Mississauga Half Marathon 2017
Date: Sunday, May 7, 2017
Location: Mississauga, Ontario
This was the sister race to my Burlington Chilly Half Marathon. I had received an offer from an online site that discounted a combined entry fee for both races to almost 50%. And like any runner on a budget, 2 for almost the price of 1 is music to my ears.
The Mississauga event is also a well established race like the Chilly, it does the host city proud by offering an ambitious weekend of multi distance runs. A top choice for anyone looking for a relatively face paced road race along an interesting route through the city. I was running the half marathon distance this time out. I arrived early to grey skies and brisk temps. The start is held in the newly created celebration square adjacent to City Hall on Duke of York, usually a thriving hub of activity, but today it was dulled due to the lower than expected temps. There was lots of room available as the group of runners swelled in ever increasing numbers waiting for the start of the race.
The race moves out from the square onto the Burnamthorpe Road for a nice 5 km where you can get into your own comfortable pace. We then turned south toward Lake Ontario on Mississauga Road which makes for another 10 km of nice gradual sloping road. There are a couple of bends that may have some up elevation, but mostly you are now running down hill. This is a scenic road through mostly nicely maintained homes and treed areas, this offered us some shelter from a wind that had kicked up. South of the QEW, Mississauga Road continues straight south until bending east towards the credit river. There are 2-3 aid stations so far, offering a mix of carb drinks / water, with enthusiastic volunteers. Its here in the last 5 km that you start to have a large presence of people cheering from the roadside. The route moves from a road surface to sidewalks and nicely groomed trails following the edge of the lake as you go. It’s here that I encountered my local RF ambush, they had setup their own cheering section looking for unsuspecting RF runners to encourage (yes that’s you Norm). You wind your way through some residential area but finish on a trail that takes you into Lakefront Promenade Park. It’s here in the park that you cross the finish line to a very large exciting crowd, they are very well organized, and have you squared away in no time. There are lots of fresh and packaged snacks for everyone, and a nice is surprise is the Tim’s wagon doing brisk business.
It’s a 5 min walk from the finishing area to wait for a well organized ride via bus to the starting area to pick up my vehicle. Another successful race in Mississauga, this event has always proved a nice start to my running season, I’d recommend it anytime.
