Running Skirts: Oasis Montreal Marathon, Half Marathon and 10k

Montreal is my favorite Canadian City. It will always hold a special place near my heart, maybe it's the European charm, (or maybe because it's where my husband and I fell madly in love with each other)...or Both! Either way, I was thrilled to be making the Running Skirts debut at the Oasis Montreal Marathon expo.

A shot of the boy along the riverfront in Old Montreal

Since the hubby was away on work travel of his own, I was lucky to have the company of grandma who flew out from California to hang with me and the boy in Montreal....Hooray for Grandma! I was also quite lucky to have the company of our speedy skirt Josiane (still recovering from her injury at Quebec city 2 weeks prior) and also Annie and Isabelle from the Quebec City Marathon as my skirtthusiast french translators in the booth. Great times had by all in the running skirt booth! Or should I say "Jupe de la course"!

After running the half marathon in Oakville the prior week, I decided I was going to opt to run the 10k on Sunday. I was feeling pretty good post half marathon race and hoping to PR the 10k if all systems were a go. Upon consult with expert Josiane, I was informed that the course was not flat, but instead pretty challenging with a big uphill climb toward the last half of the course.

On race day, again we were blessed with great weather cool, yet not rainy or windy thankfully. I met some fellow skirts in the subway and we chatted our way to the start line location. I got there nice and early and had plenty of time for a good warmup and some strides before the gun went off. It was a crowded start and I quickly lost track of the women ahead of me, but tried to maintain a good pace and close the gap between myself the the next women ahead of me.

I passed a few ladies at about the 5k mark and wondered if that was a smart decision knowing that the dreaded climb was still ahead and once again, wondering if they knew something that I didn't about this course. Once I arrived at the top of the hill, I felt pretty strong and picked the pace back up and I began my journey to the Olympic Stadium finish line. The next women ahead of me was nowhere in sight! She had a great lead! All I could think about was finishing strong and greeting my mom & son at the finish line. My mom has only seen me run a few other races, but this would be the first podium finish she'd witnessed. Aw...a proud moment for me - proud that I could make her proud that is!

The Montreal Marathon course finishes in the Olympic Stadium - the last 200 or so meters is run on Stadium track - very cool. As I entered the stadium and approached the finish I heard my name over the loud speaker along with "dosieme femme" (second woman).

Here are my splits: 5:52, 6:09, 6:18, 6:39, 6:17, 6:04 - finish time 38:31 woohoo a new 10k PR!

Photo after I crossed the finish line

Podium award ceremony

Getting my silver medal from Bruny Surin, Gold Medal Olympic sprinter in the 4x100. Bruny has his own clothing and supplement line and was in the booth next to Running Skirts at the expo. As he put the medal around my neck he exclaimed a bit surprised "Hey! you are the skirt girl - great job!". (I think it surprises a lot of people that we Christy & I actually run the events after working the expos!) We truly are blessed to have our careers and our passion be one in the same.

Here's a great shot of one of our running skirt customers crossing the finish line on the jumbo tron!