It is OVER!!! Thank God it’s over. I did it!!! It was hard but I completed it only stopping once to use the restroom. I'll do my best to describe the race. I spent the evening before loading up on carbs, my buddy and I went to an Italian restaurant and we had lots of pasta and bread to get ready for the run ahead. The race started at exactly 8am. It was a beautiful day. The temperature was about 69, the sun was out and it was not windy, an Ideal day to run. There was so much excitement in the air, thousands of people getting ready to run. I had an energy bar and a pop tart, some coffee and a lot of water. I felt good at the start of the race but unfortunately I started to tire at about mile 2 because I was not used to the hills. There were so many rolling hills through out the entire race. Fortunately at about mile 3 my body adjusted to the hills and I changed my strategy. Prior to adjusting to the hills I was working extremely hard to get up the hills and also exerting a lot of energy going down the hill because I was sprinting down the hills. I quickly stopped doing that as soon as I noticed that I was tiring, I started holding a consistent pace up and down the hills and that word out great for me. Through the whole race I stopped only once due to the effects of all the water I drank before the race. I wont lie I felt like stopping a few times during the race but I just kept telling myself that my training will be all a waste if I do, So I kept pushing and even had enough left in the tank to sprint for the finish as soon as it came into view; the crowd waiting at the finish line loved it, they went crazy as soon as they saw me sprinting at the end. I completed the race in 2hrs31mins ranking 922/1159. Not too proud of my ranking. ;-)

It was a great experience, during the race I was thinking I might never do it again, but now that it’s over I want to do it again and hopefully I'll repeat it next year. With better results. For all those who are interested let me know, we can train together.

Thanks to all who followed my blog to the end. Thanks for all the encouragement and support. To all who think it’s impossible, YOU CAN DO IT TOO!!!

Its 4 days till race day and I am just about ready for the race. Training has going well so far. I had a good training program last week, except that I was unable to do my long run until yesterday. Yesterday I ran 12 miles; it was great all the way till I got to 11 miles. It all hit me as I reached 11; I had to will myself to the finish. I was wondering what they said about if you can do 10 you'll be able to do the half marathon with no problem. I hit a wall once I got to 11. That last mile felt like it would never end. I hope that race will be better; at least I know I can push myself beyond my breaking point. Now I just have to get plenty of rest for my body to recuperate for the race. I am a little nervous about the race because the other day I looked at the elevation profile for the course and there are two 120ft hills, unfortunately my training has been on relatively smooth grounds. Wish me your best; I'll be sure give a final report of my race day experience and my final thoughts. Thanks for keeping track of my progress.

Last week was a good week of training. I exceeded my goals during the week; but unfortunately due to the activities of the long weekend, I did not do my long run which was suppoesed to be another 10 mile run. In order to make up for missing my long run, I ran 8.5 miles yesterday instead of my required 4 miles. I hope it does not come back to hunt me. I plan on resting today and contune training as usual on Thursday. I'm scheduled to run 11miles this weekend for my long run. I am hoping to run it on Friday since I'll be going out of town on Saturday. Looks like I have a busy 3 days of training ahead of me. ;-) I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

We are officially in September folks, amazing how time flies. Last week was a weird week. I anticipated not doing too much running last week due to my schedule. I was right, unfortunately during the week I only got to train once, a four mile run on Wednesday. Nonetheless, I decided to do my long run on Friday, and I successfully achieved another milestone in my training process. I ran 10 miles straight. It felt good. I am beginning to feel great about the run, according to some training programs; they say if you can run 10 miles, you’ll be able to run the whole 13.1 miles. This week looks promising, I already did a 4.5 mile run yesterday and I hope to have a good week of training. I’ll be sure to keep you informed.