Sunday was a great day for a run, and an even better day for a marathon. Starting with the temperature around 9 degrees and a partially overcast later parting way for calm and sunny morning. 

Being well rested in the morning I woke up, had breakfast and warmed up on my run to the starting line. Having not run all week except for the 6 miles Saturday morning I was a bit hesitant on how my performance will be. The week before I was having a little too much fun running trails around High Park and tweaked my left knee a bit. 

This was the first marathon that I did not travel to which made it feel almost as if it wasn’t real - strange I know.

The turn out was fantastic even at 7am the course was lined with people cheering the full and half marathoners on. All of the volunteers at the stations were always on top of their game  and the police were keeping the traffic off the course. 

I ran my personal best with a chip time of 3:33:46.4 that is ~ 13 minutes faster than my previous PB in Ottawa earlier this year! If you knew anyone who ran or want to check out some of the results make sure you get over to Sports Stats results page.

This was the first time my parents came out and saw me run (thanks for the pictures!)

The Globe and Mail also did a article on the top finishers of the race.

I think I might need to start doing some sort of action at the finish line… even waving your hands in the air seems more entertaining than just finishing the race. What are your thoughts what should I do from now on when I cross the finish line?

Watch live streaming video from canadarunningseriestv at livestream.com

Whilst getting some last minute race into right now I found that live coverage of the Waterfront Marathon will be streamed online starting at 7:10. Everyone should check it out. The video player is above however the stream with live chat is available at Canada Running Series TV.

After my morning run I went and picked up my race kit for the Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon which is happining tomorrow AM in Toronto. Marathoners and 1/2’s are starting at 7:30 tomorrow all other racers can check the schedule for further information. The expo was well organized and the pick up was seamless. Definitely got me excited for tomorrow. The expo had some good set ups as well as some typical ‘fitness expo’ we make running easier kind of booths but The Runners Shop had a booth as well as The Running Room.

If you are still not familiar with the course map a PDF version is available for download as well as the site has an interactive map set up as well.

It’s a strange feeling, up to Scotiabank, this is the first marathon that I will not have to fly to or at least a few hour drive. My body is almost not cluing in that I’m running since there has been no travel. 

Who else is running tomorrow? See y’allz out there bright and early! If you see me running about stop me and say “Hi”, we can even run a few miles together!

I pretty much have it down pat but what do you usually eat the night before a big race?

I just registered for both Toronto Marathons this fall. The Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon and the Goodlife Fitness Marathon. Two marathons in 3 weeks seems like a lot but I ran the Ottawa marathon and than the Niagara Ultra 50km which was 3 weeks apart so I think I should be good, lets just hope that I keep up my training. 

Originally I wanted to be able to do both Toronto Marathons because there was serious talk about cancelling one of the marathons because there had been too much public complaint of road closers in the Toronto core. Serious, with all the talk about our race becoming overweight traffic congestion and drivers should never have the ability to prevent an an athletic event, especially one like running and marathons, they draw huge numbers into the city and give people goals to aim towards athletically, whether it is a 5km foot race or a ultra I feel the promotion of any physical activity should prevail. That is just my thought though. 

Anyways here are some pictures and my results from the Niagara Ultra and Ottawa Race Weekend that I hadn’t had time to upload until now.

Ottawa Race Weekend 

At Ottawa Race Weekend the following is what I was doing:

Niagara Ultra

At the Niagara 50km I ran the following:

 46 184 Jordan Shaw 4:58:00 LM-39 14/28 38 5:58 4:57:43 Toronto