Zel won't mind me publishing this here. He is most grateful to all the people who helped get him to the marathon, including a few of those who will read this. It was a pleasure to be one of many contributing to Zel's progress.
Hello all,
Just to let you know, I managed to finish the Gold Coast Marathon in 3:40:11 but failed to qualify for the mother of all marathons - Boston 2007. I will try to do 3:30 in Sydney or Melbourne later this year.
It was, really, fantastic event with 20K+ participants. The temperature, for us Canberrans, was less impressive - in the last two hours of the race it reached 20+C°.
Overall, it was easier then I suspected. It is funny how occasionally fear of the unknown can be more horrifying then the unknown. From the beginning of the race I waited for something to happen to me after the 36th kilometer, but instead of a big bad wolf, I was humiliated by number leggy blondes who breezed by.
The pacers in my running group were horrible. We have been constantly running at different pace ranging from 4 .25 min/km to 4.50 min/km. After 15 km we were 4.5 min ahead of our targeted time...Until I dropped out, after 33 km, we haven’t run even two minutes at 4:58, which was my and their target.
I wish to sincerely thank you all for all your support in helping me get from 0 km/Hr to almost 12 km/Hr over 42 km in 14 months.
See you all in a month’s time.
Best regards,
Zel