Unionville and Sporting Life 10K - First Races of the year

The two races that I opted in doing this year were the Unionville race, one in which my friend Susan and I participated in last year, and the Sporting Life 10K (one that we had missed the previous year since we were away for our friend's cruise wedding).  Both were usually a week apart from each other, but for some reason this year, they were back to back, one on the Saturday and the other on the Sunday.

Yikes indeed.  10k's back to back as the first run of the season?  It sounded pretty tough.  In reality, it was seriously tough - especially combined with something women experience on a monthly basis (the infamous period).  Sigh.  Timing!  It's all about timing.  Initially I was quite mortified that of all the weekends, it had to be this one?  Couldn't it have waited 2 more days?  But as with it is in life, you can't will things to go your way, but you can adjust and deal with it :P

Unionville Race - 10K

Woofles and Cream

I stayed over at my friend Susan's parents' place that night since the race was close to their home - one of the main reasons why we chose to do this particular race (and the swag bag + food!).  Our friend Madeline came to join us for dinner, and we had pasta and lobster lol. What a combination, but it worked.  You really couldn't say no to lobster.  At least not for me.  Later we grabbed dessert at "Woofles and Cream", which was quite the delight.  We got savoury Hong Kong style egg waffles with soft serve icecream.  The selections were all appetizing, but in the end we went with Susan's recommendation: "Lap Cheung" waffle with greentea icecream.  So good.  MMmmmmm.

But of course it took time to prepare it (15 minutes), so we walked around the small plaza and ended up getting a second dessert.  Yes, how wisely we use our time haha.

After the double dessert, we headed back to Susan's parents' place and Madeline headed home.  We freshened up and spent the rest of the time prepping for the race (pinning bibs, clothing, etc).

Pasta dinner - night before race #1

Morning came about, 6:00am my alarm rang.  I was up before it, having not slept too well.  My back felt kinda tense, like I pulled a muscle.  I did a bit of stretching, but it still ached.  Oh well.  Nothing I could do about it at this point.  I showered and dressed, and once Susan was freshened up as well, we ate a peanut butter sandwich and a banana before heading out.

Parking wasn't too difficult to find despite our worries that we were running late.  Yes, despite having gotten up at 6:00am, somehow we had lingered too long and were in a rush.  But it was okay, it seemed that there were a lot of street parking available.

The morning weather wasn't too cold which was good for us.  We walked around and took some pictures, put some stamps on our hands (lol, mine was an epic fail), and drank sample coconut water.  The swag bags we could see were there, but they were to be given at the end of the race.

There was an announcement that since there were so many 5ks, they would have another wave for them, so that meant our race was pushed later.  Which was alright, gave us more time to just chill and rest.

I had to admit, I was sort of out of it in the morning.  My insides were cramping and uncomfortable and despite having done training (lol yes, I have been training properly! In fact, I went up to 20km a few weekends ago).  I was also really low on energy.  Usually the first two days for ladies time are the absolute worst for me, and this was day 1 and I was going to attempt to do a 10k.  I was dreading it.  Though I told myself if it does get too tiring or bad, I would just stop and take things easy.  Afterall, lol I wasn't planning to win a race or anything - this was something that should be enjoyable.  I was functional, and as long as I remained so, I'd try to finish the race; walking it was always an option.

And that was what I did - powerwalk.  There was no way to run I decided after trying a few times.  I had told Susan that we'd just meet at the end (we always run at our own pace anyway), but this time, it was going to be at a much slower pace.

Surprisingly, however, there were in fact quite a few walkers!  I didn't feel so alone.  I was worried that I'd be the only one - after all, it had been listed as a 10k run.

I walked for about 4K on my own and then it was during this one section where I lost sight of the person in front of me and thought I had taken a wrong turn that I met Lilitha.  She turned out to be an avid walker that powerwalked a lot of races.

We chatted from that point on until the finish line on a variety of somewhat random but intriguing topics - societal issues, races, environment, running gear, etc.  It was very enjoyable and made the time pass by very quickly.

Finally when we reached the finish line, we got a picture taken together before I met up with Susan.  As I walked around with her, I couldn't help but ask:  where was the food?  Maybe I had taken too long walking..., but Susan told me that in fact when she finished, there wasn't any of the fancy bagels and such either (the ones we really liked last year).  The 5k'rs... they must eaten it all!! hahaha.

Look how full of energy I am? haha (Post race)

Aw boo.  Oh well.  I was ok.  We decided we would just grab some kind of breakfast then.

But the fancy bagels!  I had been looking forward to them.  Sigh.  I went to pick up my swag bag and life bag as well.  So many goodies in it!!

We walked around the area a little bit still trying to decide what to eat, dim sum?  dumplings? korean? Finally though we settled on having western breakfast in the area.  I ordered Nachos and Susan ordered a breakfast meal; both of which we split half and half.

When we finished eating, we were off to wholefoods to buy ingredients for a meal she wanted to prepare for the evening.  She had some of the groceries already, but not all of it.  We got steak, lemon, and fresh scallops and headed to her place - it would be my first time seeing it since she bought it over a year ago!  It was really quite nice, cozy and a good size for easy maintenance -- though I can't say much for the many bathrooms ;) that would be tough to clean.  But I guess just don't use all the bathrooms, it should be fine.

First on the agenda was tackling the fruitcake she wanted to make for Howard.  While Susan worked on the fruit cake,  I began preparing the pasta and also slicing beets and sweet potato.

The hours passed by quickly, but I had to admit I was really tired.  While 10ks didn't usually drain me, the cramping and twisting my body was pretty much screaming for me to stop moving. lol, what a delicate body indeed.  Also at this point, that pulled muscle pain that I had felt in the morning when I woke up pre-race, had escalated to actual pain pain.  Sigh.  Not my day at all.

The fruit cake was completed, and it looked wonderful - we even had chocolate dipped strawberries!  We put it in the fridge as a surprise...

Howard arrived shortly after the steaks were ready.  He got to watch as Susan finished frying the scallops.  And then we started to put things away, and Susan told Howard to put the cheese in the fridge -- at this point I was on the otherside of the room, tired and ready to just vegg...but the alarm bells went off when he moved to open the fridge.  I didn't think I had it in me to move so fast, but I managed to get there before he could turn his head to look into the fridge.

"no no, let me do it."  He had a preplexed look on his face, but he went with it.  phew.  'surprise' saved...  I couldn't help but give susan a look, haha, she had that shocked look on her face as well - she had simply forgotten about it for that moment. LOL.  Let's say, it wasn't really just that one moment.  It was many many many times.  Poor chocolate covered strawberries... its all I can say...

The table was finally set as the scallops were plated with the steaks.

Mmmm yummy!

The meal was delicious and healthy. And then it came to the final surprise, calling over Susan's cousin, husband and kids.

A birthday was celebrated, everyone was happy lol.  Good food never fails!

Now to tackle the next race...

Sporting Life 10K

This year the Sporting Life 10K race had an additional 2 waves.  This meant that people were slated to start with earlier start times compared to previous years. Wehad to yet again, be up by 6am, but this time we really couldn't linger too long since were were up in Stouffville.

We got up for 6:30am and things ran late again, though this time it was worrisome because Sporting Life 10K had one of the most race participants in Toronto.  Parking was going to be a pain.

It was a race for time as we still needed time to pickup Howard from his house and we were already late.  Luckily, we managed to secure some parking by a school.  Ironically Gordon, who was also doing the race, had finished running before we had even arrived - he was in the earlier wave.

When we got there to the race start line, the end of the blue wave had been called.  I had just picked a modest wave to start, and so I had no idea what my friends had picked.  As I tried to get started in the same wave as them, there was a race volunteer that literally held out her hand to disallow me to join the race.  "Not you," were her words to me.  I was surprised since really, my wave was next anyway... and we were at the tail end of the the blue... what the heck?

But whatever.  It wasn't like I was going to be running with my friends in my state anyway.  So I stayed back as Susan and Howard started their run.

About 15 minutes later, I started with my wave.  I started with a little trot, just to test the waters.  Then stopped. Hmm.. maybe not a good idea.  I tried a few times but at one point I realized the longer I stayed on the course, the worse I was feeling.  Fine, I decided then: Get it over with, and just take as many pitstops as needed.  By this time, a lot of coffeeshops had opened along yonge street, so I had safety nets. This had not been the case in the race the day before, where we were running through trails.

I finished it running vs powerwalking, which I was really glad.  It wasn't fast, but it was definitely faster than walking it.  I met with my friends and took some pics before heading down to Spadina to our usual food place after the Sporting Life 10K, "Asian Legend"!

We ordered a lot of food, but it was so delicious, so no complaints!

Spring Onion Pancakes

Dumplings

Peking Duck

Deep fried tofu

After all the food, we headed back to our respective homes.  Though I had wanted to do more activities since the weather was so nice, my body had other plans - just sitting down was good haha. 

Now for the next race...  Blue Mountain here I come!  Crossing my fingers I make it through that one :D

Niagara Falls Half Marathon 2015

Wow, how fast a year just flies by!  Recapping the Niagara Falls 2015 race brings back some nice memories - mostly of my friends and I eating huge feasts, both before and after the half-marathon.  Note that before part probably was definitely something that I regretted on race day lol.  Hard lessons tend to need repeat exposure it seems (recalling my Midsummer Nights' Race a few years back).

Last year I did the Niagara Falls Marathon, and boy did it hurt.  Zero training = lots and lots of pain afterwards (plus loss of two toenails.. but we'll not get into that).  This year, although I didn't train extensively for the half, I did do several shorter races throughout the year; Unionville, Sunset, Longboat, and Island Girl.  So prep wise, I was in a good place, not great, but good.  Expectations for the race was just to enjoy the scenery and to hangout with my friends afterwards :)  Oh and of course, EAT! lol.

Pre-race Day - The Saturday
We arrived at Niagara and went to the Expo to pickup our race package.  This year, thankfully, they had improved the racekit pickup process.  Instead of having it hosted at a mall with ambiguous directions as to where to assemble our racekits, everything was in one big convention hall  (the Scotiabank Convention Center) with the standard pickup process in place.  The usual:  get our bib numbers, activate our tracking chip, and then line up to add on goodies to racekit bag.  Phew, much much better than last year!

After we picked up our racekit, we headed to our hotel and checked in.  We rested for a bit and then we headed to have dinner a bit earlier so we would have time to digest (which was probably a very good idea).  We went to East Side Marios and we ordered enough to feed 10 people.  Mind you, there was only 5 people.  And only 4 of us were running.  LOL.

Look at that food (see above picture).  We ordered about 4 pastas, a pizza, 2 soups, and 2 salads.  Oh, and before our orders even came, we each ate a stick of bread on our own.  Craziness.  The one person that wasn't running was looking at us like we were kinda overdoing it, and tried to talk some sense into us.  Sorry Mad we didn't listen to you!  But of course, noone was more sorry than our poor stomachs the next day.  Well, at least for mine :P

After dinner we didn't do too much, just walked around the Falls area and headed back a bit earlier to rest up for race day.

Day of the Race

There were different start times for 10k and halfs, so the three of us, Susan J, Susan C. and I had to get up a bit earlier to head out.  Gordon, lucky guy, got to sleep in a bit more.  Just a tad. The bonus to getting out early, though meant we would catch our hotel's continental breakfast too.

Too bad I was still so full from the night before.  I still ate something, just to keep my energy up.  I got myself a slice of bread and peanut butter and jam.

Once we finished breakfast, my friends and I made our way to the Crown Plaza Hotel to catch the school buses that would take us to the start line.  Along the way to the Crown Plaza, I couldn't help but admire the beauty of the Fall leaves.  Quite breathtaking.

The early sun, catching on the tree leaves.

The sun peaking out just behind the Falls.

We didn't have to wait too long to get on a bus to the startline.  There we huddled together in a Warming tent until the race started.

The Race

The race itself was quite enjoyable -- though this is of course talking about it almost 6 months afterwards.  This is why recaps should be closer to the date it was done.  One thing I can say, though, is that the Niagara race is very scenic and is easily one of my favorites.  It is also a race that you don't really get hot in; I had to wear my jacket the whole time.  To be honest, I'd rather it be cool vs being hot.  

After the Race

Lots and lots of food hahaha.  We went to Shoeless Joes (I think) for lunch.  We again ate enough to feed 8-10 people. LOL.  But I'd say we kinda deserved it? ;)  

Post race shot of the runners and our support!

Our delicious post race meal:

After feasting, we decided to go Niagara on the Lake winery hopping :)  Bought a few ice wines and late harvest wines!

Overall, it was a good way to end the last race for the year.  Until next year!

Island Girl Relay Race 2015

After a week of rest since my last run, the island girl relay race had finally come up.  My friend Susan and I had signed up earlier in the year for this.  Like the previous year, the run would start with Susan running the first leg, and me running the second.

Unfortunately, as they say, the best laid plans, oft goes awry!

The night before the race, susan called and told me she wasn't feeling well and wouldn't be able to do the race.  lol but she said I could totally do her leg too if I wanted to, and I completely balked at the idea.  The year before I had "winged" a full marathon, and it was one of the toughest things to go through.  lol I wasn't planning on just waking up and doing a half marathon.  

I told her to rest up, and that I too was considering of not going too.  Ironically about 5 minutes before she had called, I had just fallen while going up on an escalator.  The result was bruising on my shins, and some scraping of the skin too.  Eck.  Not a good way to prepare for a race the next day.

At any rate, I did still want to see if I could do it, since there was no pain (at least noticeable), when I put weight on my right leg.  I figured that if anything, I would just go to the island and if my leg did hurt, I would just walk around and skip the race.  

I set my alarm, one for 6am and one for 6:30am as backup.  If anything, one of them should wake me up since I had planned to catch either the 6:00am or the 7:30am ferry.  

Race Day

I missed my 6am alarm.  And my 6:30am alarm.  It was 6:50am when I got up, and so like a mad woman, I raced to put on my gear and thankfully the night before I had set that all up.  

Freshening up and all geared up (plus a jacket!), I was out the door and waiting for the street car by 7:05am.    This was really cutting things close.  The ferry would definitely leave promptly at 7:30am.. would I even make it?

I got to the ferry docks at 7:34am.  Lol totally missed the boat.

Fortunately, it seemed I wasn't the only there for the race.  There were in fact race crew people there, with their wagon of stuff as well.  There was an 8:00am ferry to Centre Island.  Phew.

While waiting, I laced up my timing chip and also discovered that there were no safety pins in my race kit envelop.  No worries, I knew that the baggage check-in area always had safety pins available.  

The ferry ride was quite uneventful, though I saw a super cut dog on it with his owner.   I so wanted to pet him (or her).

Arriving on the island I had about 20 minutes to spare since my race didn't start till 8:40am.  I checked in my baggage and got my safety pins to attach my bib to my running shirt.  Sadly this year, Island girl package didn't include a free tshirt, but instead sandals.  Liked the sandals, super cute, but the shirt would have been more of a practical use for me in the long run. 

Once I had checked in the bag I realized then that I hadn't eaten for the morning.  Sigh.  How could I have forgotten such an obvious thing?  Worse was also I had forgotten to bring my bottle of water! 

Great. 

lol.  I would just have to make do, I knew there were a few water stations along the way.  Just had to last until I got to them.  Hunger.. well, I would deal with that later.   It was too late to eat, the race was starting in a few minutes!

I took this time to speak with the race crew on what I should do since I was doing the relay solo.  I was told by them that I would just do the first leg and then just head to finish line afterwards.

That sounded just fine by me lol as long as there was no expectation of me running both legs haha.  Though honestly the chance of that happening was quite impossible.

Race Start

8:40am finally came and off I went.  I seemed to enjoy the morning run a bit more, something about the time of doing the runs make quite the difference.  The race route interestingly also went through the boardwalk section, just like the previous week, except I was going the opposite way.

As I was running along the route, I saw the km signs for the half marathoners and I couldn't help but think about what I was up for in October.  The 10.5 k was already quite a feat for me, lol I had dropped in cardio after not consistantly running.  

Once my allergies subsides more, I would start more outside training.  It would be good to get some fresh air as well.

I crossed the relay transfer point, did a virtual tag to my missing partner and then made my way to the finish line.

I left the island not too long after that, got a hair cut :P and then went boating - ironically, right back on the harbourfront again!

Island girl relay, until next year as well!

Longboat Run 2015

The Longboat Run was a race that I decidedly joined because there was a discount for it after doing a run earlier in August.  It was also probably not my wisest choice either, lol considering that I had a wedding to attend the night before - that lasted till 2am in the morning!  Thankfully the wedding took place at a boutique hotel and a room was booked for our stay.  I recall asking my friend susan if she wanted to do the run with me, and she had skyped me "LOL", and declined saying that we would be up too late into the night before.  

At any rate, she was right.

I didn't get to bed till 4:15am in the morning, and was up by 8:30am.  The race thankfully was later in the afternoon at 11am, so I had some time to relax when I got there.  

I was out the door of the hotel room by 9:15am and managed to grab some breakfast at... McDonalds. lol Oh the choices we make.  The night before I didn't have my pasta (delicious steak instead!), so I thought to substitute it with eating bread and .. potatoes. lol  At any rate, I thought eating hashbrowns would be helpful... I have to admit, it was a pretty bad idea. Although normally I love McDonald's hashbrowns, it felt more heavy and greasy then I expected.  No time to regret though, once I ate it, I just had to live with it lol - flash back to french fries eaten hours before a race a few years ago.

I got to the island with probably about 40 minutes to spare, so I put on my Bib and checked in my heavy luggage (overnight clothes and dresses for the reception).  In some ways, I had hoped to get there pretty much with less time to spare since it was so chilly.  

Race Start

The 5ks were the first to run at 11:00am sharp.  10 minute later, we finally started the run.  In one hand I held a bottled water and in the other I held on to my phone.  I know, really not the most stylish, I should get some sort of armband for the phone, but I hadn't had time to go shopping for one that would fit my new android phone.  I had one previously for my iPhone, though even for that one, I rarely used it.  I would just tuck into my running water belt since it was small enough to fit it.  I wouldn't dream of trying that my android phone lol, likely burst the seams of my water belt.  

The run started off well, I kept up with a good group of people, but I was really tired.  I guess sleeping for 4 hours doesn't really make good for race day.  The cool air, which I had complained much about earlier, though actually aided me.  It was really refreshing.  It reminded me of my training in the winter time (when I had a goofy race to do in January).  Although those training days made my face freeze up ("I can't feel my face when I'm with you"...), this was more of a consistent cool breeze.  

The course for the race was rather nice.  I didn't have a chance to look at it, so I didn't expect a section to be grassy nor a section where we would run on the boardwalk.  It was really pleasant.  Well, the grass part anyway.  The boardwalk was not quite as fun as I imagined it since it had rained the day before, making the wood a little slippery.  There were two runners in front of me, one had slipped twice.  Ouch.  I felt very bad for her, but good on her she kept on going.  

Near the end of the boardwalk, there were a few walkers, including myself, since it was pretty slippery.  I had nearly slipped, and started walk-jog, slowing down the pace.

It was kind of funny; near the end of the boardwalk path, there was an Asian volunteer standing who saw us, and he started to mock run to encourage us. LMAO.  Sort of a "You can do it!! Your almost there!" with no words required.  It was quite funny actually, totally put a smile on my face.  

I jogged just a little faster, and then once I hit the drier pavement, I kicked it up a notch.  And then I got distracted by a cat.  I think I got a strange look from one or two volunteers. lol. Oh well.  It was a really cute cat.  Worth the stop.

Back to running, I kept my pace on and off for the duration to the finish line.  I had a twinge of regret that I should have done more training (like any at all), but my allergies had been bothering me so much lately, I felt completely drained by the end of the day at work.  

Finally, the finish line came to view and with a final sprint, I crossed it.  Yay, another race completed.  lol  Until the next one... next weekend.  

The best part to the Longboat run, was that there was food involved at the end of the race.  lol  There was a BBQ involved, and you had a choice of hamburger or hotdog, with also a small bag of chips and a drink (apple juice or peach). 

I will be back again, longboat run, next year :D

Run for Women: Unionville 10k

This weekend past, I did a 10k run for the "Run for Women:  Unionville" with my friend Susan.  The charity that the race was supporting was the Women’s Mental Health programs.  With the small band of runners, they raised approximately $30,000.  Considering that they have this race in multiple cities, the accumulation of the funds would make for a good fundraising grand total.

7:00PM Night before the Race

After work, I headed to my friend's house to do some wedding favour assembly line work :D While we were doing that, two of my other friends made spaghetti - it was time to carb up! All the while, we snacked on some samosas that Cecilia brought over.

I had two huge plates of spaghetti - and normally I eat only one big plate of it before a marathon!  So we definitely overate :D  Oh well, haha, it tasted good never the less.

6:30AM Morning of Race

The morning of the race, I had intended to just layer my t-shirt with another long sleeved one and a raincoat just to keep myself warm.  At least that was what I thought I would only need.  It turned out it was -3 degrees!  So, I ended up having to borrow my friend's U of T sweatshirt.  And still even with it on, with my two layers AND a raincoat, it was still cold.  Yikes.  I checked my iphone and it said by the time we started the race it should be around -1 degrees (around 9am).  Yes.  2 degrees warmer, yet still in the negatives! haha.

We freshened up, ate breakfast (her parents were awesome to make bacon and eggs for us!), and got there by 7:30am.  Parking took a bit of time since the public parking that was right by the race was full, but looked like the lot could handle one more car (namely ours!), but wasn't meant to be and we had to find parking elsewhere.

Once we parked, we walked to the where the race startline was; Unionville Curling Club, it was right by a museum!  Too bad it wasn't open, I would have loved to just wander in there instead of outside in the cold.

We looked around to get some freebies - and we did!  shopper's drug mart 20x points option as well as some travel sized Listerine.

We wandered around and then wanted to head back to the car so that we could put away our goodies bag.  We returned again and walked around... we had a lot of time to kill.

Susan in the meantime debated maybe 4 to 5 times whether she wanted to lose the vest she was wearing on top of the three layers she was already wearing;  however upon walking towards the car, it became cold and then warm, then cold again.  In the ended, the vest stayed on haha, we had about a week before our trip, so it was better to be too hot while running than too cold.

Race Time!

The first runners that started were actually the little kids; they ran with their parents for 1km; it was very cute.

Following them, were the rest of us, 5ks and 10ks mixed together.

The route that we ran along was nice, not many uphills, some nice scenery and well marked path along with helpful officers diverting traffic and cheering volunteers.

You really couldn't ask for more from a race :)

Since I was running based off a 1k, I broke it down in my head that it was really just 10 1ks, perfectly doable.  With new running tunes on my iphone, I picked some really nice upbeat ones to keep my running at a rhythm.  I was really worried in the back of my mind that my left thigh would "spaz" out as it did during my niagara marathon.  It had hurt a lot, so I took it very slow and steady on my first 1k.  Not that I could really run that fast since my muscles felt so cold that it needed time to warm up.

When I reached the 5k mark, as I usually do, I felt a twinge of regret:  "I should have signed up for the 5km!", haha.  But I moved on, since I felt alright after 5k, the last 5k shouldn't be so bad.

It wasn't until I nearly reached my 9th kilometer that disaster struck - my earphones went partially out of commission.  It wasn't entirely unusable, but it wasn't working a 100% either; more like 50% since only the left earphone worked...

I decided to go the last km without music, and also decided that the raincoat at this point needed to come off.  The weather had improved dramatically in the course of the hour... either that or I was warmed up by the race - likely both.

Finally I reached the finish line, the timing just right as I had also just finished the last drop of my water.

As I crossed the finish line I was very pleased to have been given another water and also a surprise bracelet for running the race.

The best and biggest surprise was how good the post-race food was. lol.  Usually the food isn't too much to talk about; plain bagels, muffins and banana, etc.

But at this race, I was impressed to get fancy bagels!  There were onion, cheese, sesame, even a cinnamon crunch like bagel.  Butter and plastic knives were also available along with protein shakes and other granola bars.  One could get used to this type of post-race food!

Yummy.  Suffice to say, we enjoyed our food there.  And we also decided we would definitely comeback to this race next year!

We left the curling club and headed back to my friend's house where we freshened up and then met up with another one of friends for dim sum.  Like all our post race routines, we pigged out there :P  You would have thought we had run a marathon or something, but we told ourselves still, regardless, we deserved it :D

Niagara Falls International Marathon 2014

Ha.  Almost 3 months later I'm putting up this post.  But I guess better late than never.

The Niagara Falls International Marathon (Niagara Falls, ON. Sunday, October 26, 2014), one of the races that I really wanted to do, was determined to do, was stubborn enough to try to do it without proper training, turned out thankfully to be an injure-free race.  In retrospect, it could easily have turned out otherwise.

Picture the chance moment you wake up and decide one day, I wonder how it would feel like to do a marathon without training at all? Well, I did and suffice to say, it was not wise.  While most races my PB may never have been great, the recovery from the race was always much faster.  After the marathon, lol, my legs felt like logs for a few days.  They were sore to the point of touch.  My toes even hurt!  Thankfully, no loss toenails this time around : )  [I was wrong about this, my big toe was injured, going to lose the nail!]

I was very thankful this time also for a wonderful support team that came up to Niagara with me.  Made the journey much less lonely and fun!  Thanks Madeline, Gordon, Mildred and Isaac for coming out.

Pre-race day - The Saturday

Saturday morning I was up early and I met up with my friend Gordon at the Coach Terminal to catch the mega bus up to Niagara Falls.  The trip took about 2.5 hours, which was alright since time passed quickly with just chatting.  When we arrived at Niagara, we tried to checkin to our hotel, but found it was still too early - it was only 1pm.  I was told we could check in at 3pm.  So we decided to eat something since all we both had in the morning was a Starbucks drink.

We ended up going to Shoeless Joes, which was practically down the street from the hotel.  We ordered quite a bit of a feast, but I was hungry enough to eat it all haha.  Nachos, Wings and Lobster sandwich.  After we ate the food the food, timing was good that it was almost 3pm.  We returned to the hotel and checked in finally.

Now it was time to pick up my race kit.  Leaving Gordon to his own devices - there were some amenities at the hotel, I grabbed a cab to go to the Niagara Square to pick up my racekit.  The cab ride was expensive!  Bah, $20 (with tip in).  At any rate, I was happy to just arrive at the location.  The cabbie was interesting - we chatted about Ebola and how women should cook for their husbands...  Funny topics eh?

Once I entered the Niagara Square, I was at a loss of where I should go.  It looked like an expo, but it was a mall.  So... I kept on walking.  And walking.  And still was unsure of where I was suppose to go.  Finally I just asked someone and she looked pretty frustrated.  She explained that it was a series of steps, go straight down until you see a glassed area, and go inside there to pick up your bib number.  After that you need to go back out and get a map, go left again to pick up your race shirt.  And the last stop was here at the front where you pick up your goodies (free sample) bags.

I thanked her and followed her direction and found for the most part of what she described to be the process of assembling your own racekit.  Although I could understand what they were trying to do, 'disperse' the racekit so there wouldn't be such a flood of people, still, it would have been much more helpful to perhaps even merge some pickup pieces together, i.e. tshirt, goodie bag.

At any rate, I was just happy to have made it in time to pickup my racekit.  On my way out, I wanted to find a bus route haha.  I was not going to pay another $20 to get back to my hotel.  I asked a coordinator who described me how to drive back... which of course wasn't what I was looking for.. but she was kind enough to direct me to the information booth to where I found out from a security guard that there was in fact a shuttle that would bring me back to the scotiabank convention centre.

Once I was back to familiar territory, I followed the iHop landmark to get back to my hotel.  Surprisingly, Gordon was already back from using the amenities and so we just took our time relaxing while waiting for our other friends to arrive.  I reorganized all the things I was going to wear for race day and then we headed out to clifton hills to walk around; and also to visit the Hershey's Chocolate Factory!

The air was chilly, the wind was strong, but it wasn't raining.  That was a good sign.  Weather forecast also said it wasn't going to rain on the Sunday.  Thank the gods.  I hate running in the rain.

We walked for a bit and then my friends texted me and we all met up, walked to the falls at an easy pace.

It was kind of neat seeing the lights that were used on the falls, looked like a tunnel of mist.  Suffice to say, we all got a bit wet from it.  Felt like rain, but it wasn't.  After about an hour of walking, our group split up, 2 went to check out the casinos and 2 accompanied me to grab dinner to carb up for the next day's race.  We initially wanted to go to East Side Marios, but when we arrived, they said it would be an hours wait.  lol way too long.  I had no intention of eating at 9:30 in the night!  So we ended up going to "My cousin Vinney's" which turned out to be pretty good.

We ordered two pastas, one with a creme sauce and one just the regular bolognese spaghetti sauce.  They were really quite yummy.

After eating, we strolled around for a little bit and also went on a hunt to get me some nailclippers. haha.  I was a little worried about losing my toenails.  I ended up buying a $4 'souvineer' nailclipper.  I think I would be using this for a long long long time. haha.  Make my use of it.

We saw our other friends again that had gone to the casino and then headed back to our hotel rooms for the night... tomorrow was going to be a long day!  Well.  At least for me! haha.  They were planning to go on to Niagara on the Lake.  

I watched a few tv shows while waiting for the showers; namely monstrous sea creatures, flipping houses, and some pop icon quiz show.  Entertaining haha.  At any rate, they helped pass the time :)

Race Day - The Sunday

I woke up promptly at 6:30AM, feeling kind of excited but also at the same time butterflies in my stomach.  Having not really trained for this marathon, I knew I was going in for a very very tough run.  Tough... was in fact an understatement. 

I readied up with my gear and headed out to catch my marathon bus at the Crown Plaza hotel (right by the Hershey Factory).

The wait wasn't too long once I got there, there were already buses lined up.  Since I was one of the full marathoners, we were all loaded on to the buses first.

The drive there was perhaps about 15-20 minutes.  Give or take.  I didn't really keep track of time, I was admittantly very sleepy :P

We arrived at the border crossing where we all had to pass our passports to the front, where a person was to verify our crossing over to the States side.

The wait was perhaps another 10 minutes.

And then off we went; thankfully no hitches; as we were all warned:  If anyone forgot or didn't bring their passports, the bus had to turn back.

We arrived at Albright-Knox in Buffalo, NY where I waited for perhaps another hour before the race was to start.

The waiting was alright, thought it was a bit chilly.  I was glad I wore the right gear.

And We're Off to the Races!

Minutes before we started there was an elderly gentleman handing out bottles of water.  There was a moment when I hesitated, wondering if I would need it, since I had planned to do the marathon with just going to water stations.

Thank god I decided to take it since clearly with the weak and non existent training, the water was a lifesaver.

Usually I have quite a bit of things to to say about how I 'feel' during a race, but to be honest, this particular race, there was only really pain.  lol.  Well, not all the way through out, just everything past the 16km mark.

I was doing fairly well up until then before I had my first cramp in my leg and that travelled all the way up to my thigh.   It was a on and off sort of pain though, depending how much pressure or how fast I decided to go.  At one point it got so bad, I had to speed walk it off - and the irony of that was I probably speed walked faster than I ran since I couldn't run too long before my left leg would seize up.  It also didn't help too much that I was coughing a little as well, I guess my recovery from my cold was not a 100% yet.

Poor poor leg I remember thinking to myself.  

By the time I finished the marathon, I adamantly decided:  Never again.  Next time, train or defer, no winging it :)

In terms of the marathon route, it was really nice and the scenery was beautiful.  I would definitely do this race again; perhaps this year.

And it is 2015 now.  I should just start training when the weather gets better, not like the snow day we're having today!