Road 2 Hope

So I'm sure you're all wondering how did it go?  Well there's good news and bad news.  I'll give you the good news first since I consider myself an optimist.  The first - I set a 10k p.b. with a time of 50:33.  The bad news... I couldn't keep that pace... no where near it. 

My overall time was 1:55.  I flew down the parkway at the start of the race, then when I went over the overpass pain, pessimism and negative self talk ran with me for the next 8k.  No matter what I did, I couldn't shake them.  I have no excuses for not running my goal time.  The weather was perfect, the course was fast and I was trained out the wazoo.  This time was a result of not flowing with the race.

But I have no time for regrets or anything of the sort.  Tomorrow morning we head out for Greece.  I'm going to try to post throughout the trip with a photo extravaganza once I return.

Now back to the Road 2 Hope -

Despite not reaching my time goal I really did enjoy this race.  The volunteers were great.  My bus had a chaperon explaining the charities the race benefited and how many kids in Hamilton are helped through the organizations receiving funds from this race. 

The course is flat with a huge downhill.  If I run this race again, I am going to train more for the downhill run.  Like I said, I flew down that portion of the race, when we got off the parkway, and went over the overpass, my legs turned into jello.  The only real complaint was parking. The marathon start was delayed for 10 minutes because there was a backlog of traffic and buses getting people to the start.  But there was a warm school to wait in.  The half start was not delayed.  So really no big deal.

Here is the shirt and medal.  I was a bit disappointed in the plain white t-shirt.  Last year they had red shirts which I really like.  But the medal is one of the nicest ones I've received for a half and the swag in the race kit was great - all those samples went straight in my carry on - yes I'm that cheap.



I would run this race again in a heartbeat... and hopefully do better.  I do want to congratulate people in my clinic. Shelley finished in under 2 hours!  Gina took 7 minutes off her time from the Niagara Falls half 2 weeks ago.  John finished in 1:44 and Larry took 5 minutes off his time from the Collingwood half 3 weeks ago blazing in at 1:36! You guys rock!