Last year I participated in the 1/2 Marathon walk portion of the Okanagan International Marathon in Kelowna, BC. I went with my sister in law Danielle and we had such a blast! I could hardly walk for a couple days after that but boy was it worth it - it was definately a rush. So, this year I talked a friend of mine, Alanna into joining me. If the truth be told she could probably run the full marathon and do really well but because she loves me so much (smile) she's willing to come down to my level and speed walk the 1/2 marathon! What are friends for eh? Anyways, my goal is to meet or beat my last year's time. There's a bit of a story behind that. Last year there were quite a few walkers who from time to time jogged a portion of the route. I wasn't sure it was legal or not but the competitiveness in me just couldn't idley stand by and see them get ahead so I decided to jog portions myself. Well, I did really well and actually could have received an award for my category but we didn't stay for the ceremonies. In my mind I really wanted to know if the occasional jogging was legal or illegal in the race. It didn't specifically state "no running" in the rules but I felt deep down that perhaps a walk marathon meant you actually had to walk. So, this year I emailed the organizer and asked point blank it the occasional jogging was permitted. He responded with a very firm negative on that and said if any of the officiators saw "walkers" running they could be disqualified. So, there you have it. In my mind I have denied my placement from last year (I think it was 2nd in my category of 40 - 50 year olds) and this year I intend to redeem myself by getting a time equal or better to that of last year. It won't be easy as I probably ran close to 1/2 hour of the 2 hours and 48 minutes it took to complete the 21.1 kms but my only hope is Alanna, who so far has pushed me to the extreme in our training. You know, she could probably run an exercise boot camp!
Anyways, I'll let you know how it went. The race is on Sunday morning at 7am and I'm sooo looking forward to it!
5 comments:
Deanne your in awesome shape and would have no problems beating me...but I can't let you do that!!
Go, girl! Why don't you two hold hands and step across the line at the same time? Then again..maybe not..
Good luck! I hope the weather is good.
And no cheating this time!
So, I can't wait to hear all about it! Hope it was fantastic, and you whooped all the cheaters' butts!
Good for you aunty D!
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