We have done it! We have run the Reykjavik Marathon!

We’ll keep this update short (we’re dead tired right now), but Michelle and I both finished the marathon in 4:46:50 (chip time). We’re both extremely happy about the result! Michelle was guaranteed a personal best by finishing (no small feat in itself) and I beat my previous time by about 9 minutes.

We’ll try to have another update later today.

A huge thanks to all our supporters!

Tomorrow is the big day: the marathon! We’re both very excited!

Last night, we had a very nice meal at Restaurant Reykjavík, where we had some delicious fish. I got to try out my Icelandic “I am allergic to gluten” card, which worked out great.

Today started with a breakfast buffet at the hotel. It looks like Icelanders really like their yogurt, because there’s always a lot of it being offered!

After breakfast, we met up with Michelle Simonin (the team trainer) and Fred De Fina (Director of Team Diabetes) for a short 3K run. The temperature was great (cool, but not cold) and the sun even greeted us for a while (it has mostly been cloudy and raining so far).

We followed the run with a light lunch from a grocery/convenience store (Chicken tikka Masala) and a free walking tour of Reykjavik (delivered by the same guy who also runs the Haunted Walk of Reykjavik). Our guide told us that tips are included in all prices in Iceland, except one…

In the afternoon, Michelle and I decided to go spend some time in a cafe (there’s lots of them and the coffee is delicious!). When we arrived there, we saw someone with a jacket for the marathon. We were curious about that, because we had been told that there wasn’t much of an expo (Team Diabetes picked up our race kits for us) and that there weren’t any souvenirs to buy. Well, it turns out that they had a few things to offer, so we got into a taxi and headed to the expo!

It’s true that the expo wasn’t very big (there were only 4 or 5 booths), we did manage to buy some very nice Reykjavik Marathon jackets as souvenirs. We love them! (photos to come!).

We finished off the evening with the pre-race pasta dinner (potato dinner for me) with the whole “Team D” group. Our group has raised close to half a million dollars for Diabetes research. What a feat!

We were saddened to hear that one of our friends lost her grandmother yesterday. Our thoughts are with her and her family.

We are now headed to bed. It’s 9:15 PM here and Michelle is already in bed trying to sleep. She’s wearing ear plugs as a precaution against the rambunctious Icelanders. We’re wondering if people will be partying extra hard tonight due to their win at the Olympics (they’re going to the finals in handball, where the Icelandic team could win the first-ever gold medal for Iceland!).

We’re getting up at 5 AM tomorrow (1 AM Eastern Time!) and our marathon starts at 8:40. We hope to do it in 4:30-4:45, but our main goal is to have fun! Wish us luck!

Luc-Rock & Michelle

P.S. A big thanks to everyone who has posted comments and sent us messages of encouragement. It means a lot to us!

Je suis désolé de ne pas avoir eu l’occasion de faire des mises à jour en français récemment!

Comme vous vous en doutez, nous sommes pas mal occupé en ce moment, alors j’ai peu de temps pour traduire nos mises à jour.

Si vous ne recevez que les mises à jour en français, assurez-vous de venir jeter un coup d’oeil sur le blogue de temps en temps. Même si vous ne comprenez pas l’anglais, vous pourrez au moins y voir quelques photos!

We are now in Iceland! It was a long day, but without any major complications. One person in the group lost her luggage, but the worse that happened to us was that Luc-Rock didn’t get his gluten-free meal (which wasn’t a big deal considering it was being served in the middle of the night).

Here’s a photo collage of our trip so far.

Since we’re staying on longer, we’ve brought some food to limit our costs when we have the apartment in the second half of our trip.

We met a lot of other “Team D” participants at the Toronto Airport.

This shot is a bit blurry, but our first sight of Iceland brought significant excitement.

Pretty cool. The Arctic circle is not far at 66 degrees.

We thought that was funny, especially because the people in Reykjavik have a reputation for partying hard on the weekends.

We think the sign in Icelandic says “Welcome Back”.

The colour of the water at the Blue Lagoon is due to the minerals it contains. It was very viscous and tasted salty as heck.

Michelle didn’t have time to rinse her hair after the quick dip, so her hair felt like straw. To make matters worse, our hotel room didn’t have hair conditioner.

The line for the hotel rooms was pretty long, but we got a room right away, while other people had to wait for an hour or more.

Our TV welcomed us by name, which was pretty cool, but they forgot that Michelle is a Davidson!

Our hotel room is very clean and fresh, but it is tiny. The room is probably no more wider than the bed plus one metre. There’s also a desk underneath the TV and a clean and functional bathroom.

Luc-Rock couldn’t look more like a tourist! (Especially when he has the camera around his neck)

The names of streets and places are very long and confusing!

You may want to think twice before buying this Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. It costs about $24 in Canadian dollars (and we thought it was expensive in Ottawa at $6)! The local ice cream sells for about $8, still an expensive indulgence, but a tad more reasonable.

This is where we had our first coffee. The ambiance was very relaxed (think of a more European Bridgehead).

This wall was actually hiding a burned building.

This was a funny shirt at the gift shop.

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A trip to Iceland wouldn’t be complete without the mandatory pictures of us as Vikings!

We’re having a blast in Iceland. We’re thinking of you back at home.