Christmas 2008 in Cape Town, South Africa

After a 13 hour hour flight on this I have officially arrived at my destination. Definitely looking forward to a bit of sun and relaxation. I’ll still be trying to fit in some workouts while I’m here (swimming outside being one of them), but am also going to use the week to think about the coming year and what my fitness goals will be. I have a few new goals in mind and once I’m back in Toronto I’m going to get started on making them come true.

Today, I received an email that the 2010 Toronto Women’s Half Marathon is now open for early registration. Those of us that ran the 2009 edition will have first crack at the next one. I am not too sure if I want to sign up again for a number of reasons.

The course was really tight at times for us average-paced runners which means that there is most likely no chance of a personal best time.

The bathroom situation was not super great.

I also get kind of bored running through 21.1 kms of parks. After a while they all start to look the same.

And I hated the medal. I will admit the organizers did try to be different with a custom made necklace, but it just didn’t suit me.

On the flip side, the race was fun and the shirts were better than usual. Although why do running shirts either have to be cut too small or too large? The XS I got at Mississauga Marathon this year could have fit two of me, while the XS from Toronto Women’s fit quite…snugly. So, how do you know what size to get!? Agh, the dilemmas of a female runner.

Other bonuses from this race were the fireman handing out water and the chocolate station. I actually didn’t take the chocolate during the race, but enjoyed it at the end.

If you would like to read a more detailed account of this year’s race check out these race reports from runshorts and marleneruns.

Mmm, what to do? Knowing me I’ll probably procrastinate and then it will be too late.

But for those of you that are interested in running this event check out their website for more details! Oh and I forgot to mention there are also other distance options, so if the half marathon is not your thing there is plenty to choose from!

Finally, I have a tip for the sponsors – you should develop a social media strategy! Why aren’t you on Twitter? There are so many things you could be tapping into. Create a Flickr group and get all the women runners to upload their photos to it or something like that. The newsletter just ain’t cutting it for me!