Chilly Half

Up early and on the road after oatmeal and a bagel.

Arrived about an hour before the start and got a good parking spot about 100 meters from the start/finish.

A large contingent from Barrie also made the trip by bus. So killed some time with them and potty breaks until about 10 minutes before start time.

Big toss up was what to wear as I don’t have my Team RF gear yet. The Chilly half wasn’t so chilly. Lots of runners in shorts and t’s, others in tights and jackets. I decided to go with tights, light base long sleeve and my Sugoi Brand Champion t shirt.

Start was a bit of a mess. The half and the accompanying 5k both started at 10:05, with separate starts on either side of the street. They had over 2500 runners and 200 walkers crammed on one side of the street for the half and 600 runners for the 5k on the other side.

The start  was a bit slow, but at .25k the 5k went one way and the half the opposite direction and things started to open up.

I went out a little fast the first two k, but soon settled into a comfortable pace.

No real hills on this course, just some rolling terrain.

Between 3 and 10k I was wishing I went with shorts and just the t.

At 6k I was passed by the 1:45 pace bunny.

At 11k, I passed the 1:45 pace bunny.

At 13k we did a turnaround back into the wind and I was glad I was wearing my tights and long sleeve.

I lost a little time on some of the rollers back in to the finish but held off the 1:45 pace bunny and finished in 1:44:04.

I did see a number of Team Running Free members during the race and said hello as we passed.

After, I changed to a dry shirt and light jacket and met up with some of my friends and cheered other runners in until the wind got to be too much and then headed off for some chili to warm up.

Oh, and the temps, -3o at the start and 5o at the finish with some windchill bringing it down to around 0o. So I guess it was the Chilly Half after all.