Toronto Island Girl - calypso style, mahn.

Another 1/2 marathon down. Truly my favourite distance and definitely the most sustainable for a lifetime of running. I'll continue the 30km's and marathons for a while longer but I do love me the 21.1km race. The Toronto Island Girl half is a race with a tropical twist, with Carribbean-style beats, leis, palm tree/flip flop medals, and a flat (relatively fast, unless you get headwind along the breakwater) route.



Lei'd as soon as I got there.

I'd heard it was a good run to race if you're a runner as it's not an overly competitive event and people in the past have had confidence boosts by placing in their age category. I was happy I'd picked it as my fall half from the moment I picked up my running kit. The Runners' Shop was decorated with leis, balloons, signage, reggae was playing, and the kit itself included tons of loot (and not just sample sizes either). I was also happy it didn't start until 9:30 am as that meant I didn't have to be up super early. It is on Centre Island though, so factoring the ferry in, it's still an early Sunday morning.
The weather was gorgeous - hotter than I thought it would be for this time of year. Lacked sunscreen and hat and the sweat in my eyes stung but the sun was shining (I can't complain about that), the breeze lovely, and with the steel drums and people running in grass skirts, there was a definite island feel.

25 minutes for 5km. Haven't achieved this for a few years
(and could have been faster if that had been the distance
of the race!) so that was great!

It's gorgeous on the island.

 

Finish line 100 meters away. Finally.

Placed 7th in my age category and almost made top 50 which was my goal today (53rd). Time was not a PB by three minutes - and I would have loved to achieve that but I won't complain with 1:55:41 - as working that time down is achievable. It's by far my favourite distance and psychologically so not scary to me. Today was still a mental challenge (thoughts of stopping, walking, slowing down constantly going on) which shook my confidence for my marathon in a few weeks but I've trained and I can do it. We're so much stronger than we think.

Done! Get me some fooooood!