Kit pickup and customs clearance happened on Saturday morning. Two friends and I decided to head down early Saturday morning to miss traffic and to avoid making a long day out of it. We met in Pickering and made it to Niagara Falls in under an hour and a half. After finding our way to the expo, we lined up to clear customs where we received a stamp (bingo dabber) on the back of our hands...Was this our ticket to get across the border? The rest of the expo was quite small. We spun the wheel of coupons, checked out the deals on last year's trainers, got our free box of cereal and then we were on our way home. Total impact on our day: 6 hours.
Sunday started with drizzle. Looking out my window, it was dark, dreary and rainy. Add to this that it was also 5 am...arghh. We met and drove from Pickering at 5:30. With no stops, we made it to the host hotel for just after 7 am to be loaded on the bus to Buffalo. As we boarded the bus with our Tim's or Starbuck's in hand we were greeted by a man saying "You must have valid ID to get over the border to get on this bus, DO NOT get on this bus without ID, the whole bus could be rejected if you don't have the proper ID." We all had the proper ID, we had been told repeatedly to bring it. With the bus full we left for the border and Buffalo. At the border the customs official came onto the bus to ask everyone's nationality and to see our ID. It was at this point that a woman in the fifth row showed her bingo stamp from the day before! She believed that this would be sufficient and was then escorted off the bus to clear customs. Our bus was then parked in holding and told to wait for this woman. After what seemed like forever (actually about 40 min), our bus and two others were convoyed together and given a Police escort with sirens blaring all the way to the start line. It was worth the wait and the price of admission just for this high speed, presidential type experience.
We arrived at the museum where the marathon was to start with 45 minutes to go before the gun. It was plenty of time to use the facilities and change into our race togs. Even though it was rainy and windy this would still be a warm marathon perfect for only a t-shirt and shorts. I couldn't believe the number of people in steamer jackets (winter running/reflective) and many people wearing pants. We lined up with the other 800+ runners for the start of the marathon with 5 minutes to go for the gun. After the playing of the national anthems, we were soon off and running.
The beginning of the run made us do a loop around the initial museum avenue, it was here that you could really see the devastation of the snow storm that had hit here 2 weeks ago. Large trees had been uprooted and there were broken limbs and branches lining both sides of the street. Service trucks were a common site along the whole route in Buffalo.
The first water station was at the 3 mile mark at one of the universities. There were lots of smiling faces for such a miserable morning. The most difficult climb of the marathon came when we got to the Peace bridge, it was a short steep incline of maybe 400m. After reaching the high point we were greeted with the second half of the bridge which turned out to be a beautiful long downhill of over a kilometer. The rain picked up as we entered Canada. Fort Erie greeted us with a short section of cold rain and a headwind. After turning south and reaching the 8 mile mark, we had a great tail wind all the way home to the finish.
Every mile had a water station and more importantly a great cheering squad or group to make the run go by quicker. The organizers had gotten school groups and other community groups to get together and cheer for the runners. There were also firefighters, Cadets, and Bikers all helping out and cheering as we went by.
The course was a very flat, almost downhill route with very little in the way of climbs. With only a few rises, I felt that it was an easier route than the Waterfront route. The cherry on top was that the last 2 to 3 km were a gentle downhill to help comfort my tired legs. The 26 mile sign was a very welcome site. This being an American marathon staged on Canadian soil, the distance markers along the course were at every mile and the kilometers were at every 5 km. This made my marathon a little more difficult for two reasons: 1.) I train and pace in kilometers and know exactly how fast I am going that way. And 2.) I had lost my Pace band when I took off my throw-away shirt at the first mile marker. So I was forced to break down every mile and split into Min/mile then convert it into pace/km. The good thing was that it kept my mind sharp and focused (they say that loss of simple math skills are the first signs of dehydration and over exertion), the bad thing was that I posted a 7 min positive split...
The finish line and finisher's chute were very well laid out, right beside the Canadian Falls. They even had a great little "S" turn in the final 50m so that you could enjoy the crowd and pick out your friends and family. The finisher's medal has been updated, it is no longer the ugliest marathoning medal, it is actually one of the most unique that I have seen. Food bags and gatorade, medical tent and gear pickup were all standard and top notch. They even had arranged for massages in a massage-to-go RV/trailer. What really surprised me was that they were able to fit all this into a small parking lot turn-around. The organizers have done a great job putting on a world class event for such a small field of runners. While the only down sides of this event were the small field and the lack of cheering support on a very desolate race course, the organizers more than made up for this with top rate organizing, scheduling, cheering support/water stations, and post race support. I would definitely recommend this race to anyone looking to run a Personal Best or someone looking for a great time in a world class destination. Thanks Niagara!
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