Am I insane?? The answer to that question is YES. Originally I had planned on leaving to my families house this past weekend but it was cancelled-then what does Melanie talk me into doing? A half marathon in The Dalles. I was actually kind of excited because I thought "it will be a nice easy pace run, we don't have to push it because we only paid $10.00, supposedly lots of hills so we can just do our best." boy were my thoughts off. We met up with our pal Alexis who was attempting her first half marathon-raced to The Dalles, arriving with just enough time to use the restroom and that was about it. I didn't even have time to stretch or get my earphones in order-so they flopped the entire time.
We started out at a great pace and seemed to maintain that for a bit. Even as the gradual hills started hitting we seemed to lug through them. It was great to have Lex around because she is a fast runner and so she kept us going-plus she can jibber jabber with the best of them. Having others talk is really a bonus because then you don't have to waist that breath (or that gasp in my case). After mile one the hills start and they are pretty minor until I would say mile 4/5 where it seems to increase a little bit more. The scenery was pretty with farms, river, wheat fields, animals and very seldom cars.. I found this one guy's review on line when I was looking for pictures and I loved this quote from him, "The only spectators along the road were horses and cattle, whose expressions seemed to indicate they had seen it all before, though they still offered stoic support." Joe Dudman.
(pictures courtesy of others not me-I can't run and take photos)By mile 6 my knee was on the verge of screaming-it was a little too much up hill stress pulling on my IT. I knew I could run through it but I kicked myself for not having stretched or warming up before. I then began to get very sick feeling and had to start zoning out on the girls or I was going to loose it (up chuck city). At about mile 10 I finally told the girls to go on, I had to stop and stretch out my knee, and grab a breath or I wouldn't be able to finish. I took a quick 10 second break and headed back out-I thought I could catch back up to them, but then I decided it was better to play it safe for me since I have a lot of upcoming runs that I do need to do decent at. As I watched their pony tails/buns swish I thought about what wonderful friends I have, and that I never would have imagined years ago us all doing a half marathon together. To say the least I never did catch up with turbo and Tasmanian devil but I got to watch them from a little ways back cross the finish line. While Melanie was getting ready to light her engine, Alexis took off with her jet pack leaving us all in the dust. Since it was her first she wanted to give it her all and come in with a good time-and that she did. I finished about 30 seconds behind Mel and almost a minute behind Lex. AND THAT IS OK WITH ME. I was just glad to finish. I think my time was 1hour 57-not my best time but not my worst. Now I have to somehow make this knee of mine stronger-weights, stretches, etc... After the run I still had to put in another mile and a half-so it wasn't all that fun but I did it.
Did I mention the weather was perfect-A little drizzly, high 40's with a slight breeze. I don't know how many people ran it but it was about 50 I would guess. Nice and small, low key half marathon. I only wish we still got some type of medal-something to show for our hard work (ya know because we trained for it for 3 days.)
I would definitely do this run again-but ONLY with people I could visit with-otherwise the hills would probably feel eternal.
By the way- this is how they keep track of time (no timers, chips etc) and who places what-NICE ha ha.
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