Runnin' Around - the Oakville Half Marathon

So today it was time for the Oakville Half Marathon.  It was  a great day for running, sun was out, a little cool but still just shorts and t-shirt running - a great way to start Fall today!  Also a perfect opportunity to test out my foot - I have been having some pain in my left foot when I plant, it has been a bit better so today was the day.
I started out with the 1:35 pace bunny as that was my goal for the event.  Bunny would be the right name as he took off like one!  Within 3km he was almost out of sight and I was running 4:28/km, a couple seconds under the goal.  While it was disappointing to lose the group it was a good chance to deal with running alone for the race and working on maintaining the pace.
I kept that pace up until just after the 7 km point where there was the hill - decided to back off and not push it on the hill loosing some time but trying to keep some gas in the tank.  I reached the half way point at 48:13 and given how my foot was feeling, I knew that I wouldn't be making up the time to reach the 1:35 goal.  It was time to dig in and do what I could to get to the end as close to 1:35 as I could.
The second half wasn't as good as the first, taking me 51:17, a slight head wind not helping matters out.  On a positive note, the finish was strong and I got in at 1:38:30.9, just over 7 seconds from my best for the half.
Going to be time to take it easy for a bit, the foot is really bothering me, taking me some time to walk back to my car (only 3.6km away - I used that as my warm up before the race, running to the start).  Despite stretching, I can't plant properly at all or run on it at this point - today is the worst it has been and the first time it didn't get better as I ran, it was the opposite.  It's 4 weeks to the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon where I have registered for the full Marathon - hope my foot heals.
There were a number of Port Credit Runners running today - from my Half Marathon Clinic both David Wainwright (looking awfully good when I spoke with him at the end) and Barb Pomfret; from the Marathon Clinic, Michelle Mayo, Kevin Woon-Fat, Ericka Hastie, Chris Holloway and a few I didn't know the names of.  In Amherstburg today, Teri Monti, Chuck Oateman and Simon Heath all ran the marathon, with Simon setting a Personal Best by 7 minutes!  Way to go everyone.  Great job by our Clinic in their Long Slow Distance Run today, running 16km - great job.
Whatever you did today, I hope you had a great one.
Be well, be happy.

End of Stay-cation II

So down to one more day of stay-cation II.

Friday was Zac Brown Band at the Molson Amphitheatre with Morgan and Rowan!  Thank you for thinking of me Blackjack, it was awesome!!

Well at least two of us were having a great time.  Me and Morgan went to Darien Lake earlier this summer to have fun at the park and to see Zac Brown - he knows the words to all the songs, and it's so great to see him smile and sing.

It was great to have Morgan down for and entire week, really happy that he wanted to come for an extra visit.  It's fun to have Rowan here (despite the look in the picture), we went blow in the dark mini-putting, to a movie, swimming, watched movies.  Pretty awesome vacation!!

It's been a great summer, spent probably the most time with them - really glad the schedules worked out so well this year.

Glenda is on her way back from Kingston and then it's time for dinner.  Maddie has made the move to university this year and it's Queens.  She's gonna do great as she has such a great attitude and work ethic.  So proud of you girl!!

Great turn out today for our 1/2 Marathon Clinic, great to see on a long weekend - thanks!  We did a 16km LSD Run today and everyone did fantastic.  It's hard to explain how great it feels when you talk with the group and people are telling you how great they feel after running 16km, how they know they can do it (the half) - now it's about time!  Feels pretty amazing.  Last week some of the gang ran harder than they should have and this week they were surprised as to how much better they felt by slowing down just 20 seconds a km on average (you're going to do great Lisa!), to hear how much better someone feels following their heart rate more closely for the first time (and after 21 km today Dave - no not this Dave).  I am really proud of each and every one of them, feel truly blessed to have such a great group of people to run with - thank you.

Time to figure out my foot as it's bugging me a lot when I run - only 3 weeks to the Oakville Half and 7 weeks to the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon (full).  It hurts at the start and loosens up along the way - feels better when I run quicker.  Going to have to keep working on it.