Twenty one is so much fun!

Well, here I am in all my glory. Neither my dad nor my camera-happy housemate have seen fit to send all my wonderful post-race pictures, so I am forced to resort to Action Sports International's oh-so-flattering portrayal. And trust me, this was by far the best shot, the others are classified...!

Well, what can I say about 21 kilometres? (Okay, okay, 13.1 miles)

-It's the farthest distance I have ever run in my life.
-It took me longer to finish it than it did for someone to win the marathon (which took place simultaneously).
-The first female marathoner came in after me, though. Ha.
-Oh, yeah, it was a total blast.

I wish I had some photos of my behind to share with you all. It was really, really sexy. Okay, backtrack, I'll explain that one. I realized the night before the race that I had neglected to consider one important conundrum: where was I to stash my carbo gels? After much scratching of head and gnashing of teeth, I settled on stowing them in a little invisible money belt, the kind you stick under your pants when you don't want your passport snarfed. And then I thought, while I'm at it, why don't I just chuck my key and my phone in there too, so I don't have to check baggage? Brilliant. Except I couldn't wear it as a fanny pack, it bounced too much - so, you guessed it, I wore the belt in its rightful position - under my shorts and on my ass. Like I really needed to look bigger down there. Still, I was happy with the functionality of the arrangement, and I marveled at the poor souls I passed who were running with big galumphing fanny packs, and one guy with a full-sized backpack. Seriously! They have water stations for a reason, hun, what the hell were you carrying? This is all a very long-winded plea for advice, if after the fact: what is a good way to store gels on the go (assuming that I didn't want to bring my bulky torso pack)?

Anyway, my hippo heiny and I plodded our way slowly but surely through the miles. I kept the first one slow, around 11min, which I figured I could reasonably keep up. But lo and behold, from there on in, every time my Garmin beeped I was thoroughly surprised and delighted to see the numbers consistently around 10:30. I even managed a 10:05 for mile 12 - that was the mile where my family came to cheer. Yay! After that it was just an onslaught of uplifting emotions as I fought to the finish with a huge grin on my face (accounting for most of the unflattering pictures - it's hard to grin and gasp for air at the same time without looking like a dying platypus). Energy welled up inside me as I sung an endless refrain of "I've done it, I've done it, I've really done it!" Who would have thought - short little Liv, with her short little legs, and she made it - all the way. 2:19:27 - a very pleasing first time, as I was aiming for 2:30 or so - and happy to be on the faster side of "or so"!

There were times, during my training, when I would lie down on the kitchen floor after a 10 mile run, dehydrated and exhausted, thinking "what ever possessed me to do this? It's ridiculous. After this race I'm never doing distance again. And forget ever bothering with a full marathon, schmarathon - what an illusion."

But running the half changed all that. I know I can do long distance, and I know that I love it. I'm dusting off that illusion again, and turning it back into a dream.