negated to bring me clothes to the finish so we left quickly. Food was crap. EXCEPT for chocolate milk. They even gave Maya and Luke a carton and a micro fibre towel. Probably cause I was sooo excited to see milk and verbally shared that with the hand out girl.