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Happy Canada Day! Instead of sleeping in, then leisurely reading the paper and having coffee - I am up warming up my legs (Heating pad and Magic Bags) at 6AM. At 6:45 my friend Jeff (Father of Dan) ,who I have known since high school, picked me up and we drove to Ontario Place on Toronto's lake shore.
I registered while Jeff tried to find a good camera location. Here is a picture of the start of the race. I am easy to see. I am the one in the Red Shirt.
There were over 1000 participants. I am not sure where I came in as they seemed to not have my race time. Oh well, I know where I was - somewhere around the 700 mark.
I looked at the results and the winner came in at 30:11.2. Bugger! I was just at about the 20 minute mark, barely getting warmed up when this little snot came running back the other way! (Actually more power to him - he is probably a very nice person).
At the time, I was running companionable beside a nice old guy (probably my age but this makes me feel better). I could keep up with him as he was wearing a leg brace and was clearly favoring one side. We chatted for a bit (Early in the race - at this point I COULD chat)
Me: "How are you"
NOG: "Great how about you"
Me: "Managing, how long have you been running?"
NOG: "18 years, You?"
Me: "About 6 weeks"
NOG: "You're doing pretty good, How's your heart rate?"
Me: "176, if it goes to zero then I know I'm dead!"
NOG: "Over the past 15 years I have seen at least 10 guys die running."
Me: "You're kidding!"
NOG" Nope, really! Excuse me I gotta pee."
With that little bomb dropped he ran to a nearby PortaPotty and disappeared. DIED!!!
Who said anything about dieing?
He and I played leapfrog for a while until he passed me and disappeared into the sunset with his leg brace. He wasn't the only one, towards the end some bozo with TWO leg braces passed me. Maybe I should get a leg brace, that way it looks much more courageous.
Running behind people is an education as well. Ladies, if you are built on the more generous side don't wear tight underwear beneath your running shorts. Not only is it jiggling but there are a lot of bumps. Go for the thong or go commando. It will look much better. Myself? Does a Scot tell you what's under his kilt?
About 3/4ths of the way through there is a hill. You can see this clearly on my Heart Rate monitor. Here take a look...It is that little bump before my last walk break. Note also the big finish where the heart rate goes way up.
If you click on this pic you might be able to see all of the gory statistics but actually I did pretty damn good I think. My pace was pretty consistent and I felt good when all was said and done.
Anyway, I ran with a bunch of long lean ectomorphs and did pretty well. Here is a picture of the end of the race and then my obligatory big finish picture.
This is the big finish picture (or I am trying to air my armpits). Please do not look in the background for people holding their nose or retching. This is a big day for me.Tomorrow we run again.
JJ
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