Lululemon Toronto Waterfront 10K Recap

This race happened exactly 4-5 weeks after my last race which was the Sporting Life 10K back in May. It was a nice kickoff for the summer season as the temperature was mild in the early morning hours before really becoming a scorcher later on mid-day. 

I managed to mix up between some leisure road runs and some trail runs leading up to this race. I once again had the goal of hitting sub 40 minutes, especially since I managed to pull off a 37 minute ish run from the Sporting Life (with the sharp downhill advantage). Looking back at my training log, I took 3 days off leading to the race so I most definitely went into this race with some seriously fresh legs.

START LINE:
This race is heavily reminiscent of the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon route which happens in October. The start line was westward from the Nathan Phillips Square but instead of heading northbound, the route heads southward and turning into Bremner Blvd (where Rogers Centre or Skydome is) before gradually transitioning off to Lakeshore Blvd. Special note to be cautious of the limited amount of space available to maneuver especially when going though the Front Street and into the overpass. Your speed may be affected by the mass amount of runners trying to squeeze through one another and could get chaotic real quick.

TURNAROUND POINT:
​You continue to cruise down the Lakeshore Blvd and turn around near the Budapest Park and head over the opposite direction of the Lakeshore to head down to the finish line. Depending on the running pace and time of the day, the heat really began to pick up and boy was I ever glad to run by those mist spray stations! This 2018 edition was considered to be forgivable especially since after hearing of the major heat that people had to endure the year prior. As much as I absolutely loved the black Lululemon Metal Vent Tee shirt, the black colour quite literally captured all of the heat and may not necessarily be a good fit. But I'm a monochrome person so I didn't really mind, plus I wore my sponsored singlet so it was all good!

FINISH LINE & AMENITIES
​I recall a row of vendors such as photo booths, Saje holistic sprays, pretzels, and baggage pickup following right after picking up the finisher's medal. And then once you make that left turn into the bandshell theatre area, there's even more vendors and a stage where they hosts yoga sessions throughout the hour. It was simply lively there and people genuinely excited to finish. All this before 1pm into the day. And that's a warm fuzzy feeling with the runner's high gravitating you for the remainder of the day!

​Would definitely look forward to run this race again!