Race Review: Mississauga Marathon

We were off to Mississauga for marathon three of Hub's five marathons in five weeks series. Mississauga, Ontario is a large suburb city of Toronto. It has the largest population growth in Canada, with a population closing in on 700000. Surprisingly, one of Mississauga more notable personalities is that of the mayor, Hazel McCallion. At 86 years of age, she is the oldest mayor in Canada. Hazel has been the mayor of Mississauga for 30 years, and is so popular, she doesn't even have to campaign to get re-elected. Hazel is always at the start line of the Mississauga Marathon, and a result, it can often take several minutes to cross the start line as she is a bit of a local celebrity.

Mayor McCallion is well known for her spirited no nonsense approach to politics, and as such is often called "Hurricane Hazel". Now enough with the politics.. lets talk about the marathon.

I was registered to run a the full Marathon, but I didn't feel like I had yet recovered from the Nashville race, so I decided to run this race as a half training race, opting to save myself for the Ottawa Marathon this weekend. This meant that I would run with Hubs (completing his third full in his five week mission), and we would run together until the 15k mark when the half splits off to the finish line.

The Mississauga course is virtually flat, with only two major elevations. The course has a mixture of scenery from very impressive large homes to winding waterfront trails along Lake Ontario. Here is a description of the course taken from the course Mississauga Marathon website:

A beautiful run that encompasses much of Mississauga’s beauty. This point to point course is a fast net downhill. The course starts at Mississauga’s City Hall, and makes its way west across the Credit River to Mississauga Road and then travels south for a beautiful stretch past the University of Toronto’s Mississauga Campus, Mississauga Golf Club, and continues through some of Mississauga’s most beautiful residential neighbourhoods, before winding along the scenic Lake Ontario Waterfront Trail and finishing on the edge of Lake Ontario at Lakefront Promenade Park.

Here is the course map:

The weather on race day was ideal, although there is always a strong headwind off of the lake. I had a good run. I felt strong, but I didn't want to overdo it, since my ultimate goal race is this weekend, and finished in 2 hours, 29 seconds. Hubs did amazing as this was his third marathon in three weeks, finishing in 4 hours 22 minutes, eight seconds.

So my final rating on the Mississauga Marathon:
City and attractions: 6/10
Expo: 6/10
Course entertainment: 4/10
Medal: 7/10
Race T-shirt: 8/10
Spectators: 6/10
Course support: 8/10
Post race support: 8/10
Difficulty: 5/10 (10 being most difficult)

Next up: The Cleveland Marathon. Hopefully you have seen the movie Spinal Tap. Thanks for reading!