I must apologize. My trip to the Primitivo in Spain ended up being ‘muy’ social. I have some writing to do! I just got home from Spain Saturday. I met my two goals in the last three weeks: I ran the BMO Vancouver Marathon May 5 and the walked Camino Primitivo May 11-22.
Wow! I feel really proud of myself!
First, a recap on the marathon: Layla, Karla and I went to Vancouver the night before the race. Layla and I ran the full (26.2 mile) race together, Karla ran the 1/2 marathon. We met Marty out for dinner the night before and she ran the 8k race. I can happily report everyone finished happy and healthy.
Though I hoped to finish closer to four and a half hours, I walk/ran much of the last 10 miles for a 05:11:15 finish. My plan always included walk breaks just not quite as much Layla and I started the race together with 1 mile/1 minute walk cycles at the suggestion of my friend Polly at Fairhaven Runners. Around mile 10, I asked Layla to go ahead as her pace was a bit faster. She finished in 04:46:25. Karla finished the 1/2 in 02:19:53. and Marty finished the 8K in 00:56:41 placing in her age group!!
The whole truth is this. I knew I wasn’t going to do a PR. In fact, my fastest time is 4:36:00 at the 1998 Honolulu Marathon. It was my first and fastest marathon. I made the newbie mistake of going out too fast but was in fantastic shape and much younger. So, 21 years later, I’m about 40 minutes slower….so far.
I had three goals for this race:
- Finish.
- …with no injuries.
- …and a smile on my face.
Happily, I can say I met all three goals. Although my finish time was slow, I did finish. With the exception of some blisters, I was injury free. Thanks fantastic friends, Roger, his cousins and surprise family along the way, I had a giant smile on my face crossing that line.
Stay tuned, Camino Primitivo recap coming soon…
Links and info…
Polly Favinger at Fairhaven Runners
