The Emera Blue Nose Marathon was held on Sunday, May 21, 2023, and it was my third marathon of the year (my third Back to Back Marathon in May). I ran a time of 4 hours and 2 minutes for the full 42.2 KM Marathon. The Halifax Marathon is the toughest marathon I have run thus far, as the course was very hilly and windy.
The 45th Stewart McKelvey Fredericton Marathon 2023 was held from May 13 to 14, 2023, in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The Fredericton Marathon was named Best Boston Qualifier – by Canadian Running Magazine. I participated in the full marathon (42.2 km), my second in May 2023 (my first Back-to-Back Full Marathon, I participated in the Toronto Marathon last week). I finished with a time of 3 hours 53 minutes.
The 2023 Toronto Marathon was held on Sunday, May 7, 2023, and it was my second marathon of the year. The Toronto Marathon was named one of the best Boston Qualifiers – by Canadian Running Magazine. I participated in the Mississauga Half Marathon on April 30. I finished with a time of 4 hours 13 minutes, it was a very tough finish as I had a deep muscle pull at 30 KM, but I dug deep to finish.
The Mississauga Half Marathon was held on Sunday, April 30th, 2023, and I ran a personal best time for a half marathon: 1:40:20.
I ran six full marathons (42.2 km) and three 10 KM races in 2022. I ran a personal best of 3 hours forty-four minutes at the Beneva Montreal Marathon in Montreal, Quebec, and I also ran two other sub-four hours marathons, taking the sub-4 times to three in 2022.
The Marathons I ran in 2022 are as follows:
I participated in my sixth full marathon of the year (2022) at The Hamilton Road2Hope Marathon. I finished with a time of 3 hours 55 minutes and 04 seconds, making it my third sub-4 hours in 6 weeks. I had earlier ran a personal best (3:44:14) and my first sub-4 marathon time at the 2022 Beneva Montreal Marathon on September 24, 2022; I followed that up with another sub-4 performance in the Toronto Waterfront Marathon with a time of 3:56:14.
I participated in my fifth full marathon of the year (2022) at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. I finished with a time of 3 hours 56 minutes and 14 seconds, making it my second sub-4 hours in 3 weeks. I had earlier ran a personal best and my first sub-4 marathon time at the 2022 Beneva Montreal Marathon on September 24, 2022.
I had a target of running a time of 3:30, but it was not meant to be. Like every marathon I participate in, there were lots of lessons learned and strategies that I hope to implement in my next marathon, such as experimenting with my running shoes and running without a running bag et al.
The 30th edition of the Montreal Marathon was held on the weekend of September 24 (10KM) and September 25 (21.1 KM & 42.2KM). The Beneva Montreal Marathon was my fourth full (42.2KM) Marathon in 2022 (Vancouver, Ottawa, Edmonton), and I ran a personal best of 3 hours 44 Minutes. I set a goal to break the fours time for a marathon in Montreal, and I achieved it. It was a tough process getting to the finish line as the picture below shows.
Over 10,000 runners participated in the 2022 Montreal Marathon with the start line at Espace 67 on Île Sainte-Hélène and the finish line at Olympic Stadium.
I participated in my third 42.2 KM marathon of 2022, having previously run the BMO Vancouver Marathon and the Tartan Ottawa International Marathon both in May. The Servus Edmonton Marathon was held on Sunday, August 21, 2022, and I ran a personal best of 4:00:20 sec. I nearly ran a sub-four-hour time on this particular run trail.
I participated in the 2022 Toronto Carnival Run, a Caribbean-inspired run encouraging health, wellness, and active living. The 6th edition was held on Saturday, July 23, 2022, and I ran a personal best of 47 minutes for a 10 KM run. The run started at Sir Casimir Gzowski Park and heads East along the Martin Goodman Trail. The run/walk distance options of 5K, 10K and 1K Kid’s run
The Toronto Carnival Run takes place annually in downtown Toronto one week before North America’s largest cultural parade, the Toronto Caribbean Carnival (formerly known as Caribana), along the same route.
The 2022 Toronto Waterfront 10K was held on Saturday, June 18, 2022. I participated and finished with an official time of 50:02 (sub-one hour time). It was a great warmup for the upcoming full marathon in a couple of weeks’ time. The 2022 Toronto Waterfront 10KM Marathon had 3974 Participants in total with 1949 women and 2015 men participants.
2022 Toronto Waterfront 10K Result
I participated in my second marathon for the month of may after running the BMO Vancouver Marathon on May 1st, 2022. The Tartan Ottawa International Marathon 2022 was my second time running the Ottawa trail. I finished with a time of 4:37:39, an improvement from the Vancouver Marathon where I finished with a time of 5:00:31.
For the first time since 2007, a Canadian woman won the top prize for the women’s section. American-born Canadian long-distance runner Kinsey Middleton finished with a time of 2:30:09 and Ethiopian Andualem Shiferaw set a new marathon course record with 2:06:04, the fastest time set on North American soil in 2022.
The 2022 BMO Vancouver Marathon was held on Sunday, May 1st, 2022 and it had a record 18,500 registered participants. The 2022 edition was special as it was the 50th Anniversary of the Marathon that began with 32 finishers in 1972. It was my first Marathon since the Global Pandemic and I was super delighted to participate in the event.
We started the Marathon behind schedule as a suspicious device was spotted near the Science World on the Half-Marathon track. The Fastest Male was Canadian Chris Balestrini who finished with a time of 2:23:56 and the fastest female at the BMO Vancouver Marathon was Canadian Olympian Dayna Pidhoresky who completed the run in 2:34:30.
I completed my first marathon in September 2013 in Accra, Ghana. I stumbled on running marathons after losing my closest cousin who was outside of the country. It was one of the toughest periods of my life as he died on his Birthday July 16th, 2013 in questionable circumstances. It was extremely tough for me as I did not really have family members around me but I grieved through it and still tear up thinking about him. Rest In Peace Bro.
During my grieving period, I was looking for something to numb my pain distract me, I tried reading lots of John Grisham Novels which I read in the Accra Public Library, It helped a bit as John Grisham took me on a journey with his storytelling with books like the firm et al but it was not enough.