Mississauga Marathon...Check!

We did it!!!!!

Ever since Kathy said to me last summer, "One day I would like to complete a marathon", we have been on a mission. We did it smart, we did it right and we finished well. We are grateful to the gang at the Barrie Running Room for their incredible leadership and support, and to our SparkFriends, who are, to put it simply, there -- always.

Well known by now is the fact that I have been battling to reduce inflammation in a very irritated trochanteric bursa over the last couple of weeks. In fact, I wasn't even certain I would be able to run 5km of this race, let alone the 42.2km, but regardless, I was prepared to walk it all, if need be. That was the plan, anyway. We wanted to ensure that we were well rested and cool as cucumbers leading into race day, so we booked ourselves into the host hotel the night before. We struck out early on Saturday morning as we had to deliver canine semen to the airport, bound for PEI. My lucky dog, Elliott, is being used at stud by a breeder in that lovely province. It was little, obscure side-trip. LOL

Aside from getting a little bit lost at the airport, that diversion went as smooth as can be. Our timing all day Saturday was bang on. It was then time to visit the Mississauga Marathon Race Expo to browse, shop, pick up our race kits, register our timing chips and...drumroll please...meet John Stanton, president and founder -- aka guru -- of The Running Room. What a nice guy -- so informative, supportive and easy to talk to!
-- photo to come --
There was a great t-shirt booth at the expo and we each bought a technical shirt. I bought the one with the slogan that read, "Does this shirt make my butt look fast?"

We had lunch, checked into our hotel and had a nice afternoon nap. We woke up to head out for a pasta dinner and to buy bottled water at the near-by convenience store, and were back in our room by 7:30pm. We ordered up a movie, threw on our jammies and were in bed by 8:00. We watched the movie and fell asleep by 10. We both slept great. Well rested, we were up by 4:30 and ready to go. We grabbed a quick breakfast at 5am that the hotel put on for the runners, consisting of oatmeal, a banana, a coffee and a hard-boiled egg. We ate that early enough that it, hopefully, wouldn't cause either of us problems during the race. Then it was time to head to the start line and meet up with the rest of the Barrie Road Runners for our pre-race group photo.

We stood in line to take that all important port-o-potty break and then made our way to the start corral for the 7:30am start.

Kathy, Lucile, Kirsten and I all started out together and held on to a conservative pace for more than half the race. It was so much fun staying together for that time. Beyond the halfway point we started to spread out. I was feeling good -- good enough to maintain a fairly even pace through the entire race. Even my final kms were staying within the ranges I had been conservatively keeping during the beginning stages of the race. I felt good about that.

About my hip. I took a Motrin -- ibuprofen -- before the start and stuck a Motrin patch over the hip-bursa area for the race. The hip felt good -- the feeling was there, but bearable. It was my low back, sacro-iliac joint, that was tightening up and seizing up during the last 10kms or so, as well as an irritating patch of skin chafing that was starting to come up from the inside of my upper arm brushing against my tank top. It was warm, but there were lots of beautiful, mature trees providing shade, and a nice breeze off the lake, so the heat was not unbearable. I am, however, sunburned today. When the pain really started to seize me up in those last kms, I had this mantra going through my head over and over, "When you feel hurt, don't be hurt, be AWESOME instead!" It came from this poster, LOL!

And this one makes me laugh even harder. It is what I had up as my Facebook profile picture in the days leading up to the race in order to psych myself up:

With 2kms left to go, I started to pick up my pace. I passed Kathy's mom, daughter and friend and that revved me up, and the rounded a corner to see the greatest gang of cheerleaders ever assembled -- the Barrie crowd. WOW! I was 400m from the finish and in tears. I poured it on for the finish and found a couple of fellow Barrie runners there as well as my husband. Nothing better than a big hug at the end of a big race. I grabbed a banana and water and watched for Kathy to come in. She wasn't that far behind. How amazingly, wonderfully fantastic to have completed such a distance on such a wonderful day with the most amazing people.


Then it was off to the pub for a beer and a burger. Well-deserved, I would say!

And here is Kathy and I -- post-race -- hobbling around.

My chip time? 5:03:30. Considering my last few weeks of battling this injury, I simply happy to have made it to the start line, let alone finish the race. It leaves plenty of room for a PB down the road. Meantime, stretch and strengthen these muscle imbalances I have in the hopes that there will be no more bursa flare-ups and no more seizing S-I joint pain in those long runs.

It was a great day -- Kathy, I wouldn't and couldn't have done it without you. Bring on the next one -- whaddya say?