half marathon for huntington's

this morning i got up as usual and knew that this was not going to be another usual day. first of all i was committed to a fundraising event - a walk/run fundraiser for the local huntington’s disease chapter. huntington’s is present in my wife’s family and so is a feature of our life through her mother being diagnosed fifteen years ago. its genetic nature means that my wife and my children have a chance that they too carry the code that will see them potentially go down its ugly path.

so the run was for my family.

i biked over to the start - which was just over ten k away - and that was an excellent warmup. i like to set goals for all sorts of things and this one was to see what i could do in the way of running and walking in two and a half hours. the weather was beautiful - as the sun rose, so did the temperature - there was a little breeze and the course itself had a mix of flat, downhill, and uphill. each “lap” was just over half a mile.

by the end of the two and a half hours i had run twenty one kilometres which coincidentally is my race distance goal for this year. in the running world this is better known as a half marathon. more importantly, the event raised just shy of fourteen thousand dollars towards huntington’s research. amazing. incredible. wonderful stuff!

my legs are sore, my back is sore, my toes are especially sore ‘cause i wore my biking socks instead of my running socks - duuuuh! bottom line is, it was a great day for all involved, and especially for those who i hope will benefit from the money raised today.

oh, my time? 2 hours and 25 minutes. the world record? 58 minutes and 33 seconds! i don’t think that this guy has to worry about me taking his crown from him!!