Event and Race Reviews This is a growing collection of Race and Event Reviews. All of these reviews were written by our members and represent each author's experiences and opinions only. Back to Events Listing
Chilly Half Marathon
(Burlington, Ontario)
Author: kmiklos
Date: 2007-03-05
I'm taking part of my race report and post it here, since it has a race review format. Please feel free to comment. For some people this race went smoother than for others; here's my take on it.
Water stations (**1/2 out of 5): I was counting on what the RD announced (her exact words were "we have 6 water & gatorade stations, one every 3 kms") and I believed her. But it turned out it was not quite like that. The first one was way past the 3 km mark and the last one around 19km, which pretty much did me in. By then I was slightly dehydrated and my left hamstring was threatening to seize up any minute, so I was running rather gingerly on the last 3-4 kms. Mid-course I also had problems at one water station where I was waiting around for volunteers to fill me a cup of gatorade. I kinda ticked me.
Course (**** out of 5) I love the course of this race. It is a very fast course, mostly flat. All the PBs achieved there yesterday are a proof of that. Run this puppy in a shiny +4 degrees/no wind and you're running in heaven!
Traffic control and volunteers (*** out of 5) Like many, I was more than annoyed with the one-lane road closures! That stretch on Brant St was a disaster with only one lane reserved for a huge crowd, while traffic in the opposing lane was pretending to move. Helll-lo, Burlington!! Surely there must be another friggin north-south route besides Brant St in the downtown core! And Lakeshore? What was up with that? Twice I saw cars make left turns onto side-streets cutting through the crowd in front of me. Shocked I also found that some of the water stations were understaffed. I will give kudos to the volunteers for being out there on a cold day like that. They worked hard and kudos to the cheering girls at some of the intersections! Let me quote Borat: nice!
Race kit (**** out of 5) A long sleeve tech shirt is a welcome change from the usual tech t-shirt. The bag is a nice touch, too. I was very glad to see there were no brochures and other litter in the race kit! Last year was a let-down for me, but this year I finally got the long sleeve tech shirt I was promised.
Venue and post-race food (**1/2 out of 5)
Tim's is always a nice sponsor to have, I should give 'em 4 stars out of 5. Coffee after a race is a godsend, especially in the winter and so is the chilli. The cookies, juice, water and fruit were all great, Scotiabank could take notes. But the venue is terrible! (1 star out of 5). There's gotta be something bigger, less stinky and warmer to offer to people who shelled out $50+ to run a race in the winter! The hotel lobby is just too small for all those people and the tent is too cold. I was chilled to the core yesterday and hot coffee, chilli and the soup at the pub didn't manage to warm me up.
This race is having some growing problems that make me wonder whether I'll run it again next year. It could be an awesome race if they found a better venue, fixed the serious safety issues with road closures/traffic control and found a few more volunteers or organized them better at bag check and water stations, intersections. Author: A1Runner
Date: 2006-03-30
This race gets 5 stars and more! Kelly and Co. do a first class job! They go well beyond expectations of a great time! They are the benchmark, raising the level each year to remain # 1. Keep up the excellent race! No one can complain about this event. Trust me, if I could find a flaw I would make mention of such. Author: dgrant
Date: 2006-03-06
Here's my 2 cents (based on the 2006 event):
PROS:
- the start area is easy to access, and I found free parking close and easily.
- good aid stations and volunteers
- a very, very, very flat course
- course was clearly marked
- one of the best medals I've ever received
CONS:
- yikes! not enough on-course portapotties. doesn't matter if you don't need it, but if you do... this was a major problem
- traffic control was not great. they did have police at the major intersections, but because much of the course is through residential neighbourhoods, I saw many instances of cars trying to cut across the course to get into / out of driveways.
- 2000+ runners is way too many for a course that's 4 ft wide for most of the race. they need to at least close one full lane on Lakeshore, not just the shoulder. there was more than one occassion where a car buzzed past within 6 inches of my elbow.
Overall, I would recommend this race, but I'd recommend it even more if they'd bump up certain aspects to accomodate the ever-growing field. Author: kzod
Date: 2005-11-07
This years race was my 2nd half marathon, and I thought that it was just about perfect.
The only negatives were unpredictable weather, it was actually a perfect day, and I was dressed for the predicted blizzard.
Getting to the start: Free parking for most early runners just across the street from the start. This was very convenient, especially for those of us who made the trek in for Toronto (50 minutes). Picked up the race kit, chip relatively quickly. There were a lot of us there, but they moved through us effieciently. They had huge maps of the race course and lots of information available.Grade: A
The course: The course wound it's way aroiund the starting line for the 1st 7-8k or so, before heading out east, with a return back on the lakeshore. Lots of wind on the way back, but the course was as good as you could ask for. Decent crowd support with some people lounging outside their homes cheering us on, which was unexpected in the winter. Aid stations were all good. Lots of pace bunnies, I started off running with the 2:10 guy, but after 5k when he saw we were maybe a minute off target, he really increased the pace and I let him go, knowing that my garmin said I was close. I lost sight of him for some time, only catching back up by 16k when he slowed back down significantly. This is noones fault, just a reminder to trust yourself over pace bunnies! Grade: B+
Finish line: Ummm, as I said it was very hot, and I was running in my jacket. Most runners had tied theirs around their waists. But, I never did that before and didn't want to try something new on race day. That mistake led to cramping and I slowed down significantly over the last mile. I jogged across the finish line, and then put my foot up on a stool for them to cut-off the timing chip, lost my balance and almost fell backwards! When I walked away from that though, my left hip seized and cramped on me. I was in agony! I barely managed to walk 6 feet over to the side of the road where a nice snow bank was waiting for me. I collapsed immediately, and could not move. Some nice people offered some help and got the attention of the ambulance crew who were just 10 feet away. I was eventually helped up and into the ambulance. Where they took my vitals and ensured I wasn't going to die. After 10 minutes I was fine, and was let on my way with a promise that I wouldn't try driving back home for an hour after I ate and drank plentifully. And thats what I did. It was late by the time I got to the tent, but lots of Chilli left over, even if I had to extract the mushrooms myself. Great spread. Grade : A++++ and thanks again to the great support staff.
Overall: Great race. Kelly from vrpro.ca does a great job with all of her races. If I could justify to my wife driving an hour each way to do even the shorter 5k races, I'd do those 2. She's very active on the RR board and really listens to what runners have to say. And she humors me when I insist that all finishers should receive a box of timbits at the finish line. ALthough I still insist that the timbits would make for grreat schwagg and attract a lot of extra publicity for them. Grade: A+
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