Toronto 2025

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May 2nd: we arrive in the big city

After a long train ride (we were almost one hour late!) we got to Union station, where both sides of the line 1 go north:



We almost went in the wrong direction!


May 3rd: bib + AGO

Collecting the bib this year happened at the Sheraton hotel, which is very nice, they even have a waterfall inside the place:



Getting the bib was fast and easy.

The expo was very minimal, two stands only. I bought a knee pad and my wife got compression socks.

Near the hotel there was a big sign with the name of the city:



Nearby there was a labyrinth: 



Not as nice as the tourist book led me to believe...

From there we walked to the Art Gallery of Ontario:


In the lower floor they have a big collection of model ships:


When I saw the mug below right away I thought: "Dalek":



I found this painting very "refreshing":



We spent a good amount of time in there, the place is enormous, I don't think I visited everything that there was to be seen...

We went back to the hotel at the end of the afternoon and shortly after 6 pm we went down to the past dinner offered by the restaurant at the hotel.

Unfortunately, none of the three sauces were vegetarian, so we had to skip that and go out for pizza.

We thoroughly enjoyed the pizza we had, it was quite good.



May 4th: running around

I woke up early, as usual, before 4 am, had a light breakfast and at 6 am I went to deliver my bag to the baggage truck. And went back to the hotel to wait for the start of the race more than an hour later.

I had some bowel issues, maybe the pizza I ate the night before wasn't as good as it had tasted... I left the hotel a bit late, but still got to the start line on time:


I started the race with the 4h pacer and stayed with him for a little more than a third of the race, but by around km 18 I could not keep up with him anymore.

During this race we merge with the half marathoners at two places in the race. It is pretty discouraging to see a lot of fresh runners passing you by when you are already slowing down quite a bit.

The second time we depart from the half marathoners is at km 21 for them, km 28 for us. It's just in front of the finish line. So we pass by the finish, have to run seven kilometers out and seven kilometers in, all the time seeing people going in the other direction. Even more discouraging.

I completed the race in 4h28m15s, my fifth best time ever. The medal in Toronto is ridiculously big:



I got back my bag, changed in a port-a-potty, because they didn't have proper bathrooms as last time.

I took the bus and streetcar and went to Union station to meet my wife. We went to a restaurant nearby to celebrate another marathon in the books.


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