My First Marathon

I ran my first marathon in Reykjavik 2007. It was my new years resolution that year and I had been telling everybody about it. I was careful to make sure there would be no way out. The year before I ran a half marathon, but it was different then because no one knew what I was doing. My kids and a few of my friends knew I was running, but I went alone to Reykjavik and back then I didn't know any runners. That has changed for sure.

Marathon for me is 42.2 km, nothing less. The whole event in Reykjavik that day is called Reykjavik marathon, but only few run the whole marathon. I think there are several thousands that run 10k, and a few hundreds run the half marathon. I don't know precisely how many runners participated in the whole marathon in 2007, but it felt as if they were not many. And most of them were foreigners. The cheering was mostly in English. I must admit that I felt kind of special, being that old (I was 46), a woman and Icelandic. Even in my own country. I don't live in Reykjavik so I wasn't at home, I had to spend the night before the run at a hotel like most of the other marathon runners that day.

In the start area I met a woman I think was little older than me, she asked me if this was my first marathon and what time I was aiming for, in English. I don't know where she came from, I guess she was an American. I said this was my first and I would be happy if I could finish and I hoped I would be faster that 4 and a half hour. My secret goal was to be quicker than the first woman who ran a whole marathon in Boston, in 1967 I think, her time back then was 4:20. I didn't say that to the lady there in the start area but I remember that I thought she was pretty and her hair looked really nice. It was grey and in one braid down her back. I said to myself that I would not only like to be able to run a marathon like she could, but I would also like to have hair like that.

Need I say that I finished the race, got the time 4:16, I quit dyeing my hair and now it is getting long.