[Professional Blog] A great Experience!

The race on Sunday was a really wonderful experience that I was very glad to have taken part in. I was pleased that I beat my best training time by about 4 mins see it here http://runkeeper.com/user/GerryCarew/profile but as I said in some previous postings, upright and smiling was my main goal and I did that. I had listened to many people who ran in the past and got into difficulty simply by running too fast and I have to say I was very nervous. The reason is that each of these people told me that they hit a wall and just collapsed without much warning. About half way through the race the sun came out and the temperature went up and I could not keep the thought of my legs turning to rubber out of my head. Maybe this is what saved me because even though the people around me were running past I held back and stayed within my capabilites. The last half mile however was all downhill and I did push it harder and ran past many people and that was a good feeling. The other great thing was all the people on the sidelines cheering you on, you would be amazed at how much that helped as you run by.

The other lasting memory for me was being at the finish line as my brother and his two companions ran across the finish. They did it to raise awareness for the Soldier On program for more on that visit this site http://www.cfpsa.com/Splashpages/SoldierOn/

As they crossed the finish line they received a standing ovation from those who were sitting on the bank at Govt. grounds and when they entered the Ball field people were very appreciative stopping them and asking to have their pictures taken with them.

People have asked me if I am going to run the race next year and I have said no I will be retiring but who knows. My 7 year old has expressed interest in next years race and I told him if he runs it I will too.

The best thing about this is I have improved my fitness dramatically and that is a really good thing.