Warning: Super long post. Sorry not sorry.

The short version

My first race of the year is now in the books! I am super happy with my time of 2:47:26 (5:35/km). I didn’t think I’d be able to sustain a 5:40/km average given the hilly course but we were able to bank enough time in the first half which was mostly flat (and terribly unscenic) to make up for the hills in the 2nd half.

Unfortunately, I lost Lisa at about 18km because her ankles started to bother her at 12k but she still finished sub-2:50. So proud of her!

After the race, we sent Jim off on his 875km #hamilton2boston adventure.

Read on for the full ATB weekend recap.

Shakeout

Our ATB weekend started with a 5km shakeout run at MEC North York with the RunNinjas. Jason agreed to be our “bag check” so I brought an overnight bag and a separate post-race bag. So much packing for just 1 night!

Sandra brought a Tim Hortons traveller for after the run which was nice because it was cold, rainy, and miserable that morning. Great idea by Jim even though he doesn’t drink coffee. So thoughtful! ☕💖

Lunch in Hamilton

Then it was off to Hamilton with Lisa, Tracey, and Maggie for a girl’s getaway. While driving there on the highway, there were patches with pretty low visibility. I’m glad the race was not on the Saturday. When we arrived in Hamilton, we went to a place called The Burnt Tongue for lunch. I ordered a bowl of chilli and a kale salad. It took every fibre of my being to order a salad instead of fries but I’m glad I did because the chilli was so huge I couldn’t finish, which is pretty rare for me. Both were delicious. Perfect for a cold rainy day.

Expo

Lisa found us free parking at a nearby highschool (score!) close to FirstOntario Centre. When we got to the Expo, the first thing we did was to contribute to the graffiti on this wall.

We took our time going through the Expo. I was pretty impressed with how many vendors there were. We stopped to take pictures with the Grim Reaper, Nuun, and with Gail at the Run Little Monkey booth. I bought a Tri Little Monkey top. I had worn it for the photoshoot and I’ve been thinking about it since. It is a unique turquoise colour, I love the way it fits me and the material is so soft. #brandambassador

Because there is no race day pick up 👎 we had the responsibility of picking up 20 bibs for many of the Ninjas at the Expo. Despite arranging for a group pick up, we had to pick up the bib, safety pins, bags, and swag separately and count everything to make sure we had everyone’s stuff, especially bibs and shirts.

After picking up everything, we hauled it all to the car. Good thing there were 4 of us and we parked nearby!

Hotel

After the Expo, we drove to the hotel. We all changed into swimming stuff because the plan was to relax at the hottub until dinner. Sadly, when we got there, the pool was closed for renovations. We went back to our room and just hung out for a bit. Then we decided to go to Walmart to walk around because there’s nothing much to do in Hamilton when it’s cold and wet outside.

Dinner

We went to a place called Caro for dinner. Since they don’t take reservations, I thought it would be ok as long as we showed up before 6pm. Afterall, this is Hamilton. Nope. When we arrived, the place was packed with a 1 hour wait. So we waited for Sally to show up and went for the next closest restaurant based on Yelp’s recommendation. MERK was a tapas restaurant which probably isn’t the best choice for a pre-race meal because we tried a lot of different dishes. Major GI risk! But the food was so good we even forgot to take pictures. I love tapas! We got a picture at the end and of course, Sally is flipping the bird. I’m glad she drove all the way here from Ottawa. It was great to catch up with her.

A wild girls night in

We went back to the hotel, chatted for a while, Tracey taught us how to play a game which required too much thinking for me (Note to self: Iran is not a country in southern Europe 🤣), I took a flat runner photo and we were pretty much all in bed by 10:30pm.

Look at all the beautiful bibs!

A photo with our #solemates shirts because we didn’t get one at the restaurant. We are the same height! 😂

Getting ready

Not surprisingly, I woke up every hour through the night. I had set my alarm to 6:30am but I was wide awake well before that. I took a shower, got dressed, and had my PB&J sandwich by 7am. I filled my water belt with Nuun and put 2 Endurance Taps into my side pocket. We left the hotel by 7:40am, 5 minutes ahead of schedule. Perfect. This Dopey 2020 test run is working out so far.

Bib distribution

This was the most stressful part of the day. Originally I had told everyone to meet us at the Federal Building because I thought it was going to be open. Turns out it wasn’t. 😔 Maria was one of the first to arrive and she was at the Tim Hortons at Jackson Square so that’s where we ended up distributing most of the bibs. Some people got lost trying to find it – thank goodness for phones. Then we moved into the stadium where there were a million people waiting for the race to start. The most stressful part was getting the bibs to Sandra and Jim because they were stuck in traffic. I went out to meet them in the front and my claustrophobia kicked in. I almost threw up. Thank goodness they arrived 15 minutes before the race start.

Jim arrived in his race costume: flannel shirt and jeans. He was dressed like a lumberjack, ready to cut down some trees. His plan was to pace Sandra to a 2:30 so the race was just a walk in the park for this guy. 🙄😊🚶

I was able bring them to meet up with the rest of the ninjas for a proper photo before everyone left for the corrals.

At the corrals

After a quick bathroom stop, Lisa and I headed to the corrals. We met up with Reina and took an obligatory pre-race selfie. I should be a Glad model. 😂

Once again, we were so far back in the corral, we had to scramble to get closer to our pace bunnies. We arrived so late that we didn’t even have to wait in the corral at all. The race already started and we just started running right through. That was weird.

0-10km

As usual, the first couple of km’s, we were just weaving through the crowd. Lisa is familiar with the drill by now. I really don’t like crowds.

It took us about 2km to catch up to the 2:50 bunnies. We ran past them and I never saw them again. At this point, we were running about 5:10/km. There goes our plan to start at 5:40/km!

I completely missed the first water station because of the crowd. That was annoying but at least I had my own Nuun.

This first 10k was extremely unscenic. Smokestack galore. Ugly. For a race called “Around the Bay”, you barely see the bay at all on the course. So deceiving.

The only good thing about this part was that it was relatively flat so we were able to bank some time. Our 10k split time was 53:28. We knew there was no way we could have sustained that pace.

10-20km

I took an Endurance Tap at about 11k. As always, it went down smooth. I chased it with water at the next water station. I think this was where I lost Lisa for a little while. I ran backward for a bit and then eventually stopped completely to wait for her. We reunited and started up again, making up for the lost time.

At about 12k, Lisa told me her ankle was starting to bother her. This was bad because we weren’t even half way yet and she was already telling me to run ahead. Of course, I didn’t want to leave her behind so I was hoping she would just stay close behind me. I kept on thinking that this will be the last time I run this race (maybe even this distance) so I wanted to run a PB to prove my coworker wrong. At about 18k, I looked back and couldn’t see Lisa anymore. At that point, I knew I had a good chance to run a sub-2:50 time so I made a choice to finish it as fast as I could. Sigh. I knew that I would not be happy about this choice. It wasn’t the plan. The plan was to run this together. What was wrong with me???

Sorry Lisa!! Please forgive me!!!

20-30km

At ~21k, I took another Endurance Tap. This was the part of the race with the rolling hills through the nice neighborhood lined with mansions. Even here though, we didn’t see the Bay much. I made it up the hill at 27km. It wasn’t that bad. After the hill, we started seeing the Ninja cheer squad: Luis, Gillian, Justina, Jason, Rishi, Lisa T, Benson, Matt, Sylvia, and Elena. They were there to cheer us on and to take photos. Here are some great photos they took.

As expected, I passed by the Grim Reaper at 28km. He’s pretty funny. When I passed, he said “only 10 more km to go” and I wanted to sucker punch him. 😂

The last couple of km’s were hard, especially since I wasn’t running with Lisa. I kept on doing mental math to make sure I was still on track for a sub-2:50 and even sub-2:48. Each time I saw a photographer, even when I saw our Ninja photographers, I thought what’s the point of posing since I’m not with Lisa. 😭😭😭 This was the best smile I mustered for Lisa Tong.

📸: Lisa Tong

At this point, I just wanted to cross the line. I sprinted into the stadium and took a moment to look around the stadium. It was so cool to finish with so many spectators. I felt like I was in the Olympics.

Post-race

By the time I collected my medal and post-race snacks, I got a text from Lisa! Turns out she was only a couple of minutes behind me and was able to run sub-2:50. I couldn’t believe that she pushed through despite the pain. Right on cue, I saw her at the photo area and we were able to finally take our photo together.

Even though we weren’t able to run together, at least we both made our sub-2:50 goal. #consolationprize

Post-race Lunch

Benson had made reservations for us to have lunch and send Jim off on his #hamilton2boston journey. Before walking to the restaurant which was about 8 minutes away, we got a coffee from Tim’s to warm us up. When we arrived at the restaurant, we changed into dry clothes. Thanks to Jason for bringing our bags. Talk about full service!

It was great to see everyone, both racers and cheersquad, and to celebrate as a family.

Jim got us to sign a shirt that he will be wearing for the Boston Marathon. I was so touched that he wanted us to be there with him, in a way. His rule was to write your name and draw something that’s not a penis. 😂 Too funny.

At about 2:30pm, Jim and Don headed off on their 875km adventure. It was emotional and a bit surreal to send him off.

We went back to the restaurant and wait for our food. And waited. And waited. It took another hour for all our food to arrive.

I had a burger (it was delicious but so big I was only able to eat half – yay) and a salad (double yay!). Again, it took every fibre of my being to order salad instead of fries but I’m glad I did.

Donut Monster

After lunch, we made a pitstop at Donut Monster based on Reina’s recommendation. I enjoyed it even though I don’t normally like donuts.

The guy at Donut Monster asked if we were runners because of our RunNinjas cap. I asked if he was a runner too and he said yes and mentioned being on Strava. I ended up giving him my name and IG handle. Later, the girls asked if I gave him my phone number. Lol – he was kinda cute but I’m not a cougar! 😂 😂 😂

The finale

The drive home was uneventful. I was quite tired and ready to take a shower and spend some time with the family. All in all, I had a wonderful ATB weekend. We didn’t meet our A goal of running together but I’m happy that we both ran sub-2:50 which was an amazing PB time given the rolling hills on this course.

That’s all folks! Thanks for reading to the end. I’ll be racing again this weekend. Stay tuned for more race recaps to come!! 😍