Last Chance Half Marathon

I hope you had a great New Year.  Mine was rather low key.  We went to our neighbor's house, but I was so tired from my half marathon that morning that I didn't really enjoy myself and left about 10:30pm.  I took Maddox home and we started a movie that I fell asleep to, and woke up with 15 min left before midnight so I turned off the movie and watched the fireworks on the Space Needle in Seattle.  I was in bed and asleep before 12:30am.

But that is probably not why you are reading this (I'm not really sure why you are, I'm not brilliant in my writing).  You may be here because you want to hear how my half marathon went, so I won't disappoint you.  ; )

Sunday morning I was awake at 4:30am (which is why I was so tired at 8:30pm) and drinking coffee, eating breakfast and drinking water.  I even cleaned the bathroom during that time.  The reason I cleaned the bathroom?  Well, my dog is getting older, and that, combined with me being the only one to consistently take him outside to go to the bathroom, he has started leaving messes in our bathroom.  A few months ago I quit fighting it and got a fake grass pee pad for him, which he uses at night and when I'm not home to take him out regularly.  It sits in the bathroom right next to the tub.  Saturday night while I was in the tub I could tell it needed to be cleaned, so Sunday morning I decided to clean it in the bathtub.  But then I thought that I should clean the bathtub as well after that, so that moved on to the toilet and so on. 

So at 7:10am I found myself cleaning the bathroom and realized I needed to get dressed because I planned on leaving at 7:30am.  Chris decided to go with me with the kids because his mom lives in Bellingham (where the race was) and I suggested they go visit with her.  We don't see her very often, so I thought they could do breakfast with her while I ran (they ended up staying at her house the whole time, which I guess was pretty boring, I was running, I didn't notice). 

Anyway, it had been snowing and very cold in Bellingham all last week.  I knew the snow was supposed to be gone, but I heard it was supposed to be pretty cold Sunday, so I dressed in layers (3 layers).  I don't really have super cold weather running gear, so layers is the best I can do, a long sleeve shirt and 2 running jackets, plus thermal running pants under regular running pants.  (My thermal pants are too big, so no matter what I have to put something over them to "cinch" them in place.)  I also had gloves and my new head band that I got for Christmas that covers my ears. 

I ended up with too many upper body layers, it was cold, especially standing around waiting, but about 3 miles into the race I was too hot and took off the gloves and top jacket (tying it around my waist).  I didn't think of it before, but I should have put it to the side because the course was an out and back and then I would only have had it tied around my waist for the last 3 miles instead of 10.  Oh well. 

The course was really pretty.  It was on a trail, the first part of the trail was really "trail," you know, with roots and rocks and narrow.  It was also mostly uphill.  While I was waiting to get my bib I had overheard a guy and girl talking about the WA marathon series (the whole reason I was there), they were speculating about it, and wondering if you could combine half and full marathons.  I turned around and said yes, that it was a combination, and we talked about it for a few min.  I told them the series was the only reason I was doing this race and the guy said he ran it 3 years ago and it was a good course.  The only uphill was at the beginning and then it was mostly flat the rest of the way. 

I like my uphills in the beginning of my runs, but while I was running I realized I would have to figure out how to get down this tricky uphill on the way back.  It was wet and muddy which made everything slippery and with my knee I was pretty worried about the downhill.

The middle of the race was very nice, there were a few dips in the trail, mostly where the trail met a road and would dip down and then back up, but I would say at least the first 4 miles was uphill, and at least one mile in that 4 was on the narrow woods trail.  I pretty much took my time, I was not worried about how fast I was going, and I wasn't thinking about finishing at a certain time.  I did notice how competitive I get.  I don't like people passing me, and if I catch up to someone, I speed up to pass them, even when I tell myself not to.  But I thought I did a good job of keeping my pace down, even in the beginning when I usually get pretty antsy to get in front of everyone. 

It was pretty foggy throughout the whole race, it started to clear up at the end, but at one point I put my hand on my head (I don't know why) and realized my headband was covered in frost. 

Anyway, my competitive nature was telling me that I could run down the trail, but once I got there, my knee said "No, you can't run down this trail."  So I walked, and I let people pass me, although there were not very many people close enough behind me to pass me.  The worst part was a gradual uphill that I walked up after the major downhill. I ran some of it, but I have noticed the last few runs that my knee also bothers me going uphill, especially after I've been running awhile.  So I walked the last uphill because my knee was screaming at me and, if I'm honest, I was pretty tired by that point. 

So I finished in 2:17:31, that is an average of 10:29 min/mile.  Which is officially my slowest half, even slower than the San Juan Half, by 8 min.  But I finished. 

The Last Chance medal is on the left, and the Series medal on the right.

I forgot to mention that my sister let me use her knee brace.  She even drove up to Everett (about 20 min away from her house) to give it to me on Friday. 

I am actually not sure if it helped.  I thought it was while I was running because for most of the race it was just an irritant, not a pain, and the irritant didn't start until about mile 6ish, before it's started at mile 2 or 3.  It did start really hurting at the downhill part and then for the rest of the race.  And afterwards it was really, really sore.  That evening I couldn't bend it, or straighten it (if it was bent) with out a lot of pain.  I did take an ice wrap thing to the race that I left in the car and put on my knee when I got in the car.  I haven't iced it since, but I put heat on it last night and that actually felt better than the ice, but I don't know if it helped or not.  Yesterday it felt better than Sunday night and today it feels even better. 

So I ended the year with a bang.  Or at least a whimper.  =)  My total yearly mileage is 965.5 miles, which is the most I've had in a couple years.  But all of that is fodder for another post later this week.  ; )