The Niagara Falls (Not So) International Half Marathon

What a weekend folks - woot woot!!! I got up around 6am - relieved that the dogs let me sleep in that long. Took them for their obligatory Saturday morning walk with their doggy pals. Then got home, tidied out my car as I had travel guests joining me to go to NIAGARA FALLS!!! It was marathon weekend & I wasn't even packed. EGADS... aaaargh. So after the car was tidied. I started packing.
Jeans, sandals, couple of shirts, tooth brush, tooth paste, meds, vitamins, makeup etc.
Running kit:
Road Runners shirt, long sleeve tech, shoes, socks, sports bra, capris, vest.
Cindy Marcelli arrived, packed her in, drove to Innisfil to pick up Samantha - Tea's all around. GPS plugged in and programmed for the Skylon Parking Lot B - for the Expos.

Expos - was so so. I wasn't overly impressed. I think last years was a bit better. Perhaps it was just me, but I didn't get the same HOOPALA as I did last year. Didn't even spin the Nordica Wheel of Fortune.
They didn't hand out Tech shirts - we got for the Half and Full Marathon, a very nice Brooks sports bag. What a nice change that was. Dark Blue for the Halfers ( that was us) and Light Blue for the fullers.
The actual race kits - not bad. A package of whole wheat pasta, brown rice chips, the obligatory paper. Gator Aid water bottles ( picked those up as we left the Expos).

The hotel room at the Skyline Inn was COOL. They had bunk beds. I got the top bunk. WOOT WOOT.

Okay now for the really important stuff.

The actual Race - I'll let Rickymac talk about the Full experience as I hear it's awesome. I may do the full next year.

I love this race - I've done the half three years in a row now & we've had <<>> decent weather for each race. Decent being no snow or heavy rain. LOL.
They pick you up from the Crowne Plaza by the Starbucks ( hmmmmm) and bus you, in my case, to the Half Marathon start, which believe it or not is at exactly the half way mark of the full marathon. I KNOW - go figure. Crazy people.
And F-L-A-T. It's a net down hill course. You run on the Niagara Parkway the whole way in. Then the last kilometer is on the actual road in. Turn a couple of corners and VOILA- Finish Line.
Cindy was just going to run the run as it arrived for her. Fast if she wanted, slow if she wanted. This was her recovery run from the Nike's Women's Marathon. I've never seen so much NWM gear! Everytime you turned around she had something else emblazened with NWM. Thanks for single handedly stimulating the US economy. I think President Obama is on line 1 for you to personally thank you. LOL.
She looked fabulous & even better - ran exceedingly well.
Sam was recovering from a stress fracture in her foot and was out of commission for 8 weeks. So this was her Happy Birthday & welcome back to running run.
Me?? It was my recovery, taper run - I had no expectations other than to stick with my bestest buddy Sam.
We were all patiently waiting for the start at 10am. Folks milling around in the warming tents, which I found out the first year, is a misnomer. There are no warmers in the tents. You have to huddle together and let the body heat blossom. Yeah right... okay. Doesn't get anyone into trouble does it?
Our Barrie Road Runners shirts were a hit. Lots of Barrie folks on the course, people running by you yelling - HEY I'M FROM BARRIE TOO!!! Awesome. Lots of compliments on them. Groovy man!!!
So off we went after a wonderful rendition of the US & Canadian anthems. I treated everyone to my own special brand of singing. Anything to chase the butterflies away.

The course was beautiful. The houses are amazing! HOLY SMOKES ! They have the most amazing view - over the Niagara River. Wow. The trees were a wonderful array of fiery red, burnt orange and tangy yellow. Canada Geese were swimming lazily in the river, families of them floating in harmony.
Sam's injury resurfaced - her foot was aching hotly. So rather than risk reinjuring it further at the 6 mile mark we decided to walk it in. Cindy, her Road Runners Singlet gleaming in the sunshine, headed off for a grand finish.
Sam and I were given the opportunity to enjoy the glorious fall day that we were given. Sam is a complete trouper. I made her walk no less than a 9 minute kilometer. We ran when she felt a run in her, then we'd walk again. At about the 11 mile marker the motor-cade came through to announce the first place marathon runner was coming through.
There he was - not a Kenyan by any means and the most interesting thing - he was completely alone, there was NOBODY even close by to him. The next set of runners were about a kilometer behind him at least.

The medal - well it's not as great as last year's or the year before that. Whomever they had contracted to make the medals misspelled pewter two years running ( or more but for sure two). We had genuine pure pewer medals. This year... not so much. They weren't bad. Size wise they are decent. The Ribbon was blue for the half and Gold for the Full - that would be the only hugely noticeable difference. On the back it has 5k - 10k - Half Marathon - Marathon and your event is highlighted with at small space to have your time engraved.

This is definitely a great run for folks who want to finish off the year with a flat run before Angus Glen. The organization is great, the volunteers at the expos are very helpful, they even whispered in my ear that I could get Jame's entry deferred if he wanted and pointed out who I needed to speak to. The water stations were manned by some really energetic schools. The teenagers were really giving it their all which was terrific!! Lots of school spirit. Mascots, balloons, face painting all in school colours!! Fantastic.

I didn't stay too long at the after party. But they had the food in a bag awaiting for me! I couldn't believe it!! I didn't have get in another line up for food! The usual Gatorade to chug down after finishing, water bottles or cups of water and best of all a shuttle bus back to the Crowne Plaza. I managed to trade my chewy chocolate covered granola bar for a bag of ketchup chips on the bus ride back... SAAAWEEET!!! yummy... chips for our carb!

So all in all I'd rate this one a - Hafta do at least once on my race rating scale.

JvH