Half marathon... check!

I feel giddy writing the title for my post. I did it! I ran a half marathon, my very first, and it wasn't so bad. It's pretty exciting to reach a goal you've set for yourself. My time was nothing stellar, or even good compared to some of the other runners, but it's my baseline for other races in the future, and I'm pretty proud of it. I ran in 2:33:05, close to my initial 2:30 goal.

Now, I have to admit that my legs are sore, and so are my knees. It's a long race, and a lot of work. Fortunately, I had booked a two-hour massage with Gerri this afternoon. It will help my poor legs on their road to recovery. No running this week, no heavy weights, just some light cardio. Gotta recover properly.

We were quite fortunate for the race, it was cool but sunny, barely windy. Volunteers were out in numbers, cheering runners and distributing water and Gatorade. At the post-race event, we had yummy bananas, oranges, yogurt, bagels, all organic or whole grain, and even some chicken-noodle soup. As soon as I stopped running, I cooled down really quickly so the warm bowl of soup was more than welcome.

One of my clinic buddies, Diane, took a picture of the 2:30 group before the race. I'll upload it to the blog as soon as she e-mails it to me.

Next up? The Sun Run in April (with the hope of running 10km under an hour), the Scotiabank half marathon on June 25, to keep me going, and, depending on how things are going, the Royal Victoria Marathon in October. Lara and Gerri promised they would be at the finish line in Victoria, cheering me on, if I run it, how can I disappoint them?