This would be race #5 in my year and my last race prior to the summer training session. No more races until September and I am not going to get into my personal results on this one because they basically follow the theme of the last few distance events I have done, “Poor”.
This is the 2nd year of the Barrie half marathon and my first time running it. Last year the event was held in August and this year they wanted to move it to the spring, so picked the 17th of June. I guess it technically is still the spring but weather can be a bit hot around this time of year. Usually I won’t run a half marathon in June, July or August as I guess I am a bit of a wuss, but with my poor showing at Mississauga I wanted to redeem myself. (Not the greatest idea and no redemption was received lol).
The event was capped at 1200 for all events with about 520 registered for the half. They also have a half relay and a 5K. We got there about 1.5 hours before the event and essentially parked right at the start/finish line for free. Some cars were getting towed on some of the course streets so I advise to be careful to park in a designated area as that would definitely ruin my day. At 7:00 we were able to pick up our race kits with no wait at all and slowly prepare for the event. The race kit pick up got more gradually crowded as it drew closer to the run and it amazes me to see people still getting there packets at 8:20 (I would be a worried mess)
At about 8:15 runners were called to the start area to listen to 15 minutes of about 6 different people say words about the charity or thanking the sponsors etc etc. While I think that all these things need to be said, I would like to see a condensed version as I don’t want to stand around for 15 minutes before a half. My favourite part of the start of the race had to be the 61 year old walker who thought it would be a good idea to toe the line and start with the elites. I thought I was starting a little too close to the front, but I this lady was out of her mind. I am glad to report I saw here near the back of the pack on an out and back portion so she wasn’t trampled by 500 runners.
The start line was at city hall and the first 200 metres was a fairly prominent decline which meant that there would be a large incline to the finish. Wasn’t too excited about that. The first water station was at about 500 metres which I thought was funny but with an out and back we would pass that station again at 13K so it served a purpose. The first half of the race was an out and back along the north edge of the waterfront with about 2 fairly lengthy inclines/declines which we had to do twice. This first part was run mostly on roads and paved trails with a small portion being on a wooden boardwalk. Water stations were about 3K apart and had Gatorade and water. The problem with the water stations is that they were on one side of the out and back which made for some fancy dodging with runners attacking the station from both sides.
The second half of the run you return close to the start of the race and travel north along the waterfront with the majority of this portion being run on a packed gravel path. This out and back was a lot more flat than the first half and should allow for some fast final KMs if you didn’t kill yourself on the up and downs of the first half (guilty). I found that sometimes the runners travelling north on this portion were over their side of the pylons and would really interfere with the runners traveling south into the finish. Don’t run 4 across runners/walkers even if you are all friends…. PLEASE. The course was fairly well marked and you knew where to turn, but I found that there was a lot of cutting corners as pylons weren’t mapping the corners enough to prevent some of this from occurring on purpose or not. My final garmin distance was only 21.11KMs which probably means I myself cut few corners accidentally.
The final climb into the finish line is really daunting, you look up and see the finish line at the top of a fairly steep climb. There is not going to be a lot of sprints into the finish line with this location. I was told last year the event started and stopped at the waterfront but was moved up to city hall this year. I would suggest moving it back down to the waterfront as I wouldn’t want to do that climb again at the end of a race. At the finish line there are the usual banana’s, rolls, juice and Gatorade but I noticed that there was not bottled water which was a con, and that there was free pizza slices which was a pro. The best thing about this race is finishing and receiving that huge metal. This thing is 5 inches across and weighs a tonne lol
I would definitely like to try this event out again, I only wish it was a little earlier in the spring. I do understand the competition as you get into April and May for race events though.
Jarrid, sounds like an interesting race course. Looking over the on-line race photo’s the course sure does look spectacular. Regardless of outcomes, any race that you can finish undre your own two feet is an accomplishment. Nice work. Sounds like I may have to investigate this race next year. Do you know if the race sells out quickly?
Andrew, this year they capped the race at 1200 people in all events and I would say it sold out the week of the last price increase (Last week of May). Next year I expect them to increase the field size as well.