Warning: I love the Toronto Yonge Street 10km race wholeheartedly. The following review is full of butterflies, rainbows, glitter, kittens and all things happy. You've been warned, you may proceed.
This is the second year I have participated in the TYS10k. Both years I have won my entry through the Canada Running Series facebook promotion: 12 days of inspiration that always happens prior to Christmas in early December in which different reasons or prompts or questions are presented and each day a free entry into the TYS10k specifically is given away. This is genius marketing and whomever came up with it deserves a pat on the back. I don't say this just because I didn't have to pay for entry two years running (pardon the pun) BUT due to the fact that two years in a row I have, as a result of winning free entry, chosen to pay for a friend to participate and ended up attending the race with another paying friend. Also not to mention to enormous impact social media has alone. Who doesn't love a good contest?
Last year I paid for my mother to participate in the walk category as she is a competitive walker. Never call her this, as you won't hear her admit it, but she knows that's what she is. It was such a blessing to spend those 10km together and see her in action. My mom is a powerhouse. Did I mention she completed 10km walking faster than some people ran it? (1:17:56) She passed many runners and I giggled the whole time. I can't maintain her walk pace, it's ridiculous and I have to run in order to keep pace with her. I do NOT have the proper muscles developed to walk her pace. We also made a fun girls weekend of it with my best friends Andrea (she ran the 10k!) and Ashley and their mom Merrilyn. We did some shopping and had a fun hotel stay!
So this year, much the same, I won entry and then decided what a great idea for my friend and colleague for a birthday gift to pay for her entry and make a girls weekend of it again with 2 of our other colleagues (one runner, one non).
We packed up and hit the road just after lunch Saturday. We were all very excited to get away together as our work atmosphere can be busy and on the go and we don't get the opportunity to sit and chat and enjoy one another's company. Plus, we are all much closer than just colleagues, we are friends!
We got to the Sheraton around 4pm, checked into our room and then headed down for packet pick up. Well, I directed everyone down downstairs with the assumption that it was in the same place as last year. This was the point the girls should have realized I am not to be trusted with the directions! After following the "ask me" shirts advice we realized it was now upstairs on the second floor. As pick up had less than an hour left it was quite vacant. I worked my charm on the running room lady who was spinning the wheel, much like last year when despite where the wheel landed I ended up with the free hat (see above photo) and this year I ended up with the free socks! score.
The swag was good. I like with this race you get an addition hard goods as well as the race shirt. Last year the options included a second T-shirt, a hat or sunglasses. This year the second shirt option was removed and likely for the best as I got them both last year and haven't worn either much. This year I chose the sunglasses (as I have a few nice hats) and was a little disappointed that the so-called "neon" sunglasses were navy blue and we were given no choice of colour.
Also in the swag bag included some magazines, juice box, some apple sauce and really nice sunscreen.
My eye was caught by the Shoppers women series race booth at the expo as they had a plinko board and who doesn't love plinko? I played and won $5 off a race. As I didn't have the desire to sign up for one right then and there (though I certainly love the idea of women's races and would love to do one at some point) she gave me the free bracelet you could also win. In fact she gave one to all 4 of us and now we have beautiful matching friendship bracelets!
We did some Saturday evening shopping in the Eaton centre, some smoothie drinking to tide us over for a later dinner and finally a wonderful carb load at the Old Spaghetti Factory. I've never been and I loved it. Also notable the amount of walking we did Saturday. whew! I love the city for it's accessible walking, not so much the driving.
We even got the waiter to bring cake and sing as this weekend was a birthday gift to Lisa (left) from December and it's Kate's birthday next weekend! Neither of these two much enjoyed the attention. I don't know why.
Race day!
It was an adventure to say the least! As the weather wasn't too promising looking, Flat Amelia got an upgrade from short sleeve to long sleeved. I had to wear my super cool new tights though. Patterned with pockets!! PERFECT.
Also 3D Amelia tends to be too easy going according to others who trusted me to know everything there is to know. I knew we could take the Yonge bus to the start so we wandered outside to the bus stop. My theory is, follow the other runners and you're bound to get there! Well we waited at a bus stop for some time (with other runners!) before someone mentioned that this portion of the street must already be closed for the race. So we scooted along a few blocks up, and picked up a bus. Which went right by the hotel...not our brightest moment.
Thankfully the bus driver sensed we weren't city girls and nicely stated over the loud speaker when the runners needed to get off. We had a bit of a walk but again, I just followed the runners and made it to the start line with only 15 minutes to spare. Well our great idea to check a bag went not so great when we figured out the baggage vehicle had already left so we tied sweaters around waists and donated track pants to the clothing bin often found at the beginning of races. Anyone else notice that these bins often have quite the expensive clothing in them? I've been surprised before. With moments to spare we were off and running with the first (red) corral.
I love the course the Yonge St 10K takes. It is predominantly downhill which just makes me feel like I am flying. Also there is so much to look at going down Yonge. With the varying store fronts and establishments for the first 7km and the views of the Rogers Centre, CN Tower and the different bridges and Garrison Park you are never short on something to look at. I love that they have different bands and musicians along the course and though I run with headphones in and music loud I make a point of taking them out and dancing a little as I pass the musicians. It's a thank-you for giving their talent to support our running!
It's such a neat experience to run down the middle of a major artery of the city, surrounded by throngs of people. I felt sort of like I was in that commercial that freaks me out for the PanAm games (the music is creepy). I love the atmosphere involved when running in these larger city races. It's people watching at it's finest and I am always intrigued by each runners unique style and gait. I also get a few good giggles out of those unique souls that embrace their uniqueness and let it shine.
The wind was cold but it wasn't too unbearable. Eventually I warmed up and was quite hot near the end of the race. My watch started to act up from skyscrapers I assume so I lost knowledge of the pacing Lisa and I were keeping but had a feeling from the time check at the km markers that we were maintaining sub 5min/km which was my main goal. I wanted to be able to run the race with Lisa because it was her birthday gift and Lisa and I run a lot together though we've never run a race together. So I was excited to share the joy and emotion with her. I was pointing out funny sights and making my form of sign language comments (because my music was loud) until she took the fun out of that by getting focused on the run. Pfft. Overall I felt so strong and happy the entire race. Usually I feel more pain coupled with some misery as a result but not this one. It left me feeling so capable and in a wonderfully positive mind set heading into this new running season. Stay tuned for some goals to the crushed!
As we approached the finish Lisa told me to take off as she knows I like to give a final strong kick but I said no, grabbed her hand, and we ran in, arms raised, in tandem across the finish line with identical times of 49:22
Also a fun bonus as we came through the finishers chute, who was standing there but Eric Gillis. We fan-girled a little and the more confident Lisa asked Eric for a picture.
Lisa asked Eric how the race went and casually he mentioned, "oh, I won". No big deal. Seriously though, in what other sport can you compete in the same events with the professional, olympic athletes? I can't think of any other. We also fan-girled in the after race area at the sights of other elites including Sami Jabril, Tarah Korir, Lioudmila Kortchaguina and though we couldn't find her we were on the hunt for Lanni Marchant who won the event for the women.
I went through the food line for the first time and was pleasantly surprised among the regular options of bananas, yogurts and bagel like bread things to find COOKIES. I ate three. I also was pleased as punch with my new pants as I am not embarrassed to say I filled the pockets with food. I am also not embarrassed that I ended up with clashing patterns as I did not anticipate these pants when I packed for the weekend and brought a patterned sweater as well. I was so cold that I wasn't concerned with the clash.
We went back to the finish line trying to catch Lori on her way in but somehow missed her. It just meant we got to go through the food line again (yes!) and get our picture together with the signage.
Overall it was a great weekend away with friends. The swag is great, the atmosphere is great, the course is great. I have nothing negative to say about this race and you can likely anticipate another blog post one year from now retelling the events of the 2016 race.
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