Today was the big day and, although, I was a little bit nervous beforehand, I was surprisingly calm.
I started off the day with a little warm up jog:
The number on my shirt here was NOT my predicted place at the finish line:
I told Sebastian that he could find me in the crowd by looking for my pink bandana...Can you find me?
This is the starting line. I wasn't at the front. I think that was reserved for the Kenyans and the olympic hopefuls. I guess I didn't make the cut.
And they're off!
Can you find the pink bandana again?
This picture is taken around 3 or 4 kilometers into the run. At this point I was still feeling very positive.
This picture is taken around the 20th kilometer. Trying to remain positive, but slightly more tired than in the previous picture.
But I continued that last 1.5 kilometers and FINISHED!!! With VERY tired legs.
There were LOTS of crazy fans after I finished who wanted my autograph. This is one of them:
I finally escaped the fans and got my certificate! I finished in 2hrs and 38min and came in 170th in my division (Women 25-35) and 863rd of about 4000! AND I got a sweet metal.
In the end, they decided not to award prizes for the fastest, but instead to the best looking. I was awarded first AND second place! And instead of a cash prize, I was awarded a bratwurst! I was a HAPPY RUNNER!
Thank you all for all your support over the past couple of months. I am so happy I finally did it and I have decided that I will probably just run a 10k next time.
Thank you, Sebastian, my mad fan for taking all the great pictures!
