4:50 am - alarm goes off. Question choices in my life to voluntarily wake up before 5:00 am for a run.
5:51 am - all aboard the shuttle bus to take us to the start line.
6:17 am - oligatory photo at the start line
6:30 am - breakfast of champions - energy gels.
6:55 am - ditch the old sweater I had brought to keep me warmer before the race starts.
6:59 am - 1 minute until race starts. Heart is racing. Garmin confirms that my HR is going way too fast.
7:00 am - race is supposed to start but they announce there is some sort of police incident and there's a delay. Later I find out that there was a package that looked “sus” and they had to bring in the bomb squad so we didn’t have a repeat of the Boston marathon.
7:15 am - shivering and freezing standing in the corral waiting to run.
7:20 am - Why are we still not running? Goosebumps. Shivering. Go back and find the sweater I had ditched. Success! Found sweater and try to stay warm standing still when it's only 8 degrees.
7:45 am - there are SO many people peeing in the bushes beside the race corrals for the past hour. This is our pre-race entertainment ?!
7:55 am - They announce that race will start in 5 minutes. Everyone cheers. I am so cold I can't feel my arms or my legs.
8:03 am - FINALLY cross the start line over an hour pasts the scheduled start time. Trying to get the blood flowing to my numb arms and legs.
8:56 am - 10 km in and I am finally in the zone. Loving the energy and the cheering fans.
9:20 am - Girl dressed in all pink beside me passes me and then I pass her and then she passes me again. This is getting annoying. There's also a guy wearing a shirt that says Team Dead Legs and we keep going back and forth. I need to not see either of them again. Muster up all my energy to will my legs to go faster and pick up the pace. See ya pinky girl and dead legs guy.
9:30 am - Signs at races at the best. "Remember you paid to do this?" "Run like your mom just called you by your full name" "Run Faster I just farted" "Huh? Where is everyone going?" and my favourite "Pain is temporary - Strava stats are forever". That one kept me going strong.
9:58 am - I can see the finish line. Why is there uphill now? That's just mean.
10:00 am - DONE. Hallelujah. Turn around to look at my watch: 1:55:42. YAAAAAAAS. I did it. I finally ran the BMO in less than 2 hours. In 2018, I finished in 2:02 and in 2019, I finished in 2:00:13 second. The sub-2 half has been taunting me until now. FINALLY. Slayed it and finished in 1:55!
10:05 am - Adrenaline is still pumping and I am surprisingly able to find both Simon and my friend Annie among the masses of people. Husband doesn't look so good. He says he has destroyed his knee. Hopefully nothing that ibuprofen and a roller can't fix?!
Feeling pretty proud of this race. Proud that all the training paid off and proof that you can be almost 40 and still be slaying your own personal records.
Also the first time in a decade of racing against my super fit husband that I actually beat him. This has never happened ever. He finished in 1:59. That’s still pretty amazing for a guy that never runs and his longest practice run was only 7km. It does feel good to finally just for once beat him at something.
10:35 - Freezing again. That has been the theme of today. Superstar husband wraps me in a foil blanket.
We find a Macdonalds and I have never been so happy to have a hot hashbrown and a cup of tea. Ok time to go home and stretch and hopefully be able to walk tomorrow. But hey, pain is temporary and stats last forever right?
