Toronto Beaches Virtual Jazz Half Marathon

 

Last July I ran this race for the first time in the baking heat, at 7 am on the Martin Goodman trail in the Beaches. It was a small event, with less than 500 participants, but it was well organized and fun-to-boot. This year, with it being a virtual event, there are only around 200 participating and it is being used as a fundraiser for the front line workers at Michael Garron Hospital in the east end of Toronto.

The official date for this race was July 26th, but we have until the end of August to complete it. I didn’t want to leave it until the last minute, so I opted to run it this weekend.

 

While I may have decided to run this race this weekend, I definitely didn’t feel very prepared. I’ve been running 5-6 days a week, but haven’t been following a training plan and I’ve sadly neglected any speed or hill training. Every Sunday, I’ve gotten up early to run long, but due to the extreme heat conditions, they have been rather slow and filled with walking breaks. So it's not surprising I wasn't feeling very confident.

 

My mind has also been on other things. School is starting up soon and we have to make the difficult decision as to whether we would send our daughter to school or keep her home. We are lucky that we have that choice—many will have no choice but to send their kids to school. Mortgages need to be paid, jobs need to be held onto, and kids need to learn.  I teach piano, so I could potentially free my days to accommodate looking after and teaching Cilla remotely and only teach piano in the evenings.

 

But if we send Cilla to school, how safe will she be? Ford thinks that throwing a bit of hand sanitizer at the school is enough to keep everyone safe. Class sizes will remain the same, and there will be no distancing among students. They’ve had months to come up with a successful plan, but they’ve been sitting on their hands. We’ve spent 5 months keeping ourselves distanced from others and one week back in the classroom could potentially set us right back where we were in March. What was the point of all those sacrifices if we’re going to undo all this work by sending our kids back into such chaos?

 

What’s also made the decision so tough is that Cilla loves school and loves being with her friends and we worry about the psychological effects of her being away from her peer group for so long. She also has learning difficulties and sensory issues and it’s a difficult transition grade—going from kindergarten to grade one-- the expectations will be very different. If we keep her home, it’s up to me to make sure her learning stays on track. If we send her she will be of the mindset that everything would be like it was before the pandemic, no matter what we tell her, and that in turn will affect her learning anyway.

 

So we will probably keep Cilla home at least until a more definitive plan has been established and class sizes are smaller. We refuse to use her as an experiment.

 

I’ve also been working on renovations in the home, which has been cutting into my running time. With Cilla potentially not attending school in September, I’m trying to get as much done before school resumes when all my time will be taken up with homeschooling Cilla.

 

So, it was with all of this on my mind that I got up at 6:00 am on Saturday August 15^th, to prepare for my race. Originally I had planned on running the original race route down by the beaches on the Martin Goodman Trail, but after the bizarre occurrence that happened last week with 2 blood-stained men wielding chainsaws at Cherry beach, I was second guessing myself.  Apparently, early Sunday morning, a fight broke out involving some members of the anti-lockdown/anti-facemask group Mothers Against Distancing (MAD) who have been hosting massive parties on Saturday nights at Cherry Beach following their weekly protests at Queen's Park. Two of the men involved in the altercation left and returned with two running chainsaws. They were covered in blood while yelling threats and terrorizing people and they literally went and cut all the DJ’s equipment in half. The police soon came and arrested them and while no one was injured, it definitely changed my mind about running down there. So I opted to run the Lower Don Trail instead.

 

At 6:30 am I arrived at my starting point which was the entrance to Taylor Creek Park, just off Haldon Ave. I checked my laces, and did some quick leg swings, bum kicks and knee raises. It was a quiet morning with only a few other runners about. It was strange racing on a Saturday as I have only ever raced or run long on a Sunday. At 6:32 I wished myself good luck, counted down from 10 then ran down the ravine trail, letting gravity do the work. It was a cooler morning, only 22 degrees and felt really nice after the extreme heat and humidity we’d been having. I was wearing my usual shorts and a tank top and was shocked to pass a few runners wearing track suits. How do they not get heat stroke?

 

Just after kilometre 2 I reached the Elevated Wetlands and took the Lower Don trail. This trail runs along the Don River all the way to Lakeshore Boulevard. I crossed the Don Mills Bridge where I passed the canoes imbedded in the concrete walls and continued along the path. At kilometre 3 I ate my first gel. It doubled as breakfast since I didn’t eat anything before I left.

 

I often see wildlife as I’m running along this trail and today I was not disappointed. Just before I passed under the Leaside Bridge a very beautiful white-tailed deer was munching on the tall grasses on the left of the trail, seemingly oblivious to her audience. Usually I would stop for pictures, but today I was on a mission, so I kept moving.

 

At kilometre seven I came across 14 gargoyle sculptures scattered in the field like forgotten ruins.  Fantastical beasts and grotesque faces watched me suspiciously as I passed by. They were created by Duane Linklater, an Omaskeko Cree from the Moose Cree First Nation near North Bay, Ontario.  Each sculpture is a replica of a gargoyle that can be found on prominent buildings in the downtown core and were originally built from materials made at Don Valley Brick Works.   His work calls attention to the area's industrial and Indigenous history. 

 

 

Soon after I crossed a bridge and was now running on the right side of the Don River and it's one of the uglier parts of the trail. The Don River has been straightened twice in the past century to better serve industrial purposes and without any regard to the impact of the environment. In fact, the Don River has received nothing but abuse over the past few centuries. It was invaded by grist mills, lumber mills and wool mills; poisoned by dye works, tanneries, slaughterhouses, meatpacking plants, oil refineries, breweries, distilleries, steel mills, and sewers. It was set on fire twice and declared dead in 1969. It’s only been the last few years that people have woken up and realized the importance of the Don River and the impact it has on the city as a whole. Work is being done to improve it, but no matter how much money is thrown at it, the damage is done.

 

This is where I really started hurting. The trail was in pretty rough shape, covered in sand and tree roots. It was hard to keep on top of my feet with the uneven slippery surface. I have hyper-mobile ankles and recently I’ve been in more pain than usual during my runs and afterwards they stiffen to the point that it hurts to walk. Getting old sucks, I can tell you. I’m not sure why they’ve suddenly flared up like this, but thought perhaps I needed new shoes. I’m pretty hard on running shoes and go through about three pairs in one year. For the past couple of years I’ve been wearing the Mizuno Wave Inspire shoes so I ordered this years’ version from the running room and they arrived on Wednesday. I used to run with Asics Gel Kayano, and while being a great stability shoe, it literally felt like running with concrete bricks attached to my feet. The Wave Inspire are much lighter. I only had a couple short runs with them before having to race in them.

 

I hit Lakeshore Boulevard at kilometre 10.5 and turned around to come back. As I did so I ate my 2^nd gel. I could feel myself slowing and sometimes when I looked at the pace on my watch I would misread it thinking it said 6:20 and I would increase my speed only to realize I had actually be running 5:20. I decided right then and there that I wouldn’t worry about my pace, but just have a good time.

 

2 kilometres from the end I had a sudden feeling of euphoria. The pain I was feeling was gone, I was able to increase my speed to 5:30 and I felt invincible. I felt like high-fiving everyone I passed. The elusive runners high. It’s been a while since I’ve felt it, not since before the pandemic in fact,  and had to reign my emotions in for fear of them getting the best of me. It seemed fitting that I crossed the finish line to Lust for Life. My pace was 5:49, one of the slowest half marathons I’ve run, but under the circumstances, I’m just glad I did it.