Leavenworth Oktoberfest Half Marathon

In the span of 27 1/2 hours I ran 32 miles (not all at once, there was a break for 22 hours).  Saturday was the Leavenworth Oktoberfest Half Marathon.  And then on Sunday I ran 19 miles. 

The Leavenworth Oktoberfest Half was okay.  I wish I had enjoyed the scenery more, but I didn't see much of it at all.  Leavenworth is a beautiful town, and at this time of year it's even  more beautiful with the changing colors of the trees.  I was actually about to write that I didn't know why I didn't look at the scenery much, but it suddenly hit me, I was looking for my parents for the entire race and that's why.

My mom called Friday night and asked if I wanted company during my race, and I said sure.  Leavenworth turns out to be the same distance from their house as it is from mine, 2 1/2 hours.  So they said they'd come cheer me on and we could go to lunch afterwards.  I said that sounded like a plan. 

I woke up at 4:30am, which is my (mostly) normal time to wake up during the week and was out the door to my house at about 5:30.  I took some hard boiled eggs, coffee, and water.  I knew I would have to stop to use the bathroom at some point, I just didn't realize that it is very hard to find a bathroom on that particular highway.  It's not one I drive frequently, so I didn't know where places were, and once you start going up the mountains, there's really no towns to stop in, or I should say, no big towns that have stores open at 6-7am on a Saturday morning. 

I got to the pass over the mountains and had to go pretty bad and I saw a sign that said "Store, restrooms, Always open" and thought, I'm going there!  Well, when I turned off the road was closed. =(  So much for "Always open."  I pulled over and went in the bushes, got back on the highway and around a corner, not even 500 feet away was a gas station.  =)  Oh well. 

I got to the fish hatchery where the race started and got my bib, used the bathroom again, and started looking for my parents.  I thought they had said they'd be there about 8:30 (race started at 9am), but by 8:40 they still weren't there.  My mom finally returned my numerous calls at 8:42 and said they were in "east Wenatchee."  So I don't know how far away east Wenatchee is, but the race was starting in 18 min . . . I told her I didn't think they'd make it to the start and she acted confused for a min, but said okay, they'd find somewhere to park to cheer me on. 

So I spent the next hour looking for them on the course, and didn't see them at all.  I figured they must have just decided to go to the finish line and wait for me there.  Just after halfway I finally saw them and they kinda leapfrogged me the rest of the way. . . Well, until I turned off the main road and ended up on trails.  Yeah, so the last 2-3 miles was on a trail, and I'm not talking about a paved trail, or even a gravel trail (there was one of those early in the race), but a dirt trail . . . soft dirt.  And that is what I think killed me.  I was dead, really dead, by the time I finished.  I had started out at a good pace, about 9 min/mile, but by the end I think I was pushing 11 min/miles, my average was . . . well, according to mapmyrun, with my "official" time, it was 9.28 min/mile, so I ended up doing better than I thought. 

 My finish time was 2:04:12.  Not bad.  My PR is 1:59:47 (in 2014), which I didn't expect to beat this time.  I have not done well with my pace runs since my hip issue, but it is the best time for this year.  The Nookachamps half was 2:09:04 and the San Juan half was 2:09:26 (which is pretty good for it being all hills). 

It's a very cool medal, a bottle opener . . . too bad I don't
drink beer.  =)

My parents took me to lunch at one of my sister's and my favorite places and I went home. 

Yes, I got my fried green beans!

So I have another whole run to talk about . . . 19 miles.  Maybe I'll go write a separate post and have it publish tomorrow.  =)  Speaking of tomorrow, it's my birthday . . . so there's that.