I DID IT!!
Sunday October 9th - I completed my first half marathon!
The weather was perfect, overcast 6c with no wind at the start. It did warm up and the sun came out for the last few kms. Spent mostof the first 8km with the slower 10km runners and the faster walkers. It seemed like every person I managed to catch had a 10km bib on. I was starting to think I would be all alone at the back. After 52mins the first of our friends running the full marathon, which started a half hour later, caught up to me (I really need to do some speed work and try to speed up). Over the next hour everyone, including my husband, caught up to and passed me. I know I'm slow so it didn't discourage me - it was nice to see everyone and kept me company for a while. Lots of very nice people encouraged me as they passed except one old guy that told me to "pick it up". I couldn't believe it! What made it even worse was the back of his shirt said he was running for his grandson that had passed away - you'd think he would be a nice person doing something like that for his family but he really put a damper on my run. Needless to say, he was the only person I didn't cheer for when he finished. I was tempted to go up to him afterwards and tell him that that was a crappy thing to do someone doing their first half marathon but decided not to, I wanted to enjoy this time!
Back to my run...I managed a nice steady pace and felt really good! Ran the entire race with no pain. I wonder if it was because I took an extra week to taper and skipped that 20km run or if it was the pre-race massage. Probably a bit of both. For the last 8 km there were 3 of us all trying to get in under 3 hours, it was nice to run with a couple of other people for a while since most of my training and this race I was alone. I felt great finishing but was disappointed that they ran out of medals. They gave me a ribbon and told me to register to get a medal in the mail. Went and had a quick bite to eat, grabbed the camera from the hotel room and watched all of our friends finish the full. It was a great day.
The weather was perfect, overcast 6c with no wind at the start. It did warm up and the sun came out for the last few kms. Spent mostof the first 8km with the slower 10km runners and the faster walkers. It seemed like every person I managed to catch had a 10km bib on. I was starting to think I would be all alone at the back. After 52mins the first of our friends running the full marathon, which started a half hour later, caught up to me (I really need to do some speed work and try to speed up). Over the next hour everyone, including my husband, caught up to and passed me. I know I'm slow so it didn't discourage me - it was nice to see everyone and kept me company for a while. Lots of very nice people encouraged me as they passed except one old guy that told me to "pick it up". I couldn't believe it! What made it even worse was the back of his shirt said he was running for his grandson that had passed away - you'd think he would be a nice person doing something like that for his family but he really put a damper on my run. Needless to say, he was the only person I didn't cheer for when he finished. I was tempted to go up to him afterwards and tell him that that was a crappy thing to do someone doing their first half marathon but decided not to, I wanted to enjoy this time!
Back to my run...I managed a nice steady pace and felt really good! Ran the entire race with no pain. I wonder if it was because I took an extra week to taper and skipped that 20km run or if it was the pre-race massage. Probably a bit of both. For the last 8 km there were 3 of us all trying to get in under 3 hours, it was nice to run with a couple of other people for a while since most of my training and this race I was alone. I felt great finishing but was disappointed that they ran out of medals. They gave me a ribbon and told me to register to get a medal in the mail. Went and had a quick bite to eat, grabbed the camera from the hotel room and watched all of our friends finish the full. It was a great day.
posted by Kerry @ 12:00 PM
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