I just ran my first half-marathon!

I did it!  I ran all 21.1 kilometers of the SMH half-marathon in about two hours today.  Don’t worry I’ll let EVERYONE know my official time when I find out what it is.

At 7.10am this morning I was standing in the starters area on College Street, 100 meters back from the starting line.  At 7.30am the starting gun went off, the crowd cheered, I waved goodbye to Eddie, then I stood still for about a minute.  Not because I panicked or anything silly like that.  I was standing still because there were so many people standing still in front of me.  I’m just happy we all had timing chips attached to our shoes ’cause if our start time had been when the starting gun was shot, I’m fairly sure I would have been trampled under-foot in the midst of a feral charge. 

About two hours after the starting gun I was running up the middle of Hyde Park towards the finish line and looking out for Eddie, who was going to be cheering me on…  Unfortunately, he believed me when I said I would probably be running six minute kilometers.  So, he arrived at the finish line while I was relaxing in the cool down area and eating an orange with my medal and copy of the Sun Herald.

Eddie redeemed his poor effort when he told me he knew he had missed me as soon as he reached the finish-line.  Apparently, he “knew” I’d be in better shape than the “rear-enders and crawlers” he saw “bringing up the rear.”  Hmmm.

So, now I’m exhausted, but thinking I’d like to do it again next year.