CRR’s Niagara Falls Women’s Half Marathon Recap

It was another great weekend over here! The weather was beautiful!

Friday night I went out for dinner to a small restaurant called King of Pigs. This was a new to me restaurant and was with someone who had been there many times so went with the same thing they ordered. Pulled chicken on a ciabatta bun and fries! Can’t go wrong with that right?!!

I also had a wee little glass of wine and it was just the right amount to wash down my plate of food with no problem.

Saturday, Michelle picked me up around 9:30 and we made our way down to the Falls for Race packet pick up. Packet pick up was at a mall and went very smooth. I kinda felt like I was trick or treating as we went through the line to load up our swag bags. (I forgot mine in Michelle’s truck so hopefully she will post a picture of what was in the bags tomorrow) The swag bags were amazing and our t-shirts are so pretty. One I will definitely wear (hopefully she will post a pic of that also).

They were also selling pre-paid parking there which I thought was a good idea so it was one less thing we had to worry about on race day.

After packet pick up, we did what Michelle and I do best, and did some marathon shopping for the rest of the day! Her MIL was with us and I felt kinda bad and that we should have pre warned her what we can be like. But she was a champ! We shopped all day which was from about 2-10:30, with a supper break in between there for about 1.25 hrs, in uncomfortable (but cute) shoes. What not to do the day before a half marathon. We enjoyed our carb load dinner and even had a glass of wine with our dinner.

We had big plans of getting back to the hotel room, going down to the hot tub for a bit, then coming back to our room and playing cards with some snacks, all before getting into bed by 11pm. Well, hot tub, cards and snack time didn’t happen. We got back to our room, got our stuff ready for the morning and it was lights out.

Sunday morning, alarms go off and we are up. We all said the same- that we didn’t sleep well at all. Oh well, good thing we have adrenaline to keep us going.

We arrived at the starting area.

We had just the right amount of time to hit the washroom lines and make our way to the start wine area. There were some pre-race warm ups going on so we joined in for a few minutes before it was race start time.

This is a beautiful course and I would have to say, my favorite of all the races I have done. There is only 1 decent hill and a very few inclines throughout the course and you get to run by the Falls and the river for most of the way.

This was a great race for me last year and I knew I was not going to come close to that so I had told myself I was just going to enjoy this run and not stress about my times at all. I am happy to say that I did just that. Physically, I felt good throughout most of the race. Mentally, I did struggle a lot and I don’t know why. I have never really hit “that wall” in a race but I really did during this one. It was around 12 km and 19 km that I hit a wall and just wanted to quit. I have felt tired, sore and many things during a race but never that I just want to quit! It was very strange because, like I said, physically I was feeling good. I didn’t quit though. I finished in 1:55:14, placed 146/1978. This marks my slowest finish time ever for a ½ marathon. That’s a tough status to swallow but I think it is good for me and keeps me grounded. I finished my 10^th half marathon and for that I am very thankful that God gives me the strength and abilities to do them!

This race is, hands down, the best event (that I have been a part of) for post-race beverages and snacks. There was plenty of water, PowerAde and they were even giving out the little bottles of PowerAde drops to put in water. They had a truck full of these beverages backed right up to the table, where they were handing it out, so it was readily available to keep stocking.

After you get stocked up on beverages, you go through a tent were they hand out boxes of food.

There are tons of volunteers and they all have smiles and are so willing to get you what you need.

They even have more tables set up with bowls of chocolates and candy.

There was also a table set up with extra left overs of swag bag stuff so we all scored a few more free things there after the race.

Such a great over all event! They are offering the early bird special again this year, $68 until the end of June, so I will def be signing up again for next year!

What did you do this weekend?

What is the best thing you have ever received in a swag bag?