I did it! I did it!!

Oh my God! Auckland marathon. What an experience!

The day before, 31st October, I was all nervous and excited. Got all my stuff ready for the big day.



2009 Marathon shirt by Adidas and yup, I'm 2943 report!



Pretty cool logo huh!



And all the necessities: Energy gel, bum bag, vaseline, plaster, cap, camera and of course, shorts.

If you wonder why vaseline and plaster? Well, vaseline is to rub on areas like armpits and between groin to avoid chaffing. Say no more... And plaster? Please see the below photo...



Quite self explanatory. Last thing I need is to finish the run with bleeding nipple as a result of rubbing against my shirt... Yes me nipples are tender..

I went to bed at about 5pm on Saturday, my earliest bed time ever. Was good thou, I woke up by 3am on Sunday morning and was all hyped up. After a few stretches and good preperation, dear hubby dropped me off at Devonport. I had about one and a half hour on my sleeve so I walked around sussed out where the start line is so that I wouldn't start too far back.



Full marathon started at 6.10am and my event half marathon started at 6.45am.



There were many contestant for the full marathon but even more for the half.



One thing that annoyed me, just a little bit, was the loo incident. I had to queue to use port-a-loo for about 20 minutes before it came my turn. And I was only in there for less than a minute... People must have last minute toilet rush or just nervous like me.

Anyway 6.45am came and the race started. It was an experience, a good one, hearing so many runners' shoe pounded the road together! My first 10 kilometer went fairly quick. Was it the adrenalin? Or was it the result of my training? I don't know but was sure surprised!

Running on motorway up towards Auckland Harbour Bridge was another whole new experience for me. It was noisy but quiet at the same time. Noisy because of cars and trucks drove pass us. Quiet because on the bridge, wind and our own heavy breathing was all that we hear. That was the sort of experience I don't get everyday.



And I was running in front of Ghost Busters. Talked about experience~



The hardest part? Yes of course!! Last 5 kilometers were the hardest. While running, it felt like my legs were pounding the concrete so hard and yet I wasn't moving any faster. See my face expression in the photo below? It's called struggling...



Went I turned onto Fanshaw Street, finish line was within sight. 200 meters to go I thought to myself. And then suddenly I felt this adrenalin rush and I was literally so high that I just sprint thru to finish and hit my first ever personal best of 2hr 25min 26sec!!





Ha quite proud of myself actually, to have completed my first ever half marathon. I actually received a certificate from the organizer too!! And guess what? I just realized when I enrolled many moons ago, I enrolled as a walker because I didn't expect myself to run this thing and I forgot to change it over!!!!



Arrgghhh!!! Gutted!! Oh well, end of the day, I knew I ran it and happy with the end result.



I'm sure there will be more runs to come!! I had a blast!!!