I DID IT!

Just thought you'd all like to know I finally achieved a long-held ambition to run a marathon! I took part in and completed the Belfast City Marathon on Monday in 4 hours 33 minutes, a much better time than I could have anticipated, and I'm absolutely ecstatic. Sore and tired but ecstatic! :woohooo: I took up running about 6 years ago and had always thought about competing in a marathon, but I thought it was one of those dreams we all have but know they probably won't materialise. My good friends at the gym had talked about walking the 26 miles but that didn't appeal to me so I took the bull by the horns just before Christmas, submitted my entry and started training in earnest.

My chosen charity was Women's Aid. They help mentally and physically abused women, which most of you know is a cause very close to my heart. so far I've raised £250 ($500) and the money is still coming in, thanks to family, friends and my husband Phil's workmates.

The weather on Monday was a bit mixed - rain, sometimes heavy at times, and a little bit of sunshine, but the atmosphere among the 14,000 of us who took part was phenomenal and I want to experience it again! :cheer42:

I just wanted to share my news with you all and now look forward to hearing that Rhonda has done her parachute jump!

WOW! CONGRATULATIONS MAUREEN!!!!!



My older brother runs marathons ALL the time. He still lives out in California, where we were born and raised and I saw him this past March when I went out for my high school reunion. He was telling me all about the different marathons he had run. He even told about the one he ran when he turned 50 years old this past December. He was promised that he could have the #50 for his bib number and later on, someone asked him just how many marathons had he run. He started adding them up and found that he had run 48. With this number in his head, he decided that he wanted to run his 50th marathon on his 50th birthday, wearing the #50 on his bib. SO.......he got up early the next morning before the marathon, and RAN it all by himself (#49)........about the time he finished, he had just enough time to get back to the starting point and ran his 50th marathon on his 50th birthday, wearing the #50 on his bib! The guy is CrAzY!

That's great Maureen. Congratulations on a wonderful achievement!

Cheryl

Congratulations Thats great :woohooo:

Good for you, Maureen!!! Congrats!

Great job Maureen.
Don't be a stranger, we miss you!

Wow, that's an amazing achievement, Maureen! As someone who gets winded playing the lottery, my hat is off to you.

How long before your next marathon?

(Rhonda, your brother ran two consecutive marathons?? That's incredible.)

Rob wrote:

(Rhonda, your brother ran two consecutive marathons?? That's incredible.)

Not sure how incredible it is, but it is certainly CrAzY.........Don't know how far he had to run, but he has run in the Boston Marathon, so running 2 in a row might have been close to that............:idance:

Funny thing is, he was in cross country track in high school and he could never finish the race, except for last place......where he did not want to be. My dad hypnotized him and told him that he would do real good in the race, have excess energy and not be tired when the race was over. He ran the cross county race, was still one of the ones to come in last, but had a big smile on his face as he told our dad, "Well Pop, there's good news and bad news. The bad news is, I still came in last, the good news, I wasn't tired!"

Maureen that sounds so wonderful!

Congratulations to a great lady!!

Congrats Maureen! What a great thing to accomplish!

Wow!!! Good for you!! :Gjob:

Congratulations Maureen!!! What a great accomplishment!!! :woohooo:

Thanks, everyone. I'm still smiling and can't believe it! I used to watch people running on the treadmill in the gym and wondered how they kept going. And I thought all these road runners were nuts! Now I'm one of them!

What a fantastic achievement for your brother, Rhonda. He must be one fit guy. I'd sure like to meet him and have a chat with him.

I wanted to do a Marathon before my 50th but didn't actually think I'd have the desire to put in the training, so not only did I surprise myself, but I achieved a life long ambition and 3 years early too!

Thanks again guys for all your good wishes and maybe now that I'm not spending all my time in training I'll be able to post more often!

Congratulations!