We did it! Janice and I ran in the half-marathon and we both finished and had a great time. I must confess that I only ran twice in the two weeks approaching the race. Janice and I both ran 5k at the Breast Cancer "Run for the Cure." It was a gorgeous day and we had fun (loved the chocolate milk at the end). I managed to raise $125, down from last year, but every dollar counts.Anyway, back to the half marathon. Janice and I both decided that we were just going to run to finish and not care about our times. We were thinking positive about it and came the morning of we were both excited. I actually slept the night before and had a breakfast of scrambled eggs and a banana. Didnt help much, I was hungry at the 5k mark. Anyway, we drove downtown in the dark and got there just in time. Seriously. We just found the start line, we had time to pee and then just as we began to stretch the gun went off! ha ha, so we just started to run.
The night before we went to Walmart and bought some cheap gloves, which I ditched at the first water station, my hands were boiling! The weather was so much nicer this year than last year, it was super gorgeous. There were so many people, but after the first couple of mins, we had spread out and I had lots of room, no crowding problems at all. I lost Janice in front of the Empress, but kept a good pace. I actually had to slow myself down because I was clocking 5'15 and I didnt want to tire out early, so I pulled back and tried to keep even
with 6'00. I ran the whole thing, only stopping to consume water or gatorade at the stations. I usually do not like gatorade, but let me tell you, that morning it was like liquid gold! The route went through downtown Victoria, through Beacon Hill Park, down Dallas Road and into Fairfield for the turnaround point. I have to say that going into Fairfield was the hardest part of the run. I was running out of energy and it felt like there was never going to be a turnaround point, we just kept going around corner after corner. Luckily I finally reached it and they were handing out powergels. I hate them but I needed the energy so badly. I randomly took one I was handed and of course I got the worst flavour ever-double latte. I swallowed almost all of it and washed it down with gatorade. The taste was horrid but it did the trick, I had enough energy to finish the race. Janice made me laugh, I passed her shortly after the food station (she was coming at me in the opposite direction), but she was focused and didnt see me. After the food station there was a group of people handing out shots of beer. This made me want to vomit, I think it was 8:30am at this point (the race started at 7:30am), so gross. Janice, the Creuzot that she is, did the shot of beer and kept on running! That's my girl, lol. Running along the water was the best part (see first image of Dallas Road), the sun was shining and the crowds were fantastic, I'm very thankful for their support. The sun was shining, there was a nice breeze, it was great.
with 6'00. I ran the whole thing, only stopping to consume water or gatorade at the stations. I usually do not like gatorade, but let me tell you, that morning it was like liquid gold! The route went through downtown Victoria, through Beacon Hill Park, down Dallas Road and into Fairfield for the turnaround point. I have to say that going into Fairfield was the hardest part of the run. I was running out of energy and it felt like there was never going to be a turnaround point, we just kept going around corner after corner. Luckily I finally reached it and they were handing out powergels. I hate them but I needed the energy so badly. I randomly took one I was handed and of course I got the worst flavour ever-double latte. I swallowed almost all of it and washed it down with gatorade. The taste was horrid but it did the trick, I had enough energy to finish the race. Janice made me laugh, I passed her shortly after the food station (she was coming at me in the opposite direction), but she was focused and didnt see me. After the food station there was a group of people handing out shots of beer. This made me want to vomit, I think it was 8:30am at this point (the race started at 7:30am), so gross. Janice, the Creuzot that she is, did the shot of beer and kept on running! That's my girl, lol. Running along the water was the best part (see first image of Dallas Road), the sun was shining and the crowds were fantastic, I'm very thankful for their support. The sun was shining, there was a nice breeze, it was great. My time was 2 hours and 21 mins and Janice finished with a time of 2 hours and 53 mins. We rocked!
I'd like to say congrats to my friend Matt who won the 8k race with a time of 24:52. Way to go Matt!
