I’m so proud of the brave souls who battled the bitter cold, wet and windy weather yesterday to participate in our first Run With DMC LLP event @ the Toronto Goodlife Marathon (by Ontario Place).
6:00 a.m. – Disaster!
I arrived at Ontario Place shortly after 6:00 a.m. to help Benjamin Kong (my law clerk) set up our tent and bring in our swag. That’s when I realized I had left my race bib at home! Oh no! I couldn’t leave and get it and come back in time to set up. So I asked Ben to get it on the way in. He was a trooper. He drove to my house and rang on the bell. But it was my neighbour’s house… oh no!!!! Way too early… Sorry neighbour! So Ben then went to the correct house and woke Paris up. She gave him my bib and off he went to our tent. Now during this time, I had to lug these large DMC LLP bags of swag to our private tent. They were not light. They each had 2 water bottles, 2 gatorade bottles, some tic tack, some protein bars, Proctor and Gamble’s latest 2-step teeth whitening kit (retails for $15), some cookies, a flyer from our co-sponsor Geoffrey Penal (wealth advisor, CIBC Wood Gundy), and a very awesome “Run With DMC” shirt. The bag and all the swag was valued at $200 a piece – not too shabby!
7:00 a.m. – Rain, Chills, Go Away!
It seemed to be getting colder and wetter as the day went on. Puddles and pot holes everywhere! The wind picking up. The non-stop rain! The poor tent next to us (Team Diabetes) didn’t have any side coverings on their tent, so they got soaked! They eventually came into our tent and posted this pic when we let them stay (we eventually gave them our tent after we left):
8:00 a.m. – Time to Run!
With literally just a few seconds before the run started (I was doing the 5 km with most of our team), Ben arrived and handed me my bib. No time to warm up; I was already warm from dragging all the bags to our tent. And away we go! 5 km isn’t difficult at all – especially when you’re running / chatting with friends 😉 A special mention to Peter Chudak (Dr. Samantha Amaro’s husband) who ran his 5 km in about 22 minutes – a fantastic time!
When we got back to the tent, we had some food, drink, towels (courtesy of Ben – who was thinking ahead) and took a group photo. Then we called the 5 km walkers and told them not to show up because the weather was getting REALLY windy and wet. I really felt bad for the marathon and half marathon runners who had been getting soaked for hours in that weather. I hope they didn’t get sick, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.
Overall, I think the event was a good one, but could have been better if we just had some decent weather. I wanted to once again thank all of the participants (Dr. Jackie Geroche, Dr. Aliea Butt, Dr. Millie Calko, Dr. Samantha Amaro, Peter Chudak, Marc Z. and Jason Brown of Henry Schein, Rodney Miller of TD, Carlos of DentalFix, and of course – our very own Benjamin Kong who worked so hard to make this a reality!). Special thanks out to Kate and Burke who helped manage security at our tent. I’m sure the next one will be bigger and better!
