While we stood waiting for the start of the marathon Grizzly shared his race strategy: 1) do your best 2) have fun 3) no crying till the finish line. Well it gave me something to think about for the next 4 hours! We took off and starting running over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I have to admit it was kind of cool running over the bridge with 100s of other runners. Grizzly was the time keeper and kept us (hmm well actually me) in check - in fact I never looked at my watch at all the entire race - I had confidence that Grizzly would bring us in under 4 hours and all I had to do was follow his lead.
I was really looking forward to Centennial Park where my friend and her family were waiting to cheer us on. I have to admit when I did finally see them around 20km I was really happy to see them and for them to share in my challenge. We continued on our merry way and then it was just a matter of keeping on going to the end. One highlight was as we left Centennial park, the two guys standing on the corner playing a ukelele and signing Suspicious Minds. Along various sections of the course we had people running with us, but it was consistently Grizzly and I. The section through Darling Harbour wasn't much fun, in fact I was quite grumpy the bridges were hard work but it did bring me closer to my next markers - the Blue Peril and the little Red Car.
The last 1km was promoted by the Coolrunning Cheer Squad - which was much appreciated! I actually really enjoyed the last 500m, the street was lined with people and I clapped the hands of the little kids along the way. Just before the finish line Grizzly and I held hands to cross the line in 3hr 57min. I was estatic 33 minutes faster than my last marathon, I had run it with a good friend and I was greeted at the finish line by another friend. A great day was had by all.
So just because I like to reflect on these things what did I learn from marathon number 7?
1) Good company always makes the time go faster 2) sharing the marathon experience with non-running friends is very special for me 3) I have my running mojo back :)
