Raceday

I DID IT!

This morning I ran my first ever half marathon, 13.1 miles, or 21.1 kilometers. I never ran more than 10 miles, so this was definitely a new challenge for me. I ran with my good friend and we decided to go for a 2 hr final time, and lined up at the start close to the pace group for that time. It's a bunch of experienced runners that make sure we keep the right speed to end at a 2 hr time, and they were easy to spot with their yellow balloons. After about 2 or 3 miles I noticed that my friend was having some problems, but he told me to keep going and not to wait for him, so I stuck with the 2 hr group, and it kept on going really well. And after 11 miles I felt so good that I accelerated and got ahead of the 2 hr group. My final time was 1:58:13, pretty good for a first time, if I say so myself. My friend finished in 2:03, only a few minutes behind me.

Now I'm back home, relaxing with my family after a nice breakfast and a hot shower, watching NCAA basketball.

Race day coming up!

In less than 2 weeks, I am going to run my first half-marathon. I have been training on and off for the last 2-3 months, and I've had bad days and good days. On Sunday a week ago we ran 10 miles, and it was warm, I had some drinks the evening before, and it felt very bad. I walked at least 2-3 miles of the total route and it felt as I was completely out of shape and had no energy in my body. So I learned my lesson. Last Sunday we did the same route, and now we ran at 8 am, and I only drank water the evening before. What a difference! I felt like I was flying. We stopped at one point to drink some water at a fountain, and it took my 46 year old legs some time to warm up after that again, but I did it without much problems, and could easily have run a little bit more. That was our last long training, from now on we will only do shorter runs, the so-called 'tapering'.

I'm ready!

Birthday party

This weekend my son celebrated his 11th birthday. Amazing how fast he is growing up. We got a very nice birthday cake for him:

Then we went to a bowling alley where he invited some of his friends. It was difficult to take some nice pictures since all the kids were constantly running around, but this one turned out pretty good:

All in all a great weekend!

Spring is here!

I can hear the birds
Outside in the trees
All they tweet about is
Follow me, please

I'm sure they know that spring is here
There's not much else to do
What they are really saying is
I love you