2013 Around The Bay

[tinyterror]

Women's shirt for the 30k is BRIGHT. Fluorescent pinky-orange with black sleeves and down the sides. My husband jumped when he saw it! And it does say "Older than Boston" on the back.

Looking forward to this in a perverse sort of way because I feel so unready, especially compared to last year. Should be interesting!

[AlfiefromPickering]

I am just travelling back to TO from Hamilton....I actually took the GO bus from Union Station as opposed to driving down there. I'll be driving on Sunday though. I picked up my kit this afternoon at the Kopps Koliseum. I'm glad my cold is almost over. So I hope to meet the maniacs at the 122 section on Sunday before and after the race ......

[chunkymonkeymelonhed]

Happy racing vibes to all Maniacs running ATB tomorrow.
Race happy and leave it all on the course. Looking forward to all the race reports.

[jonovision_man]

Well that was a hoot! Those hills are a tough slog but managed to best my old pb and do alright.

Nice shirt this year too, and medal.

Water stations were worse though, too many people... should have used both sides of the road.

Anyone get caught out by the train??? I could see it coming in the distance when I went by, heard it caused a problem!

[Double Bellybuster]

No train here.

I liked the corral systems and delayed start for walkers. A lot less passing and I ran 30.0K versus 30.2 in the past. Though I ran those years with a Garmin and now with a Timex so who knows if there is different calculation on turns, signals interruptions, etc.

Regardless the corrals system was great.

Rumour is they could have used at least one portapotty accessible to the A, B and C corrals.

[fingerboy]

Ran a 2:02:32. Pretty happy with it. I "went" for it at the beginning but didn't have enough to close the door. Still a 2.5min PB so that was good.

Checked out section 122 after but nobody there was wearing RM gear and I was getting some weird stares so I left. Sorry if I missed people.

[General_T]

Congrats on the 2:02 Finger boy, always nice to PB.

This was my first ATB and I was hoping for a 1:55 ish time but came in a little over at 1:56:30. Wasn't ready for those hills after the 20k mark. Tough course.

[KenJ]

This was my first ATB and I had a great time.

Corrals seem to work fine and the temps seem to be a bit better than I anticipated especially when the sun was out. Managed a good strong respectable pace but those hills after 20K were a real challenge. I crossed over the train tracks just as the signals went off but I understand many people were held up waiting for the train to pass.

Overall a fabulous day!!

Ken

[Annelizabeth]

Bought a bib of a male friend, now my husband has a new shirt but I really like the female version this year. Wasn't able to change it at pick up. Very sad.

[ngcaper]

Finished my 1st ATB...and enjoyed it, looks like a 2:41 chip time which is slower than my 2:30 goal. I enjoyed all but the new blister on my left foot (never use new socks on race day) and drive back to Ottawa which felt long

I was on pace through 22-23k, crossed the 1/2 marathon mark according to the garmin at 1:45:48 so was feeling good, then all rookie like I ran hard the first larger hill and just never recovered after that.

I have a few take away lessons, I was severely over dressed, Hamilton just felt like Spring compared to Ottawa, and I planned on Ottawa weather. I didn't eat any solid food, relied on shot bloks, where in training I eat bars, sandwiches etc and very few shot bloks so I was very hungry and a bit malnourished coming to the end, and again no new socks, I tried the Thorlo's padded ones, pretty comfy, but they blistered between my left big toe and ball of foot around 25k. Nothing that slowed me, didn't even noticed until I went to change afterwards, but I'm not cool with blisters so I won't use them for long runs anymore.

Great race though, and a pleasure to meet the RM'ers I did. I'm sure I'll forget some names, but I manage to meet Alfie, Robin, Lisa, Jess, Doonst, Andy, I want to say Nick Barker but think I messed that name, also very friendly gentlemen from the GTA by way of Holland who's name now escapes me. Sorry I missed you finger boy, but at your speed the rest of us were likely crossing the 1/2 way mark as you were wondering were we all were.

I'm happy to have my one and only planned road race this year out of the way, back to trails and hopefully having Strider put me through some pain. The misses mentioned last night she'd like to do the Strip at Night in LV in Nov, and since I'm there the week before for a conference there may be one more road race, but undecided on that.

@Robin the ITBS never flared once, not even a twinge, I'm not sure if it was the ProTec ITBS strap, or the fact its settled down for the year, but very happy with it anyway. Thanks for the encouragement to run through it before the race even started.

Per the train, my colleague, and travel buddy got stuck behind it. He met me in section 122 as I was talking to Lisa and when he said he had to wait for a train it just didn't register at first...I honestly had to say "you mean like choo choo train". Sounds like he lost anywhere from 3-5min which I felt bad as he had a sub 3:00 goal and came in at 3:00:23. That said he has a hilarious story to tell from now on, and its not like he was challenging for the win, so enjoy the story, it's pretty funny. You may forget the turns and the hills, but you won't forget the train.

[Robinandamelia]

Finished my 1st ATB...and enjoyed it, looks like a 2:41 chip time which is slower than my 2:30 goal. I enjoyed all but the new blister on my left foot (never use new socks on race day) and drive back to Ottawa which felt long

I was on pace through 22-23k, crossed the 1/2 marathon mark according to the garmin at 1:45:48 so was feeling good, then all rookie like I ran hard the first larger hill and just never recovered after that.

I have a few take away lessons, I was severely over dressed, Hamilton just felt like Spring compared to Ottawa, and I planned on Ottawa weather. I didn't eat any solid food, relied on shot bloks, where in training I eat bars, sandwiches etc and very few shot bloks so I was very hungry and a bit malnourished coming to the end, and again no new socks, I tried the Thorlo's padded ones, pretty comfy, but they blistered between my left big toe and ball of foot around 25k. Nothing that slowed me, didn't even noticed until I went to change afterwards, but I'm not cool with blisters so I won't use them for long runs anymore.

Great race though, and a pleasure to meet the RM'ers I did. I'm sure I'll forget some names, but I manage to meet Alfie, Robin, Lisa, Jess, Doonst, Andy, I want to say Nick Barker but think I messed that name, also very friendly gentlemen from the GTA by way of Holland who's name now escapes me. Sorry I missed you finger boy, but at your speed the rest of us were likely crossing the 1/2 way mark as you were wondering were we all were.

I'm happy to have my one and only planned road race this year out of the way, back to trails and hopefully having Strider put me through some pain. The misses mentioned last night she'd like to do the Strip at Night in LV in Nov, and since I'm there the week before for a conference there may be one more road race, but undecided on that.

@Robin the ITBS never flared once, not even a twinge, I'm not sure if it was the ProTec ITBS strap, or the fact its settled down for the year, but very happy with it anyway. Thanks for the encouragement to run through it before the race even started.

Per the train, my colleague, and travel buddy got stuck behind it. He met me in section 122 as I was talking to Lisa and when he said he had to wait for a train it just didn't register at first...I honestly had to say "you mean like choo choo train". Sounds like he lost anywhere from 3-5min which I felt bad as he had a sub 3:00 goal and came in at 3:00:23. That said he has a hilarious story to tell from now on, and its not like he was challenging for the win, so enjoy the story, it's pretty funny. You may forget the turns and the hills, but you won't forget the train.

Congrats on your first ATB, solid result. It's a good race to learn and experiment. Good news about the IT band as well.

[AjaxRunner]

This was my first ATB as well, but ran in a 3 person relay. Ran the first leg in 49:22, which is a PB for that distance or me. As a team we came in 20th overall, which includes my wife running an additional 0.6km after missing her relay partner.

Saw a couple of Maniacs, but didn't meet any.

Look forward to running the whole thing next year.

[HCcD]

Did you say, train? Around noon? I thought it was at around the 9K mark ??

New record set in Around the Bay road race
CBC News Posted: Mar 24, 2013 2:54 PM ET

Facing off against steep hills, chilly temperatures and even a train delay, over 12,000 people took part in the Around the Bay Road Race Sunday. Some even managed to set some race records while they were at it.

Lanni Marchant of London took first place in the women's 30 kilometre race and set a new course record with a time of 1:44:39. She bested Lioudmila Kortchaguina’s previous course record of 1:46:04 set in 2004. Krista Duchene of and Lisa Avery of Orillia placed second and third in the women's race, respectively.

The men's race wasn't a new record, but it was an exciting end as the first and second place runners reached a near photo finish. In the end, 23-year-old Terrence Attema of Guelph took the winner title with a time of 1:35:44. Just six seconds later, second-place winner Josphat Ongeri crossed the finish line, followed by third-place winner Lionel Sanders of Hamilton with a time of 1:36:53.

In the 5-km race, Around the Bay saw their largest turnout yet with almost 2,500 participants. Snagging top times were 24-year-old Peter Corrigan from Toronto and Chantelle Groenewoud from Guelph, also 24 years of age, with times of 14:41.5 and 17:02.9, respectively.

Around noon, the back end of runners got held up at the train crossing on Woodward Avenue near Walmer Road when a train passed by. The race has Canadian Pacific police on hand to ensure everyone stops safely, according to Race Director, Mike Zajczenko. It's happened before, most recently two years back, Zajczenko said, but didn't affect the top time runners.

"A lot of people are just happy for the break," he said.

After a few minutes they were able to cross and many chose to subtract the delay from their overall times.

The race raises funds for St. Joseph's Healthcare Foundation and, since 2005, has raised a total of $1.25 million. This year they're on track to add another $300,000 to that total.

.

http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/story/2013/03/24/hamilton-around-the-bay.html

[jonovision_man]

Overtrained.

[Ken B]

Did you say, train? Around noon? I thought it was at around the 9K mark ??


It was just before 10:30 - maybe 10:25. I was among the first runners stopped and we lost about five minutes. Re: the article - I did NOT appreciate the break!!

Ken ( the ticked off tortoise )

New record set in Around the Bay road race
CBC News Posted: Mar 24, 2013 2:54 PM ET

Facing off against steep hills, chilly temperatures and even a train delay, over 12,000 people took part in the Around the Bay Road Race Sunday. Some even managed to set some race records while they were at it.

Lanni Marchant of London took first place in the women's 30 kilometre race and set a new course record with a time of 1:44:39. She bested Lioudmila Kortchaguina’s previous course record of 1:46:04 set in 2004. Krista Duchene of and Lisa Avery of Orillia placed second and third in the women's race, respectively.

The men's race wasn't a new record, but it was an exciting end as the first and second place runners reached a near photo finish. In the end, 23-year-old Terrence Attema of Guelph took the winner title with a time of 1:35:44. Just six seconds later, second-place winner Josphat Ongeri crossed the finish line, followed by third-place winner Lionel Sanders of Hamilton with a time of 1:36:53.

In the 5-km race, Around the Bay saw their largest turnout yet with almost 2,500 participants. Snagging top times were 24-year-old Peter Corrigan from Toronto and Chantelle Groenewoud from Guelph, also 24 years of age, with times of 14:41.5 and 17:02.9, respectively.

Around noon, the back end of runners got held up at the train crossing on Woodward Avenue near Walmer Road when a train passed by. The race has Canadian Pacific police on hand to ensure everyone stops safely, according to Race Director, Mike Zajczenko. It's happened before, most recently two years back, Zajczenko said, but didn't affect the top time runners.

"A lot of people are just happy for the break," he said.

After a few minutes they were able to cross and many chose to subtract the delay from their overall times.

The race raises funds for St. Joseph's Healthcare Foundation and, since 2005, has raised a total of $1.25 million. This year they're on track to add another $300,000 to that total.

.

http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/story/2013/03/24/hamilton-around-the-bay.html

[ngcaper]

Overtrained.

Hehehehe...I'm going to use that with my colleague.

[La]

Around noon, the back end of runners got held up at the train crossing on Woodward Avenue near Walmer Road when a train passed by. The race has Canadian Pacific police on hand to ensure everyone stops safely, according to Race Director, Mike Zajczenko. It's happened before, most recently two years back, Zajczenko said, but didn't affect the top time runners.

"A lot of people are just happy for the break," he said.

After a few minutes they were able to cross and many chose to subtract the delay from their overall times.

Huh? Happy for the break? "Chose" to subtract the delay from their overall times? He makes it sound as if the "back end of runners" don't care about official times the way the "top time runners" would. Odd.

In other races I've been in (former PowerBar 10-miler and K-Town Tri, both with lift bridges that can't be controlled or scheduled), the race actually has an official on-site to record bib numbers and THEY take care of adjusting people's times officially.

Obviously, the race can't do anything about the train crossing, but they certainly CAN do something about ensuring that people get accurate times if it happens!

[HCcD]

The corral system implemented this year will likely be revamped a bit ... apparently, from what I heard, some of those who initially were confirmed to be in the Corral (i.e. C) were placed in the Open Corral, subsequently, and some who may not have sent a request for Corral seating, but had a faster qualifying time entered in their registration, did get placed in the corral, as it turned out ...

From what I heard, they were pretty strict on allowing ONLY the runners with their respective Corral Bibs to enter ... and, in some cases, they even tried to prevent a higher corral bib-start (B) to drop down to (C), as the person wanted to run with a friend ... after a few dialogues between the runner and the Nazi Corral Volunteer, he did eventually let her go down a corral ...

I ended up starting at the front of the Open Corral and it took about 2:20 to cross the start line, but about 5-6K of zig zagging past the runners ahead of me, before finally getting some daylight and finding my rythm ...

I can see them tweeking with the corral and qualifying requirements next year ... I did see the 2:30:xx pace bunny in the back or Corral C and I was in front of the 2:45 and 3:00 bunny in the open corral, with a very, very small degree of separation, so should be interesting next year on the changes, if any that are made ...

[tinyterror]

Around noon, the back end of runners got held up at the train crossing on Woodward Avenue near Walmer Road when a train passed by. The race has Canadian Pacific police on hand to ensure everyone stops safely, according to Race Director, Mike Zajczenko. It's happened before, most recently two years back, Zajczenko said, but didn't affect the top time runners.

"A lot of people are just happy for the break," he said.

After a few minutes they were able to cross and many chose to subtract the delay from their overall times.

Huh? Happy for the break? "Chose" to subtract the delay from their overall times? He makes it sound as if the "back end of runners" don't care about official times the way the "top time runners" would. Odd.

In other races I've been in (former PowerBar 10-miler and K-Town Tri, both with lift bridges that can't be controlled or scheduled), the race actually has an official on-site to record bib numbers and THEY take care of adjusting people's times officially.

Obviously, the race can't do anything about the train crossing, but they certainly CAN do something about ensuring that people get accurate times if it happens!

I found this quote pretty dismissive too. No, I'm hardly in line for a "top finish", but my time is important to me, and I slow down when I'm ready (which was not 8-ish km in this case). It was fairly disruptive in terms of finding your stride in the chaos again once we were able to start moving. I do realize they can't do anything about the trains (or lift bridge) but it would be nice to see some kind of acknowledgement other than assuming we're happy to take a break

Other than this though, I'm pretty happy with this event. If I do it again though, I will be sure to train properly

[jonovision_man]

Around noon, the back end of runners got held up at the train crossing on Woodward Avenue near Walmer Road when a train passed by. The race has Canadian Pacific police on hand to ensure everyone stops safely, according to Race Director, Mike Zajczenko. It's happened before, most recently two years back, Zajczenko said, but didn't affect the top time runners.

"A lot of people are just happy for the break," he said.

After a few minutes they were able to cross and many chose to subtract the delay from their overall times.

Huh? Happy for the break? "Chose" to subtract the delay from their overall times? He makes it sound as if the "back end of runners" don't care about official times the way the "top time runners" would. Odd.

In other races I've been in (former PowerBar 10-miler and K-Town Tri, both with lift bridges that can't be controlled or scheduled), the race actually has an official on-site to record bib numbers and THEY take care of adjusting people's times officially.

Obviously, the race can't do anything about the train crossing, but they certainly CAN do something about ensuring that people get accurate times if it happens!

Accurate... Not really! 30k continuous vs 30k with a break = not the same. How would they know who got the break vs not?

jono

[cbaker1]

I guess when a race is popular enough to sell out a few months in advance has issues, they don't worry about their comments pissing off the average runner.

Its not the first race I have seen a RD that "tries" to turn a negative event into something positive and fails.

[HCcD]

I guess when a race is popular enough to sell out a few months in advance has issues, they don't worry about their comments pissing off the average runner.

Its not the first race I have seen a RD that "tries" to turn a negative event into something positive and fails.

Is it groundhog day again? Sounds similar to the same pros/cons as the decision for the cancellation of the early start for walkers, etc ... It's the RD's prerogative ....

If I recall, Vancouver Marathon, last year, had this possibility with a mat just before and after the train tracks, along with volunteers taking down bib numbers of those affected ....

[La]

Around noon, the back end of runners got held up at the train crossing on Woodward Avenue near Walmer Road when a train passed by. The race has Canadian Pacific police on hand to ensure everyone stops safely, according to Race Director, Mike Zajczenko. It's happened before, most recently two years back, Zajczenko said, but didn't affect the top time runners.

"A lot of people are just happy for the break," he said.

After a few minutes they were able to cross and many chose to subtract the delay from their overall times.

Huh? Happy for the break? "Chose" to subtract the delay from their overall times? He makes it sound as if the "back end of runners" don't care about official times the way the "top time runners" would. Odd.

In other races I've been in (former PowerBar 10-miler and K-Town Tri, both with lift bridges that can't be controlled or scheduled), the race actually has an official on-site to record bib numbers and THEY take care of adjusting people's times officially.

Obviously, the race can't do anything about the train crossing, but they certainly CAN do something about ensuring that people get accurate times if it happens!

Accurate... Not really! 30k continuous vs 30k with a break = not the same. How would they know who got the break vs not?

Although it would be a cost to them, they could do it by having timing mats a sufficient distance before (i.e., in an area large enough to contain the number of people expected to be affected by a train), and then immediately after, the tracks.

No system is going to be 100% accurate, but some system is better than nothing!

[Jwolf]

Around noon, the back end of runners got held up at the train crossing on Woodward Avenue near Walmer Road when a train passed by. The race has Canadian Pacific police on hand to ensure everyone stops safely, according to Race Director, Mike Zajczenko. It's happened before, most recently two years back, Zajczenko said, but didn't affect the top time runners.

"A lot of people are just happy for the break," he said.

After a few minutes they were able to cross and many chose to subtract the delay from their overall times.

Huh? Happy for the break? "Chose" to subtract the delay from their overall times? He makes it sound as if the "back end of runners" don't care about official times the way the "top time runners" would. Odd.

In other races I've been in (former PowerBar 10-miler and K-Town Tri, both with lift bridges that can't be controlled or scheduled), the race actually has an official on-site to record bib numbers and THEY take care of adjusting people's times officially.

Obviously, the race can't do anything about the train crossing, but they certainly CAN do something about ensuring that people get accurate times if it happens!

Accurate... Not really! 30k continuous vs 30k with a break = not the same. How would they know who got the break vs not?

Although it would be a cost to them, they could do it by having timing mats a sufficient distance before (i.e., in an area large enough to contain the number of people expected to be affected by a train), and then immediately after, the tracks.

No system is going to be 100% accurate, but some system is better than nothing!

This is not uncommon in city races.
In Portland the marathon goes over train tracks and often it's the 3-3:30 marathoners that get stopped. They don't have a timing mat but they have someone checking numbers and adjusting times. Vancouver uses timing mats to adjust for a traffic stop at a busy intersection.

These are official adjustments and people can use times for things for Boston qualifying, etc.

[purdy65]

It might also be a BIT more important for a marathon that has BQ implications. Didn't they adjust a bunch of people's times in Hamilton a couple of years ago?

I didn't realize this happened in this race only a few years ago. I kept saying how I've NEVER heard of this happening at ATB. I'm guessing I just missed it, because I heard it - and actually wondered where it was coming from.

I wonder if they get train schedules?