I went into this undertrained, and with a strain in my peroneal tendon. Not the one I injured in February, the *other* one. Since it was my first half marathon, I was determined to try. It hasn't been hurting for the last few days, and I'd been ok'd to run with it taped by an AT. The weather sucked, but once we got moving, it really wasn't bad. I felt worse for the course marshalls having to stand at the corners, whereas we got to keep moving at least!
I was on Wellington Cres. when I heard a runner yell "deer"! Next thing you know, there's a deer charging down the street, weaving and dodging - it was obviously spooked & unsure what to do. All I could think was which way should I dodge, cause it froze about 10 feet in front of me. I went left and the deer went right, and hit a woman running shortly behind me. I'm really glad she got up okay, because she went down hard & hit the curb. The deer went down as well, and scrambled off towards the river - I couldn't tell if it was limping or not.
After the deer, we spotted 3 more following. Luckily they cleared the crowd okay. 2 lovely women asked if I wanted to join them at that point, they were doing 10 & 1 and aiming around 3 hours. I figured 3 hours sounded good and hung out with them. My foot started giving me grief at about mile 3, but I decided to stick it out to the relay station near the footbridge back to Assiniboine Park.
Had it not been for my foot, I think I would have made it. I felt great, and my breathing was under control more than it's been in any other race, even with the cold. I owe the 2 women I was with a huge thank you, as I think it was their help pacing that really helped with that. Turns out they run in my area on a regular basis, so I may join them for some training runs.
Huge thanks to all the volunteers that made it out, and congrats to all the runners. Thanks for the boost from DaddyRunner here who spotted me right at the start line...even my family couldn't see me crossing the line, so someone seeing me & calling out was awesome! And the course official at the end...when I notified her I'd dropped out, she told me "that sucks sweetie" and handed me a finisher's backpack as well.
I'll be back next year, and finishing it.
about the deer. I'm so glad to hear that the runner (and presumably the deer, too) is ok!
If you're gonna bandit, at least go in the right direction 