I ran the Barrie Waterfront Half Marathon!

Earlier this month, I ran the Barrie Waterfront Half Marathon on Sunday June 7th. ^_^ It marked:

• My 1st race in Barrie!
• My 2nd half marathon!!
• My 3rd running race this year!!!

Finished my first half marathon of 2015!

As per usual, let me give you a run-down of how my race day went!

Pre-Race jitters:

The weather started at a lovely 11 degrees Celsius with a light breeze. It was a bit chilly to start, so I brought along a garbage bag that I wore as a jacket as I waited for the race to start. From what I saw, I was one of 2 people donning a garbage bag. It was actually my first time wearing a "garbage bag jacket"! No shame, you gotta do what you gotta do! =)

Race day outfit. Wearing my Fearless Dragon jersey to promote awareness!

The announcer said that they had about 1000 participants sign up for the race weekend this year, and about a third of those chose to run the half marathon. A local teenager sang the national anthem a few minutes before the start and I thought this was a nice touch. It helped calm me a bit.

During the race:

• I've got this, I've run 75% of this course before! =)

• No music means that I get to eavesdrop on other runner's conversations. Tehe!

• At this point, I overheard that an older man is aiming to run a sub 2hour race! Same with me! So I memorized the back of him for my reference and put a mental note to keep him within a reasonable distance.

• High five the kids!

• That guy's snot rocket almost hit me!! O_O

• This turnaround point is getting crowded... 

• Wow! Where are these runners coming from? Ahhhh, they must be the 10K runners. Welcome! 

• Ok, I've seen the 10K mark about 3 times now. Which one's the REAL halfway point? =(

• Take it easy on the downhill, think about my form... This should be the 2nd last hill!

• A middle aged man who was running slightly ahead of me tells me that I had "awesome technique" going down the hill. I was pretty stunned and all I said was "Thanks!" I have NO IDEA what "technique" he was referring to, but I was thankful for the confidence boost right then. >_< 

• Just before the 12K mark where we run past the start line area, I try to catch a glimpse of the clock to see what time it was. But failed. =( Time to invest in a watch!

• [Now on the North Shore Trail, where we transition from pavement to crushed white gravel] You can do this! Keep a steady pace, should be only about 8K to go!

• This trail goes on forever... Why?!

• Haven't seen the sub 2hour man in a while... He can't be behind me, can he?

• I know there's a hill coming, where's the hill? Where?!

• Keep going, keep going.

• There you are, Hill. Small, but mighty eh? This hill SUCKS.

• There he is!! Finally found you!! He's a bit far. I don't think I can make sub 2hours. =(

• Keep going, keep going!!

• Last water station, nope. I need to finish!

• Where's the finish again? Another run through the park before the finish line eh?

• Last stretch!!!! 2:03:xx... Aww... Oh, my mom made it! Cool. Great. Yes, I'm DONE!!!!

Post-race thoughts:

I wore blister bandages on the balls of my feet (just under my first metatarsalphalangeal joint) where I usually get blisters and they were fine throughout the race! However, I did get blisters on the medial side of both my big toes. My big toes don't like the latex blister bandages I have, so I've given up and just accepted them. >_<

I enjoyed the route. I had ran a good portion of the route on my last long run (17.9K. Yup, I mapped it and it was "only" 17.9K, not a full 18K). It was after the 15K mark where I was running into the parts where I had not run on before, and that's where I felt my mental game slipping up. Much of the trail was shaded by trees on both sides, which was great to protect us from the sun, but also made me feel like the North Shore Trail was a continuous trail of crushed white gravel that never ended. Finally the trail ended and we turned to face a small hill that brought us to a small stretch of in the residential area before turning back. Of course, running back onto the trail felt easier because a) the downhill! and b) now I've gotten a feel for how long the trail is.

The race medal has an interesting design, with Barrie's iconic Spirit Catcher on the front, making it larger than the palm of my hand! What made this medal even more unique was the fact that the ribbon had a velcro closure and a magnet on the back, so you could remove it and place the medal on display, say, on your fridge! Why don't all medals have magnetic backs?  

Post-race food included bananas and Dominos pizza. I put aside my usual distaste for pizza and took a slice. Post-race Gillian will eat anything. XD

Lessons Learned:

I learned lots throughout the training and fundraising for this race!

For Fundraising:

In the past, I've fundraised by telling people I know whether it was shamelessly bringing it up in person, standing up in front of my class and passing around a container, emailing those I couldn't reach in person, or posting on Facebook. Those strategies worked, but this time, I wanted to make use of the Barrie community. So I reached out to the long term care home where I volunteer.

Coconut macaroons that I made for Mill Creek Care Centre staff as a treat and to promote awareness of my campaign.

Cards with fundraising information on them.
The unique top edge was intended to be a helpful touch for those with visual impairments.

Spare change jar that I set up at Mill Creek Care Centre for staff and visitors to give donations.

I raised $205 for CNIB Simcoe Muskoka, with $50 of that from Mill Creek Care Centre staff's spare change jar. My goal was to raise $500 and I know that I made several mistakes for this fundraiser:

• Firstly, I was also fundraising for Camp Oochigeas this spring as well. That race was about a month before this half marathon. So technically speaking I had already "depleted" some of support that I usually get from my past fundraising runs into donating for that previous race.
• Secondly, the spare change jar at the long term care home that I volunteer at didn't get as much traffic as I'd hope. I don't think the staff knew where it was for the most part or cared to go to where it was in order to donate. Staff knew about my run, and would ask me about it, but the curiosity didn't go much further than that. I did tell the staff that I worked with regularly but I didn't feel comfortable being as vocal about it with the staff whom I didn't work with. I think that's natural, but in the case of fundraising, I could've shown a bit more initiative.
• Thirdly, I found that posting facts about CNIB and what they do/news related to vision loss in Canada etc., on Facebook did not garner that much interest. I don't feel that promoting my fundraising through Facebook worked for me. I did share about what I'm doing exactly to fundraise, such as the photos above, but those only garnered minimal interest too. I think it's namely because I don't post personal aspects (such as photos of me training) and I can understand that people whom I have on Facebook would want to be able to relate to the things I share. But I don't think that'll work that well either because not all my friends are runners who would care about hearing about my training. Perhaps I should just come to terms with the fact that I'm not social media savvy and need to seek a mentor/do some research in how to use it social media in fundraising. I'll keep this in mind for future fundraising runs. I don't think I'll do anymore this year though. ;)

Training/Running Goals:

This winter/spring's training was different than last fall's race mainly because I had the relay team to keep me motivated. I must say that meeting a bunch of runners and having the peer support really helped!! I feel blessed to have met them!

I also had the Sporting Life 10K on May 10th to keep my training on track as well. (I didn't write about that race because it takes me a long time to write race re-caps, and I want to keep it to bigger, more important races.) Having a smaller race about a month before this half marathon kept me honest. I actually didn't run a great race that day because it got really hot, and I learned that I don't race well in heat. Even though I didn't really have a firm goal for this race, I came out not feeling confident that I'd even get under a 2:10:xx finishing time for this half because I only finished my 10K in a bit over 53minutes. About 1.5 minutes slower than my personal best in the 10K. This "bad race" hung around my head like a rain cloud for a week or so, but I stayed focused on my training and the longer runs helped me get me out of that negative head space.

My goal for this race was a sub 2hour finishing time. When I saw 2:03:xx on the clock as I was racing down the last stretch, I definitely felt a pinch of sadness. I saw the clock when I passed it at the start, so I knew that I had started about 30-40 seconds after the gun time. But before I let the 3 extra minutes sink in any further, I dug deep and pushed hard through the finishing line. My final chip time: 2:03:06. When I checked my race results, it turns out I placed 6th (out of 14) in my age category as well.

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The months up to the training and race itself also made me reflect on my reasons for running and for racing. Which I will get into in a later post! =)