I DID IT! I AM A MARATHONER!!!
PART 1: Before the race....

I want to start by writing that I had an awesome week-end and a very good time during the race!!!

We arrived in Toronto Friday around 7:45 p.m. as we got stuck in some major traffic entering Mississauga... I had dinner with my dad and a friend from France who was spending the week-end in T.O.!! I dreamed about the race all night and didn't get much sleep. In the middle of the night, we heard this guy shouting in the hallway to call 911 because his friend was dying..... the hotel where we stayed (shall remain nameless...) was cheap and not in the best neiborhood..... oh well, hopefully the guy was allright... we didn't hear what happened

On Saturday morning our task was to find a long sleeve purple shirt to run the race. We ended up going to the Running Room and I chatted with the owner who had race 53 marathons!!! He was the 4h Running Room Rabbit at the Toronto Marathon. He adviced me well as I felt warm enough at the beginning of the race and never too warm during the 5h race. I meet up with Amanda in the afternoon and we picked up our race kits together. It was the first time we seen each other and we had a really great time, trying out some flax seeds and picking up loads of free stuffs at the running exhibit. I also went a little crazy on the Toronto Marathon shopping. I boought myself a really cute purple t-shirt and my friend Flashy bought me a blue fleece as a birthday present. And I got a technical red t-shirt in my race kits... I thought, what the hell, this is my first marathon I'll always remember it!! =)

We went to the Carbo dinner and got to eat some great food and listen to amazing speakers (to name a few: Bill Rodgers, Chris Wollam and Roger Robinson). The speaker that touched me most was Katherine Switzer, the first woman to officially enter and run the Boston Marathon. She gave a really inspiring speech on her experience running the Boston marathon and how hard she is working now on making running available for women all over the world... she was a great speaker I was a little teary and emotional during her speech (and pretty much all along the week-end!). The carbo dinner finished early and we were back in the hotel room for 8:45 PM. My dad and I planned his "subway trips" for the marathon. Like a true supporter, he wanted to cheer me along the course and we wanted to make sure that he would have enough time to take the subway and ran outside to see me. =) We were off to bed for 9:30 but sleep did not come easy, I turned and turned and turned anxiously awaiting the race. I felt like I was pretty much ready to go and this night of sleep was just too long to wait! I was up during the night several times. I had a banana around 5 A.M., then we woke up at 6:30 and we ate breakfast. We ran up to the hotel of Mr & Mrs Flashy and called a cab... and off we were to the starting line!!! YEAH!

More to come....