From Tom Hall:

For those of you that do not know, the 30km Around The Bay Race has been going for 124 years, running longer than the Boston Marathon! The race route starts in downtown Hamilton goes East to Lake Ontario and loops back on North Shore Blvd and ultimately the race route circles Burlington Bay (thus it is called the Around the Bay race). The race course has a nice flat first 15km and a series of rolling hills to challenge the runner on the second half. The BIG hill at the 26km mark is remembered by all that do the race.

Over the last decade, I have either done the full 30km race or participated in the 3 person relay. In all cases The Bay Race is the official end of the winter running season and the race results indicate what type of training needs to get done in preparation for the upcoming Triathlon season. In prior years, I have done The Bay Race without suitable training and paid the price
- as this is a challenging 30km race route. Other years, the results have been good. This year I decided to do some training to see if I could get a PB for my current age group (M50-54), as there is no way to beat my own times from ten years ago.

This year The Bay Race sold out and had 5,000 competitors not including the relay teams. On Sunday March 30 at 9:30 am it was sunny with a "cool"
temperature of 1 celsius with a steady East wind. The wind was going to be in our face for the first 10km out to the Lake. I had decided a jacket was not required and elected to wear a few layers with the Polar race singlet over top.

My target race (chip) time was 2:15:00. Due to the size of the race, the chip and race times are different, except for those fast guys starting at the front (not me). My race plan acknowledged that the route is significantly more difficult on the second half and thus I had hoped to run a 1:05 first 15km and a 1:10 second half. The ability to achieve these numbers was going to be dictated by my heart rate, expecting to stay in high zone 4 for the first half and low zone 5 for the second half. I wasn't sure if the target heart rate averages would get me the desired times but I was hoping that it would.

After a slow first 1km due to the crowds, by 3km I was on my first half pace/km time but already running in low zone 5 (not so good). For the next 5km, I kept hoping that my HR would drop into zone 4 and could still hit the target pace/km. By 8km it was clear that to achieve my target race time woud require a zone 5 HR for the whole race. At 15km, I was very close to my target time of 1:05 but working quite hard . There are a few more km's along the Beach and then you are confronted with the North Shore Blvd rolling hills.

Along the way the cheering of friends and the motivational comments on each km sign keep you going. My favorite sign had the words: "pain is inevitable, suffering is optional". Scott Bush, Ontario Polar team mate saw me approach and gave me a "high five".

After the big climb at the 26km point the race route heads back to the East (into the wind) for the last 3.5km. At the 28km mark, some smart *** guy dressed as The Grim Reaper says to me: "You'll never make it. Stop now you have no hope". Clearly I was "dead tired".......but was still pushing to reach my goal, chasing the 2:15 race bunny that was up ahead.

The race finishes inside Copps Colesium with lots of fanfare. I enter the building and the race clock is already past 2:15:00 - but wait, I have a delayed start time. My clock finish time shows 2:15:20 but the all important chip time was 2:14:57:05. Yeah baby.

Let me tell you that it was a big effort to hold the pace and heart rate but it was worth it as I did get my target time. The sore muscles are proof that this years Bay Race was as hard as all the prior ones.

Now that the snow is mostly gone, time to get out on the bike again.