Kili Half Marathon done!!!!

After several weeks cramming in some training, today I ran the Kili Half Marathon!

I've done a half marathon before, but this one was rather epic.  Even the training was a funny experience, since some of the world's fastest runners come from East Africa.  The week before last when I was out running I had a local runner stop and say, "Madam, are you ok?" with a total look of concern!  Yes, I'm ok, this is just how I look when I run....sigh!  It was so sweet how encouraging everyone was in the training weeks though.  Whenever another runner runner would pass me (which happened often!) they would give me a mini round of applause, which was often enough motivation to do another few kms.

After getting up at 5:30am all the people running from our organisation met up to walk 2kms to the start line.  Parking is rather crazy so it was the only option!  Six other people did the half (including 3 housemates) whilst others did the 5km.  We'd been on a drive around the course last night so I knew what to expect: lots and lots of hills!  Thankfully it's the first half of the race that is hilly, and the second half is generally a gentle downhill slope, except for a hill right at the end which was sooo painful!  I managed to run the whole thing, and only really felt pain for the last 3kms. By that time it was pretty hot too!  I kept a slow pace and finished in around 2hrs 35 mins.  It was great being part of a group, and seeing people I knew watching along the course.  Having friends cheer and in turn cheering for others when they entered the stadium was really special.  We were all so stoked to finish, though not so stoked about walking 2kms uphill back to our car...after all that running it hurt!  Lovely Allie stood at the finish line and took some epic photos.  I think there are some professional ones available on the website at some point so I'll add those later too.

Half Marathon gals before the craziness began....

Walking to the start line....still bedtime methinks

Allie took a pretty pic of Kili at the stadium!

Entering the stadium...woot!

Taylor and I in the aftermath...

Go team HOPE!

Kara, Alma, Taylor, Rebecca and I.  We did it!

 It has been a rather intense day and I'm loving every bit of relaxing now before school tomorrow. Overall though, I'm happy to have another special memory (+ medal and t-shirt!) from this beautiful part of the world.  Only three weeks until school holidays!