Sign me up for next year !!

Well here we are in all our glory (and a lot of pain in the middle pic!) Thanks to my Garmin GPS watch (early Birthday present!) I was able to pace us to perfection.... we started out a little fast - had to pull in the reigns a little as all the newbs were a little over-zealous !!!! I noticed a few people pulling out before mile 3 with shocked looks on their faces :( ... by the halfway mark we'd managed a very respectable 3hr14m which gave us some breathing room for the 7hr cutoff time. 18 miles was our landmark - we'd not gone further than that in training... we had beaten our previous time by over an hour! I would say the last mile was probably the toughest, longest mile of our lives but the feeling at the finish line was more than overwhelming... yes, there may have been a tear or two!

One of the things that motivated both of us was the crowd - hearing your name being called out by complete strangers is a little weird at first, but eventually you start to lean on the great support that everyone was giving... near the end a woman called out "Come on Sam, go get your medal - it's just around that corner waiting for you!!". It was enough to inspire a 'sprint' finish!!

Anyway Marathon #1 complete - I hope you'll stick around for the next one!