We signed up in December and our training started in January. Our training was 4 days a week. 2 shorter (10K or less) runs during the week, an hour of stair training (we alternated between Ft. Canning Park(a park with a whole lot of stairs) and a 35 story condo) on Fridays and a loooong run on Saturdays. We took Sarah's marathon knowledge as well as a few training programs out of various books we had and came up with our own long run schedule. We had 2-21 mile runs (the longest distance we would run before the race). I can honestly say that I enjoyed the training UNTIL the last 3 weeks when we started to taper down for the race. It's the hardest mentally because you know you are prepared yet, there are 3 weeks left before the race.
The race was nothing short of AMAZING. As you can tell from the pictures we 'stopped to smell the roses' along the way to make sure we took in everything. There was no pressure to finish in a certain amount of time. We just wanted to finish and enjoy the surroundings. I mean we were running on the Great Wall of China!! There are few (however, the numbers are getting bigger) that can say they've done that. The people that lived in the village were great. The kids were giving everyone high-fives and handing out flowers. I can't say enough about what an amazing experience it was. I don't see myself doing it again however, if someone asked me to accompany them, I would have a hard time saying no.
Last but not least, I want to give a HUGE thank you to my WONDERFUL hubby. I am so glad he was there for my first marathon. All the 'action' shots are courtesy of him. He was AWESOME! Love you, punkie.
My sweet, sweet hubby!
The kids were great!
Another beautiful view.
Giving the sheep the right of way. You don't see this on many marathons!
WE DID IT!! 6:14:54"In running, it doesn't matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last. You can say, 'I have finished.' There is a lot of satisfaction in that."-Fred Lebow, New York City Marathon co-founder
