Girl power - Niagara Falls Women's HM/SkirtSports virtual HM race report

I'm 3 for 3 at this event. The first year I signed up on a whim, horrified by the $100+ price tag and volunteered to pace in 2013. NFWHM has gotten better each year. The first year the atmosphere seemed a bit forced. I wasn't actually planning to run this year but I got the email calling for pacers. I asked Nicole and Amy to join the pacing team, mainly because of the free wine in the race kit but when I mentioned the lululemon outlet they were like YAH LET'S GO!!!!
Originally I was given the 2:05 continuous assignment but when Nicole ended up with 2:15, I had to offer to switch. It turned out for the best because I really didn't feel like remotely running fast after Mississauga anyways.
I was really looking forward to Saturday. Race kit pickup at a mall that was completely dead except for the runners.

Race kit pic stolen from Amy obviously. I don't feel like laying out all of my swag, plus I've drank 3/4ths of the wine already.

 Then LULU OUTLET MADNESS!

Amy, spying the rack of pacesetters. Followed by a very nice lunch with Nicole, Fergus, Brigette and Amy.

Race morning dawned absolutely flawless, if a bit warm. I had also signed up for the SkirtSports virtual half because hello, free skirt?

arty sideways pic by Nicole, posing with my SkirtSports bib.

Visited the porta-potty, which really was lavender scented and had flowers inside. Then the most horrible thing that could have happened happened. My penis bottle fell into the porta potty. Fortunately (?!) it landed in the blue stuff, not in a pile of shit and without thinking I actually reached in and picked it back out. I rinsed the bottle off the best I could at the sink and rejoined Amy and Nicole. We were approached by some lady who asked if we had seen Anna, I was momentarily shocked in wondering how a random person knew that we were friends with Anna, but it turns out that Anna had told her to look for the 3 pacers. 

You didn't really come here to read about me running a slow half, did you?

Some random thoughts from being in the corral and during the race: 

•  I saw the mythical runner in the yellow lace strappy nightie again. I guess she didn't die of chafing after last year's race. 
• During my first pacing gig, someone asked me to hold the sign up higher because they needed to see it every moment. I was totally floored by the request and complied at the time but then got angry about it later. I'm wearing bunny ears and a flashy outfit, I'm sure you can see me at any time, and if I'm not in sight, then perhaps check your race plan instead of bitching to the pacer about it. Today, I was again asked, quite rudely, to hold my sign higher, around 5K. I should have said, "if it's so important to you, why don't YOU hold the sign up high the rest of the way?" But what I really said was, "I'm sorry, I can't..I'm wearing bunny ears and it shouldn't be hard to see me." and one of my pacees yelled, "Don't you know her arm will fall off?!" 
• The double out and back course made for many cheering opportunities. I must've blinked and missed Amy during the first out and back but saw both her and Nicole on the back half.  

Pacee: you pacers get a lot of love! 

Me: Oh, they are my running buddies and I drove. They have to be nice to me if they don't want to walk home! (I kid, I kid!) 

• lots of skirts! tutus, running skirts and sparkle skirts galore. 

Not going to bore you with the splits, but suffice to say even though my goal pace was 6:09/k and most of my 10 minute running segments were 6:11/k, I still came in faster than my goal of 2:14:5x. Oh well, better to be under than over so I really shouldn't complain. 

Official chip time: 2:14:24 
Field Placement: 609 / 1994 (30.5%) 
Age group: 35 – 39 
Group Placement: 129 / 372 (34.7%) 
Gender Placement: 604 / 1978 (30.5%)

What an awesome looking group of pace bunnies. Totally nailed our pace assignments too! Must've been the Power of The Skirts!