Not my race, necessarily. That one started out messy (old splinty) but turned itself around near the end. No, the race itself was a mess. From start to finish, ferry to island, beginning to end.
This was the race's biggest year to date, selling out a few days before. Unfortunately, that meant that this once small, once sweet race was now way too big for its britches.
Even though the race instructions encouraged us to take the 9:30am ferry, we decided it made more sense to wait until the subway opened at 9 and chance the 10am ferry. Not my smartest decision: the ticket booth lineup stretched well past the Westin, all the way onto Queen's Quay. Hundreds of people deep. I knew I wasn't totally screwed since the line was full of people wearing race bibs, but there were no race volunteers in sight to help us out. I really didn't want to be forced onto the 10:30 ferry--the race was supposed to start at 11:15, and I still needed multiple chances to pee. People were getting frantic. The ferry to Hanlan's Point was out of service that morning--maybe they could have arranged for it to carry racers, exclusively? Hell, even a sign would've helped.
We managed to find a slightly shorter line, buy our tickets, and eventually jostle onto the 10am boat. I may or may not have shoved a stroller in the process; I definitely smacked a dog out of my way. The ferry was at least 10 minutes late, as it is wont to do. We chugged along. Things were not going swimmingly.
Once we got to the race site we were told that the first event, the 5k, would be delayed by "15 minutes or so". A few minutes later we were told the 10k would start "in about 25 minutes". This was not ideal. I had lowered my basal rate over an hour before, which meant that my blood sugars were only on the rise. I needed to start running, fast.
I started walking to the starting line when a volunteer ran past and screamed "hurry up! We're holding the start for you!" Um, what? 25 minutes became 2 minutes instantaneously.
A ridiculously narrow starting line filled with 1000 runners left me weaving and dodging slow bodies for the first 2k or so. The next 3k I spent battling shin splints. Once that pain faded, as it always does, I ran on my own for the rest of the race. I managed a negative split, which was lovely, and finished just over my goal time in 50:27. Yes, again, not bad.
It was a beautiful day, a nice little loop around the island, and a decent effort. But had this race been smaller, it would have made all the difference. My time, when compared to last year's results, would have netted me 4th place in my age category in 2010. This year, with the higher number of runners, it only got me to 14th place.
We left quickly to avoid more chaos on the ferry back downtown. Didn't even get to go on the swan ride.
I thought the starting line this year was ok (the Sporting Life 10k had 12,000 people on the 4 lane Yonge street!). Granted, it did used to only take 1k to break from the crowd when there were only 400 runners but I think the event is more festive now with 1000 people... it's a trade-off I guess.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great point! I suppose I was expecting something a little smaller, a little more intimate, and then on race day found myself surprised. Competition can be good, and it's always lovely to run the island.
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