A bit more to go and my half marathon

Only 11 days to go till the big day of the Marathon. I am starting to get excited (and scared at the same time. I have not quite figured out yet how these two work together). In the meantime I do the best I can to keep fit and positive. There is not much running around these days, just a bit to keep my legs on track. I did a few k in the morning and a few in the evening. It seems strange, almost as if my body does not want to move anymore. At least not before the big show. It must be related to my half marathon experience.

On the 25^th of March I went to Hastings for a half marathon. I have no doubts that this was one of the greatest days of my life. Before the day, I had not given too much thought to the race. As a real novice, I had not even checked the route, leaving everything to the last minute. So, it was a blast to see that Hastings was quite hilly and more than half of the route was running up the hill. In the end it did not matter, because I managed to finish the fist 20 something k of my life in a rather decent time for my standards: 2:35:30.

The experience was fantastic because of two main reasons: Marsha Providence and the energy of the street. Marsha was again my guarding angel. Her kindness and generosity are far beyond what I can describe! She woke up on a Sunday morning and travelled to Hastings with me, greeted me at the finish line, walked around with me, stretched with me and even asked people for chocolate to feed me. We finished our day in a Mexican restaurant in Charing Cross (thanks Javier for recommending it a million years ago).Thank you Marsha!

The other reason that made my day special was the incredible energy of the street. Frankly, I had never thought that I would be able to run so far. In fact if someone would have asked me to do it a year ago, I would have just laughed. In Hastings though, for the first time in my life it crossed my mind that maybe I could actually do that. It was probably the sun, the people cheering on the streets, the smell of the salty water, the oranges and the sweets given by the locals. It was that feeling of pure happiness when crossing the finish line, such happiness that literally took my breath away for a second.  I don’t know what it was, but if the London Marathon is half as good as Hastings experience then it is worth all the training and all the pain. Look forward to this one!