21.1K Later

With a difficult wake-up call at 5:30AM, and then full of butterflies in my stomach, I meandered over in the pelting rain to Nathan Phillips Square.

The people awake and bustling about for the marathon was amazing; I’m sure we annoyed many a homeless person on the street corners as we filed in from everywhere. I imagine if the producers of Harry Potter require another scene of people filing in to the World Quidditch Cup, they could just get a bunch of people going to a race in the morning.

At the Team in Training tent, since it was pretty much still pitch black without a peek of the sun, we slowly got organized and took a few photos. This photo is true to colour – it really was this dark when we took this photo. Oh, and the rain had thankfully stopped by then!

A second or two after the start of the race. The speedy guys were up front, check it out! You might see a yellow streak on the left there? I think that was an actual person… :-O

Me & Nicole, ten minutes later after the start gun and finally crossed the start line. It’s OK, the chip timing didn’t kick off until the start line.

Here I am, feeling pretty happy as I pass the 5K mark I think it was? Around there…

Then this guy shows me up at the 6K mark – he had 3K left in the half-marathon. This is when I’m really tempted to go, “Well, you really don’t need me here…see ya!”

…But since the rest of the 7,945 people in the half marathon were still running, I humoured everyone and continued on…

10K. And it was all downhill from here. I had maintained a pretty pace up until this point, and was on target to finish for 2:30:00, but fatigue will soon kick in (at about 17K), and by the time I’m done I’ve slowed down significantly in my last 5K. Boo.

A water station at 15K – it was nice to get fresh cold Gatorade rather than body-temperature ones from my water belt.

Alex followed me around on his bike and took pictures along the way, which was awesome and very nice of him, considering he didn’t go to bed until 3AM the night before.

2K left. I’m feeling a little destroyed, and also concerned – how should I tell Alex, via gestures, to find my sister and to remember to catch me at the finish line????

I didn’t end up telling him, and this is what happened:

Random brave people crossing the finish line. This was about 11 minutes too late. I’m not sure why Alex took this picture.

My legs are tired and stiff, and I had an afternoon episode of dehydration and exhaustion that required an extensive nap and some extra-strength Advil. I’m excited to have finished, and definitely aspire to do it again with a much more respectable time. For a girl who was always picked last in gym class though, I’m pretty happy that I did this at all.

Oh, and next week I have a 90 minute Swedish massage booked, so I’m excited about that too :-)