Summer Vacay - Day 44: Race Day

Today was the day. SeaWheeze half marathon 2012. My first ever half marathon. 21.1km of running in the morning sun. How was it? AWESOME. Somehow I got some sleep even with all the anticipation making by body jittery all night long and I woke up on time. Great start. I ate my banana and peanut butter sandwich and we made our way to the race starting point. What I didn't anticipate was the hoards of people I would have to battle just to get over the start line. It was making nervous looking at all these sporty looking people decked out in their gear ready to go.

Thankfully I didn't have to wait too long before it was time to go and the first corral was off. In went my ear buds and on went the music and as soon as the hundreds of people surrounding me started to move I was off fighting for my place. Holy, I had no idea so much aggression would be needed just to survive the first kilometer. Thankfully my stuffiness caused by my cold cleared around the 1st km too which was a huge help. The run was so beautiful and I cruised. The first half of the marathon was in the city but still a lot of that along the coast. I was able to see Ryan, dad and Kait cheering me on at one point which was totally energizing. The second half of the run was along the coastline along Stanely Park which was beautiful. I loved it. They had loads of water stations (which I didn't need) and I was able to get my gel packs down my throat without too much gagging on the thick texture in my kind of dry mouth.

The last few kilometers were SO hard. I had no trouble breathing but my legs were so tired. I am proud to say however I ran across that finish line and was greeted by my family and it felt awesome. My chip time read 1:50.05 putting me at an average of 5:15/km and placing me 368th out of 4769 women. My GPS along with everyone else I overheard had the race at 21.7km which would explain why that last kilometer seemed to go on forever.

Overall I am super pleased with my run. Everything went smoothly, I was hydrated the whole time and it felt good.
We celebrated by going to the Vancouver Whitecaps soccer game versus Salt Lake Real where Vancouver won. It was nice to sit in the sun (which was a little too much for some) and give my legs a break and soak up the awesomeness of being able to cross off 'half marathon' from my bucket list.

The kids today: More beach and more biking. Seriously, could life be any better for a kid? But seriously .... I just ran a half marathon!