I'm running....

not fast but I ran my first half marathon today! Needless to say I was a little bit concerned because none of my training runs have taken me further than 11km. A half marathon is 21km, do you see why I was worried??? My friend Yvonne and I got dropped off at UBC and chatted while waiting in the loooooooooong line up at the port-o-potties. She is a mountain goat and I wished her a good race when we crossed the start line. Zoom she was gone-gone.

It went really smoothly! (Can you tell that I was/am surprised?) At each km marking I was feeling really good and I just kept running and didn't stop EXCEPT during km 16 - I noticed that my shoe lace was undone so I bent down to tie it....easier said than done. Tying a shoe lace with perogy sausage like fingers that were numb because of the cold thunderstorms wasn't easy, neither was bending over after running for 16km. Whatever, I eventually did it and starting running again.

I was so happy to see Chris out at km 9 - cheering me on in the pouring rain, a little later at km 11 my friends Mia & Alison were hudled under a protective bush with gore-tex and umbrellas gallore - telling me that I was looking strong. I think that I yelled back that I felt really good (again using the intonation of surprise)! Tanya, Duncan & little Emily were cheering for me just after 19km and our friends Norma & Greg saw me a little while after that - Greg ran with me for a few seconds keeping me "dry" with his umbrella (very funny Greg!) I crossed the finish line at 2 hours 32minutes and I couldn't be happier just to have finished! The gaggle of us met up for breakfast after the event and the sun came out not 10 minutes after I finished, I think that my running pants were about 5 inches longer than when I started, my toes were soggy having been in wet running shoes for that long......but what a fantastic day!

Before the event started aka "dry"

before km 9 aka "wet"Nearing the finish line aka uber soakedYAY the finish lineMy first finishing medal!