Good Life ½ Marathon and 5K

So..... I posted the other day about Finisher's Pride, the medal frames. Well I had received an email from them, saying that I won their give away which was a Skinni Frame to put my medal and bib in.

Finisher's Pride Frame

Well, it just came in the mail today, FAST DELIVERY.  Well I have immediately put the bib and medal in and will be sending them a HUGH thank you and posting it up for them. Very easy to put together with the bib and frame and bang right on a wall.

If anyone wants to get one of these or they have a mini as well, just click on the link above and it will take you right there. It looks like a nice way to mix the two frames together on a wall for display.

Thanks again, Finisher's Pride, nice product.

There was a lot of people at the Good Life Toronto Marathon on Sunday. The full marathon went off at 7:30 and I guess it went well. The winners were, Brendan Kenny of Dundas, ON for the males at 2:26:25 and the top female was, Rachel Sinasac of Toronto with a time of 2:55:18, Great Work both of you.

The half started at 8:30, so we got to sleep a little bit in the morning, which I really needed to after the night before doing the 10K in Mississauga. We were going to pick up our friend Kelly at 7:30 so that I could get to the start line in time and then Ivana and Kelly could make their way down to the finish line. 

The wind was blowing really good in the morning, chilly and I am just in shorts and a shirt. Not wanting to put anything extra on as I knew that I would be getting warm not too far into the race.  Well, we didn't pick Kelly up until 8:00, I was moving really slow, knees were hurting and I didn't want to move that fast.  

We showed up to the start line at Mel Lastman's Square in the upper North York area of Toronto, not far from home at least, with about 4 minutes to spare. As we are walking to the start line I hear that there is one minute until race time, ooooopppsss a quick kiss and off I run to the start. I guess that was my warm up LOL.  I watched as the runners were starting and I waited a bit and then jumped into the line and started.

I really had to get the legs moving as they were just telling me to stop and go home to rest.  I made it around the first couple of turns and then onto Yonge Street for a bit of a downhill until the 4K mark where we are now into Hog's Hollow. I think this is a 1K climb of a fairly steep hill. I power walked up the hill it okay time, and found a water station on the other side, good timing. I must say that I loved that there was aid stations about every 2K along the course. There was a lot of people out cheering everyone on, a lot of signs and I saw this one and I had to stop to take a picture of it. Cute!

Run Now, Poop Later

I had tried to set out to do the ½ in about 2:50, and I was on pace for that. I hit the 10K mark and I was 1:19:23, now I am saying, I know you're sore, but you are going to make this even with a couple of minutes to spare, keep chugging along.   Well, 14K hit and somebody, (without my knowledge) swapped out my legs for two Tree Trunks with roots imbedded and my quads felt like concrete. It was the hardest 7K left that I have ever done. All the way to the finish line it was trot, walk and almost crawl my way. We came across King Street and then the wind was REALLY blowing head on, just what I needed, more resistance. I am looking down at the Garmin and seeing my time just slipping away and I couldn't do anything about it, except know that I will finish this race and knock down 13.1 more miles off my goal for this year.

I was sucking back GU and water just to get my body to say YES I can finish this. 

As I was coming up to the finish line, I saw Ivana and Kelly there just before the bend to the finish line chute. I saw as sign on my right and laughed and Ivana had taken a pic of it. This is true, I was almost the size of him as well when I had my heart attack (289lbs).... If Rob Ford can run so can you.  Very true.

So here I am coming of the last bit before the finish chute. In pain, arm just dangling on my side, but glad that I had finished 10K the night before and now 21.1K 3:08:36, not my best but not my worst.

I know the other day I said that I was going to try for a TriFecta doing the 10K, 21.1K and a 5K...... well no!!!  I went and watched Ivana and Kelly start their 5K, took some pics and crawled my way to the car, laid the seat back, ate some food, drank some Gatorade and relaxed for a bit.

Then lifted one leg at a time and then my body out of the car got back to the finish line and waited for the girls to arrive.  I am waiting and waiting and still they weren't there. Maybe I missed them, nope. The course wasn't really marked that well, there were no volunteers at the turn around to say where they had to go, so they kept walking along with a lot of others truing to find their way.  Well it happened that they just turned around when they hit the Boulevard Club. They went about 1 ½ km further then turned around, so just over an hour they were coming up to the finish line finally. Good walk for them.   They both did a great job on Sunday as well. This race was Ivana's Valentines Gift from me to enter this race. I know my bad for pushing it, but she has been working towards it and I hope she had fun.

Here comes that Nascar Driver again, the Damaged Hearts In Motion, Heart & Stroke, Running Free.com Machine had a Blast this weekend, running, walking, crawling and spending the whole weekend with Ivana. Now I am ready for Sporting Life 10K on Sunday and then my friend Steve and I are off to Buffalo at the end of May for the ½ marathon there.

Thanks again to Finisher's Pride and to Running Free in Markham, OH and to Amy W, I really appreciate what you did.

Finisher's Pride on Facebook

Damaged Heart

Tri-Fecta Weekend ????? Update Walk to Cure Cancer

As in the last post, Ivana and I were off to Vaughan Mills for the Vaughan in Motion Walk to Cure Cancer held inside for a 5K walk to raise money for the MacKenzie Health Foundation for Cancer Care, on April 27th. 

We got there with about 15 minutes to spare, we had to finalize the registration get our T-Shirts make our donation to the Walk to Cure Cancer and make our way to the centre of the mall for the start with about 25 seconds left. 

There were a lot of people there, families, kids all to walk 5K indoors to have fun and raise funds for the community cancer care, even Doo-Doo the Clown, Spider-Man and Queen Elsa were there for the kids and having their photos taken. All of the participants in the walk raised over $30,000.00, FANTASTIC, with 100% of the raise money will be going directly to the MacKenzie Health Foundation as Vaughan in Motion to Cure Cancer is staffed 100% by Volunteers.

Some of the Great Volunteers

Starting behind everyone

Maple Pioneer Italian Seniors Group

Training has been going well this week with running. Stairs, hill training and speed work yesterday. This weekend, I will be attempting to do a Tri-Fecta.... well Saturday will be the 10K in Mississauga at their Mississauga Marathon Weekend. They have a 5K and 10K running Saturday evening at 6:30pm and then on Sunday morning I will be doing the GoodLife Fitness ½ marathon in Toronto.

I have been getting ready for the ½ marathon for a while now, which won't be a problem, but when I had picked the 10K in Mississauga I was thinking that it was during the day not the evening before the ½ marathon. So this week I thought that since Ivana is doing the 5K at the GoodLife Fitness as well on Sunday, I figured, maybe, Just Maybe, I will finish the ½ marathon before Ivana starts her 5K that I will do the 5K with her.  I will play it by ear and see how I feel as it is suppose to rain all weekend here.

Good news this week for me. A friend of mine, Steve, is going to Buffalo with me at the end of May. We are doing the ½ marathon at the Buffalo Marathon. Thanks Steve.

Donations are starting to come in for the Heart & Stroke Foundation towards my $7,500.00 goal to raise before the end of this year. As some of you know, I am attempting to Race 500 Miles in 2014 and this month of May is going to be a busy month with races every weekend and start the month of June off by riding 75K in the Ride for Heart for the Heart & Stroke Foundation. Then the summer will be triathlons leading up to 2 half Ironman's into the Fall.

Well, up earning in the morning for a workout, then go to Running Free in Markham for a few things.

Post after the weekend.

Damaged Heart