Here's a quick breakdown of my experience with the Nike Women's Toronto 15km race on June 14th: 5:00am first alarm 5:05am second alarm 5:15 coffee and oatmeal and fruit and whatever else I can cram in despite a bit of pre-race nerves 5:45am holy shit where is my Uber cab! 5:46am oh there it is, life is good, I'll be on time for my assigned ferry to the island 6:16am everybody on board! Ferry loaded up to the max and left 4 minutes ahead of schedule 6:30 rain, clouds, chills (thank you Nike for the pre-race heat blankets!) 6:35am - 9:14am grab another coffee, wander around Centre island, nap on a bench, people watch, nap, break my headphones 9:15am get in start corrals 9:45am start time for the 3rd corral (my corral) 9:49am that was a FAST first 1km, should I slow down? No. I feel great. 10:30am ummm this is going REALLY WELL, I should keep pushing it and see what I can do. 10:52am 2km left, that's easy. Let's bump up the pace some more and kill it in the home stretch! 11:02am cross the finish line and feel the wave of euphoria as I realized that I crushed my race day goals and expectations!
@heathrow13 Anything for you. Now, time to dominate 15K. The start line awaits.
— Run Nike Women (@runnikewomen) June 14, 2015
Who would have thought that long waits and dreary skies would make for a killer race time. I'm very happy with this race, it was proved to me that all the hard work and consistency of my running through the winter and spring was worth it. All of that training (and dreaded High Park hill repeats) cumulated in a fast and powerful race for me. A sub-1:20 finish time of 1:18:12 was a big and rewarding surprise. Other than the long wait time once we were on the island, I loved this race. I thought it was a great course, not that challenging but fast. Very fast and very fun. Who doesn't love running on an airport runway while planes are taking off and landing one runway over. Very cool Nike, very cool.
