A Royal Trip

Jesse and I made the 10 hour drive out to the beautiful island of Victoria, B.C. in part to celebrate 8 years of marriage and in part for me to run the half-marathon. I was able to reserve a room in a wonderful old hotel in downtown Victoria, just 3 blocks from the start line and 2 blocks from the finish line!  The race started bright and early on Sunday morning, at a crisp 45 degrees.  Brrrrrrr!!!

The Start Line after the sun came up and everyone had cleared out.

 Early in the race, I am still smiling.  Jesse did such a good job making it to 6 different spots on the course.  He wants everyone to know that he did have to run between several of the spots to make it in time.  We both ran that morning!

The amazing view during the second half of the race.

Just before the finish line....not smiling anymore.

With my finisher's medal....smiling again!

The winner of the full marathon took approximately 25 minutes longer to finish his 26.2 miles than it took me to finish my 13.1. You will notice that my stride at the end was not quite as long and smooth as his and he was able to take home $10,000.  I think he had a better day than I did :)

Overall it was a very good run.  I had set a goal of finishing in under 2 hours and was able to cross the line in 1 hour 54 minutes. It was so nice having Jesse there with me to cheer me on during the race.  We always have a lot of fun traveling together.

We had a full afternoon after the race to take in some sights in Victoria.  After getting lost (momentarily) we located an awesome castle that was built in the late 1800's.  We walked through the beautiful castle (I did a little groaning as it involved A LOT of stairs) and then found a very yummy place for dinner.

There were beautiful stained glass windows like this throughout the entire castle.

I still believe I was meant to be born a princess and live in a castle :)

Eight years and still very much in love with my prince!

The trip home was long and long with some very sore legs but we were so happy to get home and see our silly girls.  Next up, Halloween with Pooh Bear and Tigger.