Another weekend, another half marathon! ;) But first, recap of the week:
Monday:
Day Off
Tuesday:
Back to Track
This week’s workout:
1 x 600 @ 2:48 (200 recovery)
1 x 800 @ 3:44 (200 recovery)
2 x 1000 @ 4:41 (400 recovery)
1 x 800 @ 3:44 (200 recovery)
1 x 600 @ 2:48
Here’s how it broke down:
600 @ 2:37 (a little speedy)
800 @ 3:37 (a little less speedy)
1000 @ 4:41 (dead on)
1000 @ 4:44 (oops)
800 @ 3:44 (dead on)
600 @ 2:42 (strong finish!)
It was a good, dark workout. Nice to run fast again. I was afraid that I forgot how! It was my first track workout in (probably) over a month; before my Achilles started to bother me. No pain afterward (well maybe a little sore…)
Wednesday:
Fulton Pub Run
5.22 miles (9:16 min/mi)
A tad bit speedy, but it felt pretty good. Nice run with friends, and trivia afterward! Good times!
Thursday:
3.1 miles (un-timed run, with a story)
We had a bit of rain just before rush hour, which caused traffic to be horrendous. Literally the second worst commute of all time, right behind the time it snowed right at evening rush hour. That night it took me 4 hours to drive 12 miles….yeah, it was awful!
To be fair, it only took me 1.5 hours to drive 10 miles (to NW Portland) where I was supposed to be taking part in Fit Right NW Light Up the Night Holiday Fun Run. When I finally arrived, everyone was just finishing up their 5k run, and I was so upset (I absolutely hate traffic, like it tops the list of everything I hate in the world…) so I decided to do my own 5k. I had no Garmin, no plan, and no watch, so I just took off. I know I was running fast, but I didn’t care, I just needed to run.
I looped down to the Pearl District and made my way back. I got a side cramp from running so fast unprepared, and had to walk just a bit. Now, while I was driving, there was hardly any rain, and the other runners had a fairly dry run. As I was walking, it started pouring, and I was so happy. It felt good, and I felt so much better finishing my run by getting drenched!
I arrived back to the store, drenched to the bone, the raffle long past completed. Luckily, J had won me a nice reflecty beanie, and saved me a beer. I don’t even know what kind it was!
Moral of the story: Best. Run. Ever!
Friday/Saturday: rest days
Sunday:
Holiday Half Run Recap
13.1 miles: 2:19.04 (10:37 avg pace)
Pretty good run for an inaugural event! The starting/finishing area was located at Adidas Headquarters, and there were a good group of people there when we arrived at 7:30am. We picked up our race bibs and shirts, then went to find the bathroom…line. Oy! What a line. We didn’t stick around for long, since we didn’t have to go too bad, and weren’t too worried about waiting in a shorter line along the race course. There were 3 porta-potties in the parking lot, and another few at the starting line. Needless to say, not enough potties for 1500 runners. I heard it took 30 minutes to get to the front of the line! Wow!
The race started just about right on time, and we all funneled through the starting line. We started on a bit of an incline, then wove through some neighborhoods surrounding the Adidas campus. I would definitely prefer to weave for extra mileage at the start of the race versus the end! As we wove back to Greeley, we continued on to Willamette Blvd. There are some nice houses that line this road. The Willamette River was towards our left side, just on the other side of an industrial area below the bluff we were on. What I remember most about this part? THE WIND!!! You had to fight to stay upright! I was certainly happy it wasn’t raining, as I thought it might be. I can handle the wind, as long as we don’t have sharp rain hitting us sideways, as well.
Eventually we passed by the St John’s Bridge, and ran through a few more neighborhoods, and turned around at about Mile 7.5. We looped back around the neighborhood we just traversed, and made our way back past the St. John’s Bridge. Soon enough, we were back on Willamette Blvd, honing in on the finish. We turned the last corner to a nice downhill through the finish line. After we finished, we received our finisher’s medal (a cow bell! for real!) I can foresee using this medal in the future for spectating. Very cool! It was also awesome that those who had already finished, and were walking back towards the race could use them to cheer on the rest of us runners!
All in all, a pretty good race. We spoke to the race director at the end, who knew about the bathroom situation, and also knew that many of the carolers that were supposed to be along the course didn’t show up. Oops! I was a bit disappointed that there were not as many carolers along the way, but I was really having too much fun to notice they were missing until the end!
I wore my Half Fanatics shirt for the first time during this race, and got a few cheers along the way because of it. I also got to meet a few fanatics at the after party, which was fun!
K and I before the race:
One half marathon a month for a year:
So, since September, I’ve managed to run at least 1 half marathon each month, and I want to keep this streak going for 12 months. So far I have the Cascade Half Marathon in January, and the Hagg Lake 25k in February. I’m keeping my eye out for more each month through August! If you have any “must-do” halves, let me know, and I’ll see if I can squeeze them in!
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