Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Around the Bay - Spectator's Perspective

The 115th (Older Than Boston) Around the Bay Road Race took place on Sunday. This marks the second year in a row that I have registered and backed out due to injury (ITBS last year, shoulder separation this year). I have to admit - when I saw the forecast of heavy rain and winds, I wasn't too disappointed not to be participating this time around. But I do hope this race is in the cards for me next year.

We were up early and carpooled into Hamilton with some friends. It was overcast when we left the house, started sprinkling along the way and raining by the time we arrived. We met up with Sarah and her hubby at Copps Coliseum and stayed inside together as long as possible before heading toward the start.

I was excited to run into Mel who was anxious-excited-nervous about her first 30K. Hubby snapped a quick pic of Mel and I before we wished her good luck and sent her on her way.



If you haven't already, make sure you check out Mel's "Coming up from behind" race report - she did awesome!

At this point, it was really raining and I don't think any of the runners were particularly looking forward to the long, cold, wet and windy 30K ahead.... except maybe my husband. He loves this stuff.

Mark had offered to pace our friend Patricia who is running Boston next month, targeting a 2:30 finish. Colin (Sarah's hubby) was running his first 30K and hoping for something around 3:00.

We saw them off at the start and managed to pick them out in the hoards of runners as they passed. Here's a quick shot a snapped at the start.



(Our friends and husbands are in there somewhere, probably about 3000 runners behind these guys!)

We scurried back inside Copps to grab a hot drink and find some great seats in the front row where we could watch the finish. Here's a look at the set-up inside the coliseum. The screens aired footage from the street so we could watch for the runners before they entered the finishing chute.



We got comfortable and enjoyed watching the 5K finishers come in, which definitely helped pass the time. We even got to witness a proposal at the 5K finish line - how cute is this? Kind of hard to see, but the banner says "Melissa, will you marry me?"



(She said yes!)

It wasn't long before the 30K winner came in with an incredible time of 1:35:29.



Hubby and Patricia came in right on target at 2:30 (unfortunately Mark's chip didn't register at the finish line so he has splits through to 20K but no official finish time - kind of frustrating!). We were amazed at how well they did with the conditions. They were literally soaked through, head to toe... but still smiling.



It wasn't much longer before Colin finished strong, also on target for his 3:00 goal. Very impressive for his first 30K in some crap weather on a challenging course.

To hear more about the event, check out Yumke, Sonia and Vava's race reports.

Congratulations to all!

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fun race report and congrats to your hubby!

Lily on the Road said...

They are speedy speedster's!! Congratulations!!!

Nice that you could wait indoors, that was one rainy, wet, cold day.

tfh said...

Great spectator report -- love the photos!

Mel-2nd Chances said...

LOL -- thanks!! Glad we got a pic, even if my hair is already starting to frizz at this point due to the rain! I was wondering what happened to his finish; awesome that all 3 had a great race! :)

Mel-2nd Chances said...

oh ya, and 3rd time's a charm right? I have no doubt that you will kick some serious a$$ in this race next year! and hopefully the weather will be better!

Unknown said...

awesomely fast times... rain or no rain.

Chic Runner said...

love all the pictures and how cool that the finish was in the collusium. :) I'm jealous!

Heather said...

sounds like a fun race to watch - especially being able to be in side out of the rain!

Mark said...

Wow, that looks like such a cool race! Congrats to your Hubby on his great race! That's a bummer about his chip giving out.

Aron said...

i love spectating!! it always gets me all fired up for running :) great report!

Marci said...

Great spectator report. Congrats to your friend and your hubby, great time! I enjoyed the spectating too!

joyRuN said...

So awesome of your hub to pace - glad he enjoyed those conditions :)

teacherwoman said...

First, that proposal is the coolest idea ever! I could only wish for a proposal of the likes!

The finish reminds me of the Fargo Marathon finish. You run into the Fargodome, and the jumbotrons are showing the people coming in and annouce their names!

Congrats to your hubby! It's takes a tough cookie to enjoy such race conditions!

Unknown said...

I like your report as a spectator. And great pics. Thanks for sharing!

Denise said...

That's cool that they finished in the coliseum! And nice blogger meet up!

Katie said...

Sounds like a great race -- I'm sure you'll get to do it next year!

Oh, and the proposal? Totally cute! :-)

littlesack said...

uck. horrible weather. for my last half, my ten mile run was in weather like this and I couldn't wear my ipod cus of the rain. I sang 99 bottles of beer like 100 million times over.

ps- how long in miles is a 30k?

yumke said...

It's nice and cozy to wait for the runners at copps huh? Your hubby is pretty fast!

(and for commenter above this one, 30K is 18.6 miles)

Brian said...

Thats awesome you met up with Mel, and a really good race report from the spectators point of view! I love how it finishes in a stadium, so cool

Vava said...

Amazing that you were able to come and cheer on your friends and all the runners. I hope that next year you can run ATB healthy and happy and have a great time in the process. Also, thanks for linking my race report on your post!

Marcy said...

GREAT report chica! What a cute way for a dude to propose hehe

Unknown said...

Terrific report !!! It's nice to hear from a spectator's point of view. I do hope you can rock in this one next year. Congrats to your hubby on his run. I am not sure if I like the idea of running a long race in cold and rainy weather. I just don't know how these runners can do it. Amazing!

Jess said...

Congrats to your hubby on such a great race!

X-Country2 said...

Congrat to everyone on a great race. How cool that they set it up like that for people to watch.

Sonia said...

Next year is going to be your turn for sure!! This is the best race... I do prefer when it isn't as wet though! LOL I was also happy to 'only' be doing the 15K and not the full 30K.

I wish I had thought earlier to give you the section me and my friends were at... for next year: 122!!

Also, Congrats to your friend and hubby, he did a great job as a pacer =)

Lindsay said...

great spectator-report. sounds like you got the better end of the deal staying dry and warm :) congrats to the hubs and friends!

I Run for Fun said...

Awesome report! It's always nice to read a report from a spectator. Congrats to your husband.

I would have liked to be proposed to, that way!

Nikemom said...

That would be cool to run into a coliseum like that! At the Lincoln Marathon we run right by the football stadium, which is kinda cool?!? Tell the hubs GOOD JOB! :D