I didn’t plan on running a fall marathon but when I won my entry through the Running Free lottery I couldn’t pass up a free race entry! I was still in marathon shape from a spring race so why not. I have raced the Road2Hope half-marathons in 2013 and 2015 so I was already familiar with this event as well.
The race starts at ArcelorMittal Dofasco Park and finishes at Confederation Park. This means runners are bussed to the start line from Confederation Park. I did not use the bussing option this year but in past years it was very smooth. The bus is about 15 minutes away so do not park at the start line unless you have a drive back to get your car.
Runners can stay warm in the gym at the Rec Centre located at the start line. There are a few indoor washrooms but the line ups are huge. There are porta potties outside but I am finding that every year I run this race they have less and less porta potties so the line ups are also very big outside. There are wooded areas close by which many runners will use instead…of course easier for the boys than the girls. This year I ended up in the woods because the porta potties had huge line ups with only 15 minutes until race time and not enough time to stand in line. Although the marathon had just under a 1000 runners, the start time for the half marathon is only 15 minutes after the 7:30am full marathon start time so you have both groups waiting. There were about 1500 half marathoners. Although 7:30am may seem early, every year this race falls on Daylight savings so you benefit from an extra hour sleep!
The marathon starts out with the first 22k on fairly rural roads with beautiful views of the lake for the stretches on Ridge Road. I am told this part of the route was changed a bit this year so that there were more turns and a few more rolling hills than the past route. But otherwise fairly flat. I have included a snapshot of the elevation chart from my Garmin with this post so you can see the hills.
At just over 22k you get onto the Red Hill Valley Parkway which is about 6k of downhill running. You have to be careful not to blow your pacing strategy on this stretch as it’s so easy to go too fast. There was quite a headwind this year so that helped me stay on pace and probably helped save my quads. There is quite a bit of camber to the road so you have to be mindful to try and find the flatter spots for running. You exit Barton street and the off ramp is an uphill so a bit of a shift for your legs.
You then continue onto the trails which have a couple hills that are not great. There are also two small spots where there is interlock stone that is hard to run on….one downhill section where you enter the trail and another uphill section a few meters down the path. At around 30k you cross over about 16 lanes of the QEW on the pedestrian bridge and for me this is always tough because I am scared of heights so my pace always quickens a bit on this stretch.
You do flip onto a residential street for the 33-37k stretch and the road condition isn’t great for this bit. At 37k you pass a timing mat back onto the trails and then it’s the homestretch all the way to the finish with a beautiful view of the lake….not that my mental state at for this last 7k allowed me to enjoy the view! Up to this point the spectators are few and far between but when you reach the trails on the Lake there are lots of spectators cheering runners on the trails for the final few km’s.
About half a km from the finish line there is a tiny uphill but at that point it felt like a 1km wall of up-hill…in reality it was probably only 50 meters I am sure 🙂 About 200m’s from the finish line there is a hairpin turn with a slight incline and as you make this turn the finish line and clock timer is in clear veiw.
Overall I like this race and the race route. It’s small, not too far from Toronto and usually has great weather…although the wind can be hit and miss.
One very important thing I will comment on is the water stations. They were 3k apart and all had porta potties. The water stations every 3k worked well for me. I did find the water stations on the first half were a bit unorganized. It wasn’t always clear who had water and who had sports drink. And at the 12k station there were not prepared at all and I had to grab my own water cup from the table as they were filling up cups. In past years they had Honey Maxx for the sports drink but this year the website indicated nuun. At different stations I heard volunteers calling out eLoad, Gatorade or nuun so I am still unsure what they were actually serving. I bring my own sports drink for marathons (Infinit Run…which I swear by for long distance) so the sports drink confusion didn’t impact me but especially for the marathon I would double check exactly what they are serving for future races if you are using the on course sports drink.
I also want to mention that there is a very organized bag check process at the start line and your bag is waiting at the finish for you. There isn’t an area to change at the finish so I usually end up changing in the bag check tent with another runner holding up a jacket for me to change behind. At that point I just want to get warm and don’t really care much….a change tent would be a nice feature though given it’s an outside race finish area.
Thanks to Running Free Lottery for this opportunity! I had a great race day and PB!
