33 Days to go
I have not blogged for a couple of weeks now mainly because my wife had our baby last week. Both are at home doing well.
Yesterday I ran the 1st Emocion Deportiva ½ marathon. This was another well organized event by Emocion Deportive. A great crowd of people running. The only thing that I would fault is the final water stations around the 20Km mark were missing, but this was only very minor as we were so close to the finish. At one stage between 12 – 14 Km's there was even someone handing out beer. I was tempted but decided not to. The route was great i got to see some great places along the way that i normaly would not have had the chance to see.
My personal run was hampered by a few things. I was so careful what I ate even declined the Taco's the rest of the family to avoid any sickness. The problem was I woke up at 5am with stomach ache. I was debating whether to run or not then I remembered what I had read or heard in one of my many magazines or DVD's 'you are already a winner by arriving at the start line'. So that was is it I took some medication and promised myself if I felt ill at any point I would drop out, but I was going to give it a go.
I arrived near the start point by 6 am, I had decided to take my care even though I could have gotten there by Metro, this was mainly just incase I pulled out. I started to get my final things organized only to find my Gatorade powder missing, then my start position bracelet had been left behind. Well at least it was now and not the full marathon in a months time. At this point I decided that there was no point taking my fuel belt, so I just took my power gels and car key.
The actual run went well, though I only had one gel because of my illness and limited my Gatorade intake as both aggravated my stomach. It was nice to see my wife and sister-in-law cheering me on at around the 17½Km mark as I was not expecting to see her because she had only been out of hospital for 4 days. Just before the 20Km mark I was slowing down to take a breather before a final 1km push to the finish when a Mexican Guy came up along side me and said ' don’t slow down its only 1 km to go' he then zoomed past me. I thought ok I will keep him in my sites so I picked up the pace and had a final 200 meter sprint to the finish. I did not catch the Mexican guy, he finished about 10 seconds before me (though I did check his chip time and overall I beat him be 5 seconds…..sorry). the other thing I noticed was the last 3 Km people that had already finished had come back down the track to encourage and run in with the people who were still on the course………….GREAT SPORTSMANSHIP I feel proud to live here amongst people with such great character.
When I arrived home I was greeted by the family who then made a nice ham and pancake breakfast before I crawled into bed to try and get over my illness.
