One Week later.

Wow, here I am Monday afternoon at work (and now monday night at home) reflecting on our trip after being asked a gazillion times how the trip was.

Iceland is amazingly beautiful, Waleah mentioned earlier that we would love to go back someday soon and I cannot wait.
The scenery was so diverse it was unlike anywhere I have ever been. I would highly recommend to anyone to make the trip (as expensive as it is, totally worth it if you love nature.)
Culture night in Reykjavik was a total gong show, it reminded me of seeing the downtown's on TV when Edmonton and Calgary were making their playoff runs in the Stanley Cup, people on the streets drinking and partying until 6:00am. The cops just stood on the sidelines letting it all happen and only moved to break up trouble (which doesn't happen as much as I would expect), walking around our hotels at 2:00am was kinda surreal to be honest.

Natalie from work mentioned to me today she has a friend with a poster that says,

"A Marathon Runner has one less thing to complete in life"


The feeling of just finishing the marathon was amazing, when Waleah and I crossed that line in front of strangers, team-mates and my parents it made these last 8 months of training and fund-raising all worth-while. I was saying before the marathon that I didn't think I would ever do another, but now I'd be surprised if I didn't. The run itself was very tough, even though the first 18km went really well, I started off at a good pace and joined a couple of other Team D runners, Ryan and Paul. At about the 2km mark there was someone cheering us on that had a sign "Race your Pace", it was a great reminder not to get too caught up in the excitement and thank god for my GPS which gives me an instant pace, there were a couple of times we really started to speed up after running past people cheering us on and I was able to slow down. Paul pulled away from us at about the 8km mark and when we crossed the 10km marker at 1:07 I was very happy.

10k in I was feeling strong and ready to conquer. We passed my Mom and Graham at about 11km and got another boost of energy. By this time there was a small group of us and Ryan and I were being drafted since the wind was so strong. It didn't seem to matter which way we were running there always seemed to be a strong headwind, never a tailwind. Everything was going well until the 18km mark. My calves started to cramp something fierce, it happened in a pretty long hill and some doubt started to creep in. From there I started to walk quite a bit more. I was able to keep a good walking pace of about an 8-9 minute km but whenever I started to run the cramps came back after a couple of minutes. I crossed the halfway mark at 2:28 and was quite happy to get in under the 2:30 mark. At this point of the run it became very lonely, there was a guy from Winnipeg and another lady within sight of me but we were running in a park and there were very few people to cheer us on, one particularly fond memory was coming out of an underpass, turning a corner and seeing a wonderful waterfall. This was about the time the quads started to cramp, every water station I was taking a couple of PowerAde's and refilling my water bottle to try to rehydrate my legs so I could run some more. I did this until I caught up with Waleah.

When I saw her I ran about half a km to catch up and when I did slow down I could barely walk. From there Waleah and I walked (and ran for short 1-2 minute intervals) at varying paces fast and slow until the end. Mom and Graham met us at about 30km and told us they would meet us at the finish line, I'm glad that we were able to spend the last part of the race together, not letting the other give up or slow down too much. John (a running room trainer) met us at about 38km to make sure we were ok and didn't need anything, with some words of encouragement he sent us along and proceeded to keep going back to make sure all of us Team D members were accounted for and "brought in". I will mention that John started at 8:00am with the charity start and backtracked who knows how many times to check in on all of us Team D members, in the end I'd guess he did over 50km that day. As hard as the last 4km were there were Team D people there to cheer us on and make it a little more bearable, Steve (another Running Room trainer) met us at 41km and told us what to expect at the finish line, when Waleah told him we were going to run that last bit I think he was surprised. Once we came around the corner and saw the finish line and that 42km cone, we took off and ran that last 200 meters, I honestly did not think I was going to be able to do it since my legs cramped almost immediately, the main thing that kept me going was fear of failure in front of all those people watching and cheering us on. When that medal was put over my head it was a pretty damn good feeling and when Waleah and I were able to stop and say "we just did a marathon together " it was even better.

I am very glad that I took a chance and asked Waleah if she thought we could do this, I wouldn't trade the last 8 months for anything, spending time with Waleah for a great cause, and completing a couple of our life goals has given me that feeling that we can and will do anything. The seeds of a half-marathon have been planted for the end of september and even further down the road Mike and Waleah may be a part of Team Diabetes Dublin 2007. Who knows? We met so many wonderful people online and in Iceland it will be well worth the hard work all over again.

Even though the marathon and Iceland are now in the past, we do still plan to post about our upcoming wedding and future runs and crazy ideas that I have, so all of you Team D members keep checking in and we'll keep an eye on you too, and if you are in Vancouver for a stay, we're more than willing to head out for dinner and a couple of drinks.

Cheers!
Mike

PS: yes, pics will be coming, it takes a while to sort and upload 600+ photos.....