I did it!

Hi Ladies,

I DID IT!!!

Yes, I am now a proud owner of a half marathon medal!!!! Wow, what an experience.

Let’s start the day or night before.  I did what my running partner, Farida had told me to do. Eat, drink lots of water, lay everything out and get a good night sleep. I did everything except get a good night sleep! It was probably running nerves, will I wake up when the alarm goes off?  Have I chosen the right clothes to wear?  All this kept going on in my head, not too mention having to get up every half hour to pee!! I thought I would never get to sleep. I must have because when all 5 alarms went off, I jumped out of bed and was ready with half an hour to spare.  I looked outside and saw rain, yes rain. I guess what would else would we expect living in Vancouver, BC.  I watched the weather channel and it was to rain all day and not only that, we were getting a storm! Which made me think, have I enough clothes on? I ended up taking more clothes with me just in case I wouldn’t be warm enough as well as for after when I am finished the race I had dry clothes to change into.

We get to UBC where the race is happening. Pick up our race packs, check in our bags, go for a pee break more than once. As the time was getting closer, I was getting nervous. We started at the back so that it wouldn’t make me want to run fast to keep up with the faster people.  Like I said before, I wasn’t running for time, but for the medal.  We started off nice and slow.  The rain was a light drizzle almost refreshing for a while.  As Farida and I chatted the time seemed to be going fast, and I was feeling great.  Until my leg started to hurt.  It was almost like it was starting to freeze up.  I had to get my brain to tell my leg to smarten up that this can not happen.  My cardio was great, because we were going slow.  It was my leg; not the one that I had been having trouble with before, but the other one!! I started to panic.  I thought if I put on my music and blast it then it would take my mind off the leg.  It did help, I just kept one foot in front of the other.  I was starting to feel the pain and wasn’t sure if I could run any more.  Thank goodness I had Farida there, talking to me and telling me that I can do it; think of that medal, we are almost there.  That helped a lot.  I kept thinking of that medal. It is amazing how powerful our mind is.

I thought I heard Farida say that we had one mile left.  So I started to give it my all.  I started to sprint, we came around the corner and there was what looked to me like a mountain.  Where is the finish line, it should be here Farida said it’s only one kilometer.   That’s when I realize, no it was a mile!  As I huffed my way up this mountain, turned another corner.  I yell out “where the hell is the finish line?”.  Behind me was a girl that yelled back,” it’s over there”.  What! now really it wasn’t that far, but the way I was feeling, sore legs that can barely move, drenched from the rain which started  to come down heavier, it was very far!  I didn’t bother sprinting as I knew my legs wouldn’t allow it.  But I did make it across my time was 2:25 and I did get that beautiful shinny medal and I did wear it all day and told everyone that would listen about it!

Now I didn’t train at all for this race.  I ran here and there, worked out on my stationary bike.  Next time I do a half marathon I will definitely train for it, my legs were not happy with me for days after.  Next one will be about time as well as the medal.  It was a lot of fun and I am so glad I did it. I have to also say that The Fall Classic was very well organized and is an excellent choice for a first time marathon runner. (Thank you Farida for running with me, and making sure I crossed the finish line!)