Mississauga Half Marathon - Ontario, Canada

Though the Mississauga Half/Full Marathon is only 7 years old, it has quickly become one of the most popular running events in the Greater Toronto area.  This year, it has attracted more than 15,000 participants taking part in the 5k, 10k, Half Marathon and Marathon this weekend. 

Every year for the last 7 years, Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion has ‘ordered’ the weather for us.  So far, her order has been working wonderfully and this year there’s been no exception.   Today’s temperature was a little cold in the morning, 8c with north wind at 20 km/h sunny with no clouds whatsoever.  Because of the sunlight, it warmed up quickly.  By the time I finished the race at 9:13am, temperature was warmed up to 15c.

This race’s fast growth and popularity are not without reasons.  They have the longest-serving Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion strongly behind the run.  Even at age 89, she has come out in good spirits at 7:30 in the morning to cheer all runners 7 years in a row.  With such strong sunlight today, she stood right behind the finish line to greet the half marathoners and then waited for the marathoners to come.  No wonder the whole community in Mississauga has been very much in support of the race.  Unlike Toronto, in which the city hall was so busy to find ways to eliminate one of the two marathons held in the city.

This is a point-to-point race, where it started at the Square One Shopping Centre, the largest shopping mall in the area, then passed City Hall to the main downtown core of the city before turning to the University of Toronto Mississauga Campus. Continuing on the scenic Mississauga Road passing the most beautiful residential neighbourhood to the Lake Ontario waterfront trail, the race ended at Memorial Park in the Village of Port Credit.

It was a relatively easy run for me today considering the fact that I haven’t really trained this year.  Signed up for the Aurora Half Marathon but because of my trip, I had missed this race.  My only training so far was 30 min treadmill and a couple of 15k long runs.  In face, for the last 3 weeks before the run, I only had one 15k long run.

I wasn’t expecting to get a good result without training, at least not having enough long endurance run.  I started slow and maintained a fast but relaxed pace with no pressure throughout the race.  To my surprise, my time at 5k, 10k and 15k marks were 23:45, 27:45 and 1:13, which were relatively good based on my previous records.  The final 6 km were not as easy, as my lack of long training was taking its toll.  Anyway, my official chip time was 1:43:29.4 when I crossed the finish line, which was only 22 secs behind last year’s.  But I had spent a lot more time training last year.