This is the actual picture of my sister and me in Central Park after walking the 14.2 miles. Don't we look attractive?! (read: sweaty!)

You can't believe how exciting it was to be a part of the 10,000 women in the Marathon. It was such a powerful feeling....and I know that I'm not the only person who feels this way. There were lots of women who walked/ran for the first time in this Marathon. (these first time walkers are probably the reason the marathon was turned into a "fun run.") There were lots of teams of women who came to NYC together. I saw a set of t-shirts which read, "It took me 60 years to look this good!" I loved that one! I don't know what our shirt will look like next year, but I do know that we will have one. Anyone interested in joining us?

April 29, 2009 Post Race

It's true! I spent 5 days in New York City, and power/walked the half marathon on Sunday! Here's the entire truth....it was so hot (90 degrees!) on race day, that the race organizers cancelled the full marathon, and decided not to time the race. This meant that anyone scheduled to run the full marathon (not me!) was told that she would run the half marathon. I heard that there were about 200 out of the 10,000 attendees who had sign up to run the full marathon. Everyone else was stopped after one and a half laps around Central Park (who knew it was THAT big??) Essentially, we did 7.5 miles, but my sister and I decided that we had trained and wanted to finish the half marathon, so we collected our medals, grabbed some water and kept walking. After it was all said and done, we walked 14.2 miles!!! The important note is that we were NOT sore that day, or the next. We continued to walk at least 10,000 steps each day in New York, so the total steps in 5 days exceeded 80,000 steps!
I have met my goal of the half marathon even though it was not exactly as we had planned. I'm proud of myself, and pleased with how my body handled the challenge. Next step: running the 5K at our parish festival the first Saturday in June. (no walking!)