Five months from now, Ricci Dalton will see the sights of Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx and Central Park.
Dalton, 63, has been entered in the New York City Marathon by her son, Troy. She'll be pounding the pavement through the Big Apple on Nov. 4.
"I'm going to run with him and his girlfriend and some other people," Dalton said after she completed the half-marathon distance in Sunday's YMCA Canadian Tire Road Race. "He probably won't run much with me because he does Ironman and things. But he'll start with me and he'll be there at the finish so it will be good. I think it's pretty special -- not many 37-year-olds want their mom along."
Dalton's Sunday half marathon was her first. She finished the 21-kilometre run in a time of two hours 32 minutes 55 seconds and stepped across the finish line with a winning smile on her face.
"I felt pretty comfortable and to know that I can do it really gives me confidence," she said.
"I thought if I couldn't do this, then how would I do the other one?"
Dalton started preparing for the YMCA race -- and also New York City -- in February. She has been running three times per week with training partners Robin Smith and Karen Welch. Prior to Sunday, the longest distance she had done was 19 km.
Earlier in life, Dalton wasn't a runner. She started at age 55 when she took the YMCA's learn-to-run program.
"The positive thing if you never do any sports until you're old is that you don't have all of those knee problems and hip problems," she said with a laugh. "My friends that have been real athletes, they have so many issues, so I'm lucky in that way."
