I thought I'd write something here although I'm pretty sure that not even my mother checks this page anymore since I havn't written for so long. But, I've had an exciting day so I thought I'd share it with whoever happens to come across my page.

I ran the Broloppet today. It's a 1/2 marathon (i.e. 21 Kilometers/12 miles) that starts on a man-made island in Denmark, crosses the bridge to sweden (the bridge is about 10kilomters long) and around Malmo.

I have not been training as much as I had planned for this race. Although I play rugby at least 2 times a week and ride my bike everywhere (including rugby practices 1 1/2 hour away), I have been jogging on average once every 2 weeks for the past 3 months. I was sure that I'd die before reaching the end of the bridge. I surprised myself by running the whole way-I even managed to run while drinking at 3 of the water stops (I almost drowned at the fourth so I admit, I walked just long enough to take 2 gulps and then i was off again.)

I ran with two of my "teammates" for the first 15 kilomters before they left me behind but I kept going and finished just about 2 mintues behind them. The finish was the most exciting part. We finished in the Malmo stadium and as I always seem to have pleanty of energy at the end of a race, I picked up the pace for the last 200 meters or so. I passed everyone and when I was the front runner with about 75 meters to go when I saw 'him' coming up on my right side out of the corner of my eye. I would not be defeated. It turned into a sprinting race and in the end, I was the victor by a hair. My friends tell me later that the announcer was broadcasting 'our race' over the loudspeaker saying something like 'Here comes Kelly. And coming up behind her is 'Sven.' But NO she won't be outdone! There they go! Look at them go! And it's Kelly by a nose!' I'm not sure if they were pulling my leg or not because, even though my name was printed on my number plate, I don't know how the announcer could have seen it. But, they promise it's true and it makes me feel pretty good so I'm going to choose to believe it.

Anyways, although I won't know my exact time until I get the results in the mail, it was about 2 hours and 20 minutes. I'm happy with that and looking forward to my next race!