Niagara Falls 10K and a bloggy meet-up!

Yesterday hubs and I were up early and on the road at 5AM for the 2-hour drive to Niagara Falls where he was running a 10K as part of International Marathon Weekend. Lucky for me, hubs drove and let me snooze most of the way there. :)

We arrived nice and early, found some free parking in a suspicious-looking grass field and made our way to race kit pick-up. Unfortunately they were all out of goodie bags, but hubs was able to pick up his bib, chip and shirt without issue. He had planned to run an extra 10K before the race, so I loaded my backpack with his extra stuff (my turn to play sherpa), sent him on his way and made the 10-15 minute walk toward the host hotel.

After texting back and forth with Anne along the way, we found each other easily outside the hotel where she and her hubby were waiting for shuttles to the half and full marathon starts. It was soooo nice to meet Anne (and her hubby) - she is just as sweet in person as I expected! Unfortunately we had limited time, but we chatted away for as long as we could. I'm so glad we had the opportunity to meet!

Before long, I knew I had to get back to the 10K start line, so we said goodbye (for now!) and I wished Anne good luck. I asked her to text me after her race and I was so excited to find out later that it went great! Make sure you stop by Anne's blog for more pics and her race report!

I made my way back and found hubs just as he was finishing his warm-up. We quickly got him ready with his bib and chip and I saw him off at the start line.

(that's hubs in red near the middle, but his face is chopped off - oops!)

The route was a straight out-and-back so I wasn't able to go out on the course. I grabbed a spot at the finish line and waited. Of course, I didn't have to wait long!

Hubs decided to forgo a PR attempt and treated the race as a "glorified tempo run". He ended up finishing in 7th place overall (445 finishers) with a time of 42:13. Definite success! He said it was quite a different experience running so close to the front of the pack.

The course is a straight out-and-back along the Niagara River with the big finish at the horseshoe falls (same finish line as the half/full marathon). Hubs enjoyed it overall and plans to return next year.

Taking the scenic route back to the car: