CRR's Niagara Falls Women's Half Marathon Re-cap & #plankaday Challenge

Let the adventures begin....

Saturday morning I picked up CRMichelle and we headed on down to The Falls. The expo started at 11, so we wanted to be there right away to beat the crowds and still have the rest of our day to enjoy. The expo was small, so it was easy to find where to pick up our race packets. This race had probably the best swag bag I have ever recieved and that is not just because there was a bottle of wine in it..Or maybe it was..

We got to meet the Race Director, so that was pretty cool. He is a very friendly and enthusiastic guy!

After the expo, we were starving so went in search of a place to eat. We ended up at Wendy's, which was great because I had some coupons I needed to use up! 2 can dine for $9.49. Hit the spot!

We took a walk down to the Falls after to do some touristy, sight-seeing stuff....

Got caught in the pouring rain so headed in-doors to do some shopping at the Casino Mall instead.

After we worked up quite the appetite shopping and walking around, we decided it was time to go for our pre-race carb loading dinner. Found a really nice Italian Restaurant called the Spicy Olive.

My favorite pre-race meal!

Dinner-done, time to head back to the hotel and hit the hay for an early night -- no party animals this night!

10pm - lights out.

Race morning! 6am - time to rise and shine girls!

Race outfit and necessities all ready to go...

Got some coffee running through my veins and I was ready to go!

We arrived at 7:15, and headed for the porta-potty line-up! When were at the expo the day before, they only had 2 port-a-potties. What?? We were a little concerned! That was not going to be enough for 2500 women. We were happy to see they had added more for the day of the race, I think I counted 18.

There were flowers in the urinals with a sign that said "Please don't water me". Not bad for port-a-potties

8am - go time! Niagara Falls is in wine country so it is no surprise there is a wine theme to this race.

The forecast was calling for a 70% chance of rain for the morning so we were all praying that the rain would hold off.

The race started and the first 3 kms were all a downhill run, which was great to start. I knew we had a turn around up ahead so I was getting worried that we would have a 3km run back up, but we didn't, the course veered off in a different direction.

I had a loose finish time goal for this race (1hr45min-1hr50min finish time). My head has not been completely into running for the past month so didn't want to push myself too hard so I was planning on not looking at my watch for my pace at all and just enjoying the race. However, I couldn't keep my eyes from checking. I kept looking and was seeing faster pace times that ever so I was pretty excited about that and just kept at that pace. About 10.5 kms into the race, I realized my watch was not on avg. pace but was on current pace-which is not accurate at all. I then switched it to avg. pace and was disappointed to see I was slower than ever! Oh well, just have fun and enjoy was my goal-right? Just keep going CRR!

Not the most flattering race pic ever!

So I did. At km 18, I was now running back towards the finish line, so was passing people coming the other way. A girl running the other way shouts out to the girl who was running in front of me that she was in 30th place. This gave me a sudden competitive spirit. I thought, maybe I can shoot for 25th place (only have to pass 5 people-no problem right?). I ended up passing 5 people so I knew I was in 25th place. The last 200 meters, I could now see the Finish Wine, there was a girl about 20 meters ahead of me, I sprinted to pass her and ended up in 24th place. I was pretty happy with that!

At the Finish Wine, they first give you your medal.

Next, it was a bottle of water, powerade, and a box of food. The box had an apple, orange, banana, 2 cookies from Tim Hortons and a carton of Chocolate Milk. They had table set up with bowls of candy on them also that were free for the taking.

Another race done!

I ended up finishing with a time of 1:44:21. Not my best, but not my worst! My goal was to have fun and enjoy the race and that I did. Oh, and the rain held off! It was great event and I will definitely sign up for it again next year! Thank you to all the volunteers and the committee for the Niagara Falls Women's Half Marathon.

On another note...

Since the weekend marked the start of a new month, CRMichelle thougt it would be a good idea to initiate a challenge for the month of June. The 3CR's started a challenge with this skinnychick. Join us on Instagram and Twitter for our #plankaday challenge. The challenge is to do a plank a day for each day in the month of June. You just do it as long as you can, time yourself and post your time via pic with #plankaday on Instagram and Twitter.

Like so...

Anybody else race this weekend?

Any other challenges out there for the month of June?