The race is done. My muscles are sore. And my spirit is happy.

It was a beautiful day to run. Crisp cool air and a gorgeous clear sky.

I kept reminding myself to run my race. And not get caught up with other people’s enthusiasm.

I basked in the awesome day. Every now and then I’d look around and take in the view.

But it’s a tough race. The Around the Bay is normally 30 kilometers.

But this year it bumped up to 34 kilometers because of a new route. And then at the last minute, an extra 1.4 kilometers were added because of a sink hole along part of the route.

There were a few signs that said: You paid for 30km and you get an extra 5.4 km for free.

I asked someone with one of those signs if I could give the 5.4km back.

No refunds, they replied.

The nice thing about races like this is that folks hang out outside their homes and cheer you on. There are also lots of volunteers along the route cheering you on or handing out drinks.

At around the 22km mark, they handed out bananas. There’s nothing quite like a banana when you are starving! It was delicious!

Because of the extra length, they marked two times. When you reached the 30km mark and when you completed the race.

I reached 30km in 4 hours and 26 minutes. I was happy with that result. It’s not the fastest I’ve run it, but it was an improvement on my training run.

However, it took me almost an hour to finish the last 5.4 km. As I said, it was tough.

My pace slowed drastically after the 30 km mark.

And then I struggled for the final kilometer. But I was able to do something resembling a sprint when I could see the finish line.

I even sprinted past three people, who were obviously in as much pain as I was.

But there’s something about a finish line that helps me find energy where moments before there was none.

My daughter Tara and her boyfriend, Dan (who had run the 15km race) greeted me at the finish line.

And then Deb and Dodger met us a little further along.

I was worse for wear. As I keep saying, it was a tough race.

Would I do it again?

I’m already signed up for next year!