Nearly There! (11 Month Sit-Rep)

After completing the Hamilton marathon at the start of the month, the running has been fairly light over the last few weeks - coinciding with the arrival of some wintery weather.  
 
I have now passed 2400 km and am looking to reach 2500 before the end of the year.
 
For fundraising I have less than $300 to go to reach my $2,017 target - so it's time for a last big push through the holiday season!
 
You can support me here (registration closes Dec 31, 2017 11:59 PM):

HYPERLINK: https://www.gifttool.com/athon/MyFundraisingPage?ID=1466&AID=1695&PID=602510

Start2Finish National Running Team

Hamilton Road 2 Hope Recap

This was a bit of a last minute decision... I signed up for the Hamilton Road 2 Hope Marathon just a couple of days before the race weekend, in the last few hours of online registration.

My two fellow Midnight Moose runners were heading down to participate with Tony pacing the 4 hour marathon and Greg aiming to run sub-4 hrs for a Personal Best.  They invited me along.  I was still a bit disappointed at not running my planned fall marathon in Washington D.C. and although I hadn't been doing marathon-specific training I felt like my high summer mileage could carry me through. The logistics were taken care of and all I had to do was turn up and try to keep up!

A weather warning was issued for the Sunday, predicting heavy rainfall and strong wind gusts. This was going to be cold and wet. 

We were bussed to the start area around 06:30am with some misty drizzle, but it was drier than expected; the temperature was a mild 7c.

As we stood at the starting line the wind picked up and we were hit by some heavy rain. Within a couple of minutes everyone was cold and wet, and keen to get moving.

Rain continued along the first few miles of the course, through the rolling fields of the Hamilton escarpment.  The lake was just about visible - on sunnier the days the view must be amazing!

Tony was setting a consistent pace for the 4 hour group and we both stayed with him for about 10km when Greg pulled away.  I stayed with Tony until the half way point, where the course goes into a long descent down a closed section of the Red Valley Highway. The rain had eased off and the tailwind felt good as I flowed downhill, so I was careful not to get too carried away.

Around 30km the route becomes a flat out & back along the lakeshore. Another rain burst kept everybody wet, and I could feel the soles of my feet getting sore. The lack of recent long runs was starting to have an effect around now. It felt a lot harder being back on the flat, and when we turned towards the finish line the headwind was really tough.

Just after the 39 km marker I managed to catch up with Greg and we stuck together for the last portion of the race.  We were both hurting but determined to get finished in under 4 hours, but it was getting close and we knew Tony must be just behind us!

With a final kick down the finish chute I finished in 3 hrs 58m 50 s, just a second behind Greg, with Tony coming in at 4 hrs.