Niagara Falls Women's Half Marathon - Take 3!

On Sunday I ran the Niagara Falls Women's Half Marathon for the third time.  It's such a great race to run.  It's mostly flat and along the water.  This is the only half marathon that I have ever run so I might be a little biased when it comes to this race.

As you arrive you can hear the music and feel the energy.  This year I was running a little later that I would have liked.  I needed to used the little girls room but no fear there are plenty to use and the lines move fast.  I made friends with two ladies in line who had also run this race before and were back because of how great it is.  We chatted away about the race while we waited then said a quick good luck as each of us got our turn.

I then took off for the starting line with no time to spare.  I found Céline, had a quick picture and found my starting spot.  It was nice not to have to stand around forever waiting.  In the couple minutes I did have to wait I chatted with another lady who had run this race all but one year and was looking forward to it again.

Once it was time to run we took off.  I was careful to make sure I didn't start out too fast and watched my pace through to the first turn around.  I have a tendency to take off to fast not to mention the fact that the first couple of kilometers are a slight decline making it even easier to go too fast.  Before I knew it I was at the first turn around where I saw one the first sign to make me giggle.  It said something like "Don't trust a fart from this point".  I giggled and headed back the other way.  I felt great and enjoyed the mist from the Falls.

The rest of the race was fairly uneventful.  I felt good overall, no pains, no tiredness and no desire to walk.  At the 10k point I was on target for a very good personal best.  If I had stayed on pace I would have finished around 3:10.  Around 16k I felt a weird sensation in my achilles though which made me walk a little.  It didn't hurt but it didn't feel right.  From there I did more of a run/walk but was okay with that.  I knew I had time to walk and still set a PB.

I ended up finishing in 3:17:59 which is almost one whole minute faster than my fastest so I got my PB.  I also beat last years time by a full seven minutes.  The kids were all there to help me with that last couple hundred meters.  It was a good day indeed!!!  Maybe next year I can finish in under 3hrs??  It could be tough but so am I:)

I wanted to share the above comparison picture.  The left is me during the same race and the right is this year.  I knew that I had lost weight but it is hard for me to see a difference.  Here I can actually see it:)

I also realize I didn't do a May wrap up.  Things got kind of crazy half way through the month with soccer and kids activities.  I kept running and did some cycling.  I ran 88km in May and did some form of exercise all but two days.  June will have somewhat less running distance because I'm not training hard for anything but I will keep going.  No slacking of for this chick!