Monday, May 26, 2008

Peach City 1/2 Marathon!

First, there is no rhyme or reason for the placement of the photos, "blogger" isn't photo friendly in terms of making it easy to put up photos and arrange them with some coherency. I will add captions for all of them so there is a sense of where they are and what's going on.

So, four months of training have come to this. Kas, Ash, and me all signed up for the 1/2 marathon training clinic January 8th, 2008. We did it through Running Room, which is something I recommend to ANYONE no matter what your fitness level is. In fact there are several different programs through the Running Room that one could take, walking, learn to run, 5k, 10k, 1/2 Marathon, and Full Marathon (the one I am doing next).
The training program brought us up gradually to the 21.1 distance we needed to be able to complete. We in fact hit a 22k distance in the program, which was really rewarding because we were told we were only going to run 20km and the extra two was bonus...and when I say bonus, I mean bonus that we learned we could run that far, truthfully no one wants to run that far, just for the hell of it! We trained in ALL conditions but heat (note that is important) we ran in snow, in rain, in wind, over HUGE hills across rivers, on ice and the list goes on!
We managed to make a friend through the running group, her name is Erin. She had previously run a 1/2 before and enjoyed it and wanted to train again. She ended up being an incredibly valuable resource, since she was a huge proponent of eating right and making your own snacks and also very conscious of how training should work!
Eventually, Rob joined in the training...didn't take too much convincing actually! He had previously run the Penticton 1/2, so it was great having his knowledge added to ours!
I completed in 2:44!!! WOOT!! The day was blistering hot! Normally for May long weekend there is rain or at least cooler temperatures, however, on this particular day May 18th, it was 30 degrees in Penticton!! Freakishly hot! And none of us were ready for it. Erin couldn't run for health reasons, which was sad because she had been with us all that time. Rob didn't bring a water belt and had a cold (can we say pure misery?). The aid stations that promised water, sports drink and ice, only had water and sports drink and were space every 3km apart, except for two which were 4km apart. Consider how far apart that is, and how long that would take you to run it...sucks being that long without refreshment TRUST ME! At the turn around point which was at kilometre 13, the aid stations ran out of water...they ran out ALL THE WAY TO THE END!!! 30 degree weather and no water...my water belt got me to the turn around, but I didn't expect to not be able to fill it up with water...I took advantage of the sports drink but it was far from thirst quenching and no matter what sports drink it is, drink too much of it and it will rip up your gut!!
In the end, the moral of the story is that I, and my fellow runners, completed the marathon, we were upright and for the most part we were smiling! CONGRATULATIONS!!! And now on to the pictures!



Ashley is an inspiration. She went from absolutely NO RUNNING, NO EXERCISE to running in January and 1/2 marathon in May! She is most definitely a woman who should never be underestimated...at yet people continue to underestimate her! Their folly!

We both had no previous training, no experience with running long distances and I would add that we were certainly underdogs in many different ways, but we slogged it out and kicked that roads ass!


This is a picture of our group that ran. Me on your left, Ashley, Rob and Kasondra. We are basking in our glory and stories of how gruelling the run had been for all of us!

Ashley bringing it home lady style! Always with a smile that girl...she makes running look fun!

Of course everything is better when it is over! Time for some cold water and some foot massages...sadly only got water!

This is me with Erin, the girl who couldn't run because of health problems. This is the beginning of the race, when I was completely naive about what lay before me. I really had no idea what to look forward to. I don't know Penticton well and definitely couldn't even begin to imagine what the course would be like (nothing like I imagined). I even had myself turned around at this point, since I was convinced that Skaha was where Okanagan lake is...sadly, not the case! Almost cried when I put it together and realized I would have to run across the city before I even saw the lake that I was meant to run beside!!! GUH!

This picture is after I came in and across the line. We were waiting for Ashley and I was babying my poor left foot that had some tendon irritation OUCH!


some more pictures of us after finish.

Kasondra coming to the finish. She is the reason I took up the training in the first place. I think in October she asked me if would like to train with her for the 1/2, to which I responded with laughter, LOTS OF LAUGHTER. You see up to this point I hadn't ever run! Aside from running in highschool, there has never been a desire in me to run. I thought it was boring and cruel punishment. I had up to this point getting up and cycling and working out with weights and losing weight. But I had no inclination to be a runner at any point. She left for Ontario in December and I decided to give it a try to run. I ran for 45minutes straight for my first time and I didn't mind it and I didn't hurt...so I kept it up. I decided to give the training a try and incorporate running a 1/2 marathon in to my goal! WOW, thankyou Kasondra! I discovered I LOVE running and I am going to go even further and try and run a full marathon!!




Okay, these series of photos are very important. The woman running beside me and pretty much in front of me, is the reason why I sprinted over the finish line, rather than doing a nice slow jog that demonstrated how much pain I was in!! She had walked a large part of the last portion of the race and her and I kept playing a game of passing eachother. On the last kilometre I had pulled ahead of her, but she caught up at the half way point to the finish line. She was running beside me for a bit and then she decided to go faster, so I went faster and then she went faster so I went faster and so forth, eventually it got treacherous if my legs could possibly go faster so I had to let her go ahead of me!! GRRR!! NEXT YEAR LADY...NEXT YEAR!!
But really I am grateful to her, I would have totally snailed my way because of the pain I was feeling and she made me push beyond my muscle fatigue and dig in and really have a nice photo finish!


And here is Rob! You wouldn't know that he hadn't trained for more than a month and that he was suffering from a cold and seriously HUGE blisters UNDER his feet?? Oh and possibly dehydration since he didn't run with a water belt! Yeesh! If only I was in that good of physical shape! Seriously the guy is a machine and he has no idea!

here we are, crowded and waiting for the gun to go off and start the journey...I decided to chill myself out and roll back into my head and not think about what was before me, but rather day dream about anything random!

At last! A finish I enjoy! I will never forget this, I will always cherish it and remember it at every finish line I meet!