1/2 Marathon Madness

It's been a few days (umm, well 4 if you are counting), but I did complete the Mississauga 1/2 Marathon on Mother's Day. For anyone who is interested, a half marathon is 21.1 kilometers or 13 miles. It's a pretty long way to run. I have run this race once before, 2 years ago, before Liam was thought of (just before mind you).

My last long training run I managed to do pretty substantial damage to my IT bands; they're the bands that keep the muscle and bones and ligaments all connected in the top of your thigh, on the outside. If you do damage to them, it hurts. A LOT! You feel pain either in the knee or the hip. Lucky me, I feel it in both places this time. (Yeah, did I mention I have injured myself this way once before?)

Thank heavens for massage therapists. I have myself a darn good one and her name is Sarah. If you are in the area and need an RMT, just drop me a message and I will hook you up. Be warned though...she's brutal. It hurts worse to have it dealt with than to hobble along with the injury. How's that for irony. But when she is done, I heal over a day or two and am MUCH better. This injury was so lovely that it took 3 massages over 2 weeks for me to be healed enough.

So, keep all of this in mind. Not only did I run 21.1 km (13 miles), but I did it with one leg aching.

In the end, I came in 7 minutes faster than my previous time. I am pretty darn proud of that.

Here are a few pictures from the race...

Before, with 3 others running the race from my training group, Jo's Runners:


Waiting at the starting line:

And waiting...
And Xander waiting with Rick, one of my teammates:

Did I mention there is a lot of waiting at the beginning. I heard there were over 4,000 runners for the 1/2 and full marathon distances, so it takes a while to get out of the gates.

Ray and the kids went to breakfast with my coach and a few teammates who were there to cheer us on. Apparently they spent time gossiping about us. Jo, my coach, loves the newest story about how I was talked into accupuncture at the Expo the Friday before the race and ended up with a huge headache out of the deal. She did warn us not to do ANYTHING different, so I guess it is fair to laugh at me. Thankfully that headache went away.

I ran every single hill there was (which was not the case last time). The first place marathoner overtook me between the 18 and 19 km marks. And I have to say that I jumped up and hit the sign for both the 18 km mark and the 20 km mark in sheer joy!

My biggest feat was that I was still running at the end of the race. Funny little aside on that one, the last 1/2 km or so is all uphill. It is not very steep, but at the end of 21 km, it feels like the Rocky Mountains. And, as I pointed out to my coach, it is NOT Boston for crying out loud...it's Mississauga. So I ran that last one too.


If you are interested in the professional pictures taken along the course, you can go here and have a look.

My boys met me at the finish line with roses. I got a quick massage in the massage tent, some food, spoke to my coach, and we went home to finish off a lovely Mother's Day.