My first ever outdoor winter training season all came down to the March 28 – 29 weekend for North America’s oldest race – ATB 30K in Hamilton, Ontario.

The day before the race I commuted to Hamilton (from North Toronto) by GO Transit and visited the expo shortly before closing. Somehow the expo was still packed and at points even felt a little crammed. I guess that’s just the nature of the design of First Ontario Centre (formerly Copps Coliseum, which I still call it) with all the booths and stands lined up on the sides for vendors. Packet pick up was relatively easy and I had a chance to browse some of the stands. I’ll say that I love the tech shirt that came with the race package, great colour and long sleeve. The line on the back that says “Older than Boston” is great, but I feel like I have to tell people that it means the race and not ME!

Then it was the big day – Sunday, March 29, 2015. ATB doesn’t start super early (9:30 am), so it was nice to not have to get up before the crack of dawn. I got ready, had my morning smoothie, and then headed to Copps to try and meet some fellow runners before the race. Well, if I thought it was busy at the expo, I was wrong! Copps was packed with all the runners coming and going and waiting in bathroom line ups. This is one great thing about this race – indoor toilets before and after! Actual flushing toilets and sinks to wash your hands in, worth the price of admission, friends. After that, it was time to head to the start line. Now the excitement really begins!

I’m not too speedy, so I was not set up to start in a certain corral. I made my way to the “general” corral and tried to get in the zone. We started moving pretty quickly as the corrals set off first and then the rest of us. There was some hooting and hollering as we all crossed the start and then everyone started to take off pretty smoothly onto the streets of Hamilton.

Overall, I found the course to be quite enjoyable (the historical big hill near the end was taken out this year though due to construction). We ran on the city streets, through the well-known industrial plant area of Hamilton (yes there was a smell), and then through the rolling hills of a section of suburbia.

I actually started off really well and maintained a good pace. I got confident and joined a 2:55 pace bunny group (my original goal was 3:15) thinking it would be a good time to really challenge myself and step up my running game. Well, I was able to maintain this great flow for the first 20K… but then I started to slow down. The rolling hills caused me to lose the pace bunny group. I had to walk a little more than I wanted to and I even tried to stop to stretch it a little bit. The last 8K was difficult on those hills... this is something to be aware of for this race - don't skip your hill training! (I did all of mine and I still struggled a little bit!)

I remember at one point I was feeling kind of down and then I saw the famous Grim Reaper walking down the middle of the road (27Kish point?)… I high-fived that dude and then somehow I had a surge of energy that pushed me to the finish. Who would have thought that the Grim Reaper would do that?

I zoomed those last flat 500m down the road and into Copps Coliseum, crossing the finish line with my hands in the air. I was done! I gave everything I had and I was almost in tears reaching that finish line in an arena semi-packed with people hanging out in the stands and cheering people on as they came in. I was ecstatic to see 3:00 on the clock above the finish because I knew then that my chip time would be under 3 hours, which it was. My official chip time was 2:56:36 and I couldn’t be happier. (So I didn’t lose that 2:55 pace bunny group by much 😉 ) I definitely earned my medal that day – mentally and physically. Around the Bay was a big challenge - my longest distance at that time - that I took on and I feel that I met it head on… and possibly crushed it!

Pros
- Great organization
- Good expo
- Indoor toilets before and after race
- Crossing the finish line in Copps Colesium
- Very popular race, great crowds, very fun
- Good swag in 2015
- Pretty central location
- Good race leading up to a marathon if that's in your plan
- Cool medals (there's gold, silver, bronze depending on your finish time)
- Pace bunnies

Cons
- Hills... well ok, this isn't so bad, but you should be prepared for them
- Weather/wind can be tricky depending on the day
- I walked to the start from my friend's place where I was staying, so I'm not sure if parking is an issue on race day