It has been one week since the Seattle half marathon. I didn’t know it at the time but running legend Joan Benoit Samuelson was the fourth place woman in the half marathon. For those of you non sports buffs, she was the winner of the first ever women’s Olympic marathon in 1984. I’m honoured to have run in the same race as her. Very cool.

Final placement statistics

Gun time: 2:02:24
Chip time: 1:59:56
Place overall: 1958/6015 (67 percentile)
Place females: 722/3476 (79 percentile)
Place F25-29: 145/685 (78 percentile)

Post-race recovery

I took a full seven days off after the race. I was pretty sore on Sunday night and Monday but by Tuesday evening the soreness was gone. The only exercise I got last week was 5 one-way 3.5 km trips walking to or from school. We had a week of snow and below freezing temperatures so the buses were not running consistently and I chose to walk. The walking actually felt pretty good and probably stopped me from going totally stir crazy. This morning I awoke to clear skies and cool temperatures. Perfect weather for a run. I did an easy 5 miles and although nothing hurt my legs did feel a little heavy.

The plan for the rest of 2006

Well I’m in Seattle for two more weeks before I head home for Christmas. Over that time I’d like to do a few easy runs and some cross training. Nothing too intense though. I’d also like to do a bit of weight training. I really think I have to work on my leg strength in preparation for the marathon. Usually my legs give out before my lungs so I have to work on that. Once I’m on Christmas vacation all bets will be off in terms of running. While I’m in Ottawa I’ll be able to run on my parents’ treadmill but the rest of the time I’ll probably just relax. I don’t think I’m prepared to run outdoors in Ontario but you never know, maybe the weather won’t be too bad.