Royal Victoria Marathon - 1/2 for me !

Wow !! So many people and such energy in the crowds ! It always amazes me to see so many people in one place and so many FIT people in one place is even better ;-) Everyone is there to showcase what they can on the day but the fact remains that every one out there is doing it ;-)

I ran the half marathon and I went in feeling relaxed. I haven't been running a lot the past few weeks and was feeling unsure about how it would go. Brent threw together a training plan 7 days out (!!) and I followed that. I have to say though, the best advice came from Bill...he said to just go out as hard as you possibly can, that way you'll be way ahead of where you would normally be and then you can just relax the rest of the way in !! This coming from the guy who sat on a bike trainer for 12 hours straight !!! I thought, sure, I've never tried that before. It's always the same: Go out controlled and pick it up the second half...time to switch it up a little !!!!!

My last half marathon was in Kona back in May. At that race I ran 8 minutes faster than my previous 1/2 marathon which was a year and a half earlier. I was happy with that ! So I wasn't sure how I would go on Sunday, having not many miles in my legs. But I went out faster than normal and when I looked at my watch at 10k in, I was shocked at the time -but I seriously suffered after that :( I'm not sure if it was because it registered how fast I just went and that I still had 11.2k to go, or that I just had hit a wall.

Whatever the reason, from 10k to 12k I hurt. It was really tough and thankfully my parents were there in between that point to push me on. Then it was down the hill back onto Dallas, up the hill and then the part that I dislike the most !! All those corners and you think you are almost done,,,but you're not because there's another freaking corner, and oh another one and another one and...you get it. I decided to put myself at the 6k marker at Elk / Beaver lake and visualize where I was on THAT trail rather than those corners !!!! It totally worked ! I really have little memory of that last part and it went by so fast. That is also the time in the race that becomes the most mentally challenging and I really didn't struggle at all. I did, however, struggle when I looked at my watch and saw that I had 45 seconds to make it under 1:45 and I still had the whole stretch left to the finish line. I pushed hard and made it to the line in 1:44:42 !!! That's EIGHT minutes faster than Kona !!! So that is also 16 minutes faster than two years ago ;-)

I am very happy with my race and happy to see that I can push myself and not die !! It is all about pushing your personal limits and sometimes somebody will say something to you that will tweek something in your mind that ends up making a difference...

So thanks Bill !!!