Toronto Waterfront Marathon

Mary and I had good trip to Toronto for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon this last weekend.  Toronto is a great city, with lots of neighborhoods to explore, and we did a lot of walking.  We arrived in town in time to catch a presentation by Scott Jurek, who talked about some of his running and sports nutrition.  I've been a fan of his for quite a while, and it was great that Mary got a chance to see and meet him in person.  

Mike and Scott Jurek

Mary is a good cook, and we've made several starts at going vegan.  Of course if you take your current diet and take away the non-vegan components you will probably think you are giving up a lot.  One point Scott made that we both came away with was that instead of thinking of what you are eliminating, you can look at it as an opportunity to incorporate a lot of new foods into your diet that  you haven't previously tried.


The marathon on Sunday was a well organized event.  My mile splits were a little interesting ... I ran a bunch of 9's and then fell into my ultra-shuffle at around 11:00 / mile.  What I think is happening is that I have a pretty good endurance base, but a lot of that is on trails at  ~12 minutes a mile.  I've done some hard hill work, and ran Yasso 800's at 3:55 or 4:00 minutes recently, but I just haven't trained long and 'fast'.  

Mike's Toronto Marathon Mile Splits

Mike near the finish line

Mary and I returned to the finish line in time to see a remarkable event - Fauja Singh, a 100 year-old runner finished the marathon in 8:11 (his 'chip-time').  We had seen some news coverage of his planned effort to become the first 100 year-old to finish a marathon, and I got to see him on the course during the race very early on.  Seeing him come down the street towards the finish line was a memorable event.


NPR story on Fauja Singh Toronto Marathon