WOW! 4 months of training and carefull hope payed off. I just finished the Ottawa Half-Marathon this morning with a final time of 2:07:37 
I'm sore all over but I feel pretty darn good despite it. It was my first real race except for a 10k race back in April for a little event practice and let me tell you, the measly little 400 person 10K was nothing compared to the 15,000 that showed up in Ottawa, totally overwhelming.
We stayed with my fiances cousins who live about an 1.5hr from Ottawa and left around 6:20 this morning to get there for a 9am start. The drive was nice untill we got to the downtown area and I forgot to account for the road closures. So after 20mins of backtracking we made a dash from the parking garage to the race site and then found the race-kit pickup location. I have to say that the event staff were fantastic and even though hundreds of people were as late as me, it only took me 10mins to get through the lineup, awesome! Then it was last minute washroom time and though there was at least 40 porta-potties, the lineup was over 15mins long
That's OK, I still made it in and out and to the corral with 10mins to spare 
As I was standing there waiting for the race to start and I heard the anouncer call out the 5 minute mark, I was suprised to find myself welling up with a few tears. I had absolutely no idea it was going to be so emotional before the race even started. I got myself psyched up and waited for the gun and then we began the slow trot to the start line. The race course was pretty neat, starting first by winding past the Canadian parliment, across the river into Quebec and then back into Ottawa for an amazing run down the Rideau canal. There was lots of water/gatorade stations, a gel stations halfway through, a sponge station around 15k and even a wonderfull spectator handing out freezies
My right knee and leg had been tight for a few days but after the first 4k it started to melt away and it was untill the last 6k that I started to feel the burn in my knees. I made it right through to 20k no problem and then I hit a low hedge of a wall. My throat was feeling dry and swollen and I found myself weezing as I breathed which was messing with my mental state. For some reason I decided the solution was to suck it up, skip my last 1min walk break (I run for 15, walk for 1) and pick up my pace a little. Suprisingly it worked and before long I began to see the final distance markers. 1km, 750m, 300m....and DONE 
I didn't see my fiance as I was crossing in the throngs of people but she managed to pick me out of the crowd and snap a photo right before the finish line, she's fantastic!
The finish area was crowded but moved well. There was skids and skids of water cases just yards past the finish line and then about 40 volunteers ready to cut off chips. There was a food tent right past that with bagels, yoghurt, bananas, protein bars, granola bars and lots of Gatorade. Then came the 30min search for my lovely Lindsay as somehow we had neglected to set a meeting spot beforehand. I finally found her standing on top of a waterfountain where she damanded that I bow to her the way eveyone else had been doing as they got a drink
My life would never ever be as interesting or fun filled if it weren't for her 
After all that, I don't really know what to say. My journey began almost two years ago at close to 250lbs (see my signature picture) when I decided after being embarased to be seen at Disney in a bathing suit that I would get a gym membership. My lowest weight was 170 mid-April though I've gained a little since then. Since I was in grade 9 I had always imagined what it would be like to be a long distance runner. It just seemed incredible and unfathomable for me to ever run a distance of 5 miles, let alone for over 2 hours. Around October it started to become a distant posibility. In December I decided that I was going to do it. I decided on the Ottawa race even though there was another one in my home town of Mississauga but it was on the weekend we were scheduled to leave for Disney. I followed a training program I found on the RunningRoom website which had me running 5 times a week starting from the end of January. The program was great and paced wonderfully, I think I'll follow a similar program when I decide to move on to a full marathon. I missed a few runs along the way but I even managed to drag myself out of bed at 6AM while in WDW to do laps of Pop Century. Geuss what my Lindsay did? She slept like any other sane person would
Finally, a huge thanks
to all you wonderfull Wishers! It was reading all of your reports and the shared motivation which really made me realize that this was something I really could do if I set my mind to it. Thanks a ton! I've never considered myself to be a motivational person but now people around me are all starting to dust off their shoes and get running. Now it's time to move on to the full marathon which was originally going to be at Disney but I think I'm going to push it back untill next years Ottawa run to give myself a full year to train and improve.
Happy days everyone
I'm sore all over but I feel pretty darn good despite it. It was my first real race except for a 10k race back in April for a little event practice and let me tell you, the measly little 400 person 10K was nothing compared to the 15,000 that showed up in Ottawa, totally overwhelming.
We stayed with my fiances cousins who live about an 1.5hr from Ottawa and left around 6:20 this morning to get there for a 9am start. The drive was nice untill we got to the downtown area and I forgot to account for the road closures. So after 20mins of backtracking we made a dash from the parking garage to the race site and then found the race-kit pickup location. I have to say that the event staff were fantastic and even though hundreds of people were as late as me, it only took me 10mins to get through the lineup, awesome! Then it was last minute washroom time and though there was at least 40 porta-potties, the lineup was over 15mins long
That's OK, I still made it in and out and to the corral with 10mins to spare As I was standing there waiting for the race to start and I heard the anouncer call out the 5 minute mark, I was suprised to find myself welling up with a few tears. I had absolutely no idea it was going to be so emotional before the race even started. I got myself psyched up and waited for the gun and then we began the slow trot to the start line. The race course was pretty neat, starting first by winding past the Canadian parliment, across the river into Quebec and then back into Ottawa for an amazing run down the Rideau canal. There was lots of water/gatorade stations, a gel stations halfway through, a sponge station around 15k and even a wonderfull spectator handing out freezies
My right knee and leg had been tight for a few days but after the first 4k it started to melt away and it was untill the last 6k that I started to feel the burn in my knees. I made it right through to 20k no problem and then I hit a low hedge of a wall. My throat was feeling dry and swollen and I found myself weezing as I breathed which was messing with my mental state. For some reason I decided the solution was to suck it up, skip my last 1min walk break (I run for 15, walk for 1) and pick up my pace a little. Suprisingly it worked and before long I began to see the final distance markers. 1km, 750m, 300m....and DONE I didn't see my fiance as I was crossing in the throngs of people but she managed to pick me out of the crowd and snap a photo right before the finish line, she's fantastic!The finish area was crowded but moved well. There was skids and skids of water cases just yards past the finish line and then about 40 volunteers ready to cut off chips. There was a food tent right past that with bagels, yoghurt, bananas, protein bars, granola bars and lots of Gatorade. Then came the 30min search for my lovely Lindsay as somehow we had neglected to set a meeting spot beforehand. I finally found her standing on top of a waterfountain where she damanded that I bow to her the way eveyone else had been doing as they got a drink
My life would never ever be as interesting or fun filled if it weren't for her After all that, I don't really know what to say. My journey began almost two years ago at close to 250lbs (see my signature picture) when I decided after being embarased to be seen at Disney in a bathing suit that I would get a gym membership. My lowest weight was 170 mid-April though I've gained a little since then. Since I was in grade 9 I had always imagined what it would be like to be a long distance runner. It just seemed incredible and unfathomable for me to ever run a distance of 5 miles, let alone for over 2 hours. Around October it started to become a distant posibility. In December I decided that I was going to do it. I decided on the Ottawa race even though there was another one in my home town of Mississauga but it was on the weekend we were scheduled to leave for Disney. I followed a training program I found on the RunningRoom website which had me running 5 times a week starting from the end of January. The program was great and paced wonderfully, I think I'll follow a similar program when I decide to move on to a full marathon. I missed a few runs along the way but I even managed to drag myself out of bed at 6AM while in WDW to do laps of Pop Century. Geuss what my Lindsay did? She slept like any other sane person would
Finally, a huge thanks
to all you wonderfull Wishers! It was reading all of your reports and the shared motivation which really made me realize that this was something I really could do if I set my mind to it. Thanks a ton! I've never considered myself to be a motivational person but now people around me are all starting to dust off their shoes and get running. Now it's time to move on to the full marathon which was originally going to be at Disney but I think I'm going to push it back untill next years Ottawa run to give myself a full year to train and improve.Happy days everyone
Let me tell you -- there is nothing like it in the world! 
