Beautiful run day...

I ran the Mississauga half marathon this morning, I did a 1:35:21. Doru had a friend who had registered and couldn't run it, so I ran under his name, Vasile Blidar. With a name like that, I asked Doru if he was on the terrorist watch list. I didn't want to show up and get arrested.

I really didn't want to get up this morning, after finishing yesterday's blog, I got to sleep around 1 am and only got 5 hours of sleep. I "sucked it up" and met Doru and Miha just before the start.

They gave me the race envelope and when I looked inside there was a bib, one pin and no timing chip. As it turned out, I attached the bib with the one pin and it fell off halfway through the race. I ended up finishing with just the pin.

I didn't care, I was just there to do the race as a training run anyway. I was more worried about Doru having to pay for the un-returned timing chip.

Before the gun went off, I pulled Doru and Miha up to the very front of the start line. I wanted us to be in that "customary" race start photo, the one they usually use to promote next years race.

I'm sure it will be a funny picture. All these lean looking runners, including Kenyans, and then there's me, Doru and Miha. The only thing I forgot was my captains hat. I left the house without it. Wearing the hat would have made that "starting photo" funnier. It would be like finding "where's waldo, I mean, where's the captain".

I ran with Doru for about 15 km, up until the Marathon and half marathon split. He was running strong. For the most part we maintained about a 7:10 pace. It was a super hard course, if you don't like running completely downhill on a slight grade that makes you go faster.

Along the way, I talked to a guy who was wearing an IMSG finishers shirt and then Peter, a friend of John Barclays. Peter was the 3:10 pace bunny. We ran around his "force field" until the turn off.

Doru didn't know this, but as we ran side by side, I was debating if I should just do the entire marathon with him. At the last minute, I decided against it and it turned out to be a good decision. After I separated from Doru, around the 17 km mark, my legs started cramping and each foot started getting a blister from my new runners.

I then realized I should have expected it. I'd only run twice since IMSG, for a total of 70 minutes. Not to mention, the dehydrating beer consumption on Friday and the six hour ride I did yesterday. Had I done the full marathon, I would have cramped badly and probably injured myself. Even after just doing the half, my side thighs were sore and I was concerned about my illiotibial bands.

I finished and ran into Hazel McCallion, the "super old" mayor of Mississauga. She's cute, small, tough and I heard she can "hold her liquor". Very impressive for a 130 year old, although I don't think she looks a day over 90. She's a living legend and has been mayor since 1978 and has a great reputation and her City is one of the few in the world that is debt free. I had a guy take a picture of us, fortunately for her, the lens was dirty and she got the equivalent of photographic botox.

I also ran into Stephane, another one of John Barclay's friends. We attended the McMasters swim workshop together earlier this year. He was volunteering. I was telling him that just as I crossed the finish line I felt like I need the porta-pottie. This is the third race in a row this has happened. It's like clockwork, I can last for 21 km's, no problem, and then the stomach starts to grumble and rumble. It's a "crappy" thing to deal with.

When I got home, I used "the stick" to massage my legs and put on my Zoot Compression tights. I also wore them last night to bed for the first time. I think they work, instead of waking up and shuffling like an 80 year old this morning, I figure they took 10 years off my life, I was now only shuffling like a 70 year old.

Time will tell if they work. I think they will. The only disadvantage is they are hot. It's like wearing really thick long underwear under your pants and today it got up to 20 C. It was a little sweaty to say the least and it wasn't the most comfortable with running rash in my groin area. I got it from the race. Thank god for Glide.

All and all, I was pleased with the race. It was fun and more importantly a good social event. It was good catching up with Doru and Miha, who both had great races. Doru ended up with a 3:18:50, his goal was to do a 3:15 and qualify for Boston. Miha did a 4:14:07 and Doru said she felt great after the race, unlike him. He thinks he went out to hard. I thought his time was great regardless, especially since it was only his 2nd marathon ever.

The rest of the day was rest and relaxation. Reid had to miss his swim club due to illness. He went to the doctor and has Gastroenteritis. He threw up last night and has diarrhea. It's actually pretty serious. It is contagious and is the leading death of infants and children under 5 years old.

Only after a doctors medical diagnosis, did I decide to "cut him some slack" and let him make up today's swim later this week. I didn't want to, but I figured it was probably the responsible thing to do. I will give him credit, he felt the same way yesterday, and still did a weight training and swimming session.

Mississauga Half Marathon - 1:35:21 / 21 km / 7:12 per mile / 4:32 per km

Overall 227 of 2102 AG 29 of 288

Video below is of the neighbour behind me. If we can fix his lawnmower, I think we can cut Canada's emissions in half.