Second Half

Over the weekend I ran my second half marathon.  It was called the Oregon Half, they move it around, but this year it was held in Mt. Angel, ending in the Octoberfest. 

I hitched a ride with some ladies from a team I'm on through facebook *read never met before and only recognize names* this was the first time I actually met any of them.  Since we had such a large team we got bumped to VIP status, which is always nice.

It was really fun meeting all these great runners.  They are so inspiring!  They all do races constantly and live and breath running on a level I am so not accustomed to.  They are good influences to say the least, and a total wealth of information on my favorite sport! 

 Love this picture at the beginning of the race!  

 This was my start line "what could go wrong" photo, hahaha  : )

 The beer I never drank.  The whole Octoberfest was a little lost on me, we were even supposed to have free drinks and food but I generally just want to go home when a race is over.  

It was a beautiful course.  Mostly farm land, but very pretty.  

I started my race with Mariah, whom is a much more serious runner than me.  I stuck with her for the first 3 miles and then she started to get away from me.  Many other runners seemed to be passing me as I ran.  I had to keep reminding myself that I was racing ME not any of them.  

 This was one of the official shots, taken right before I crossed the finish line.  It was fun that it ended on a track.

 Jessica took this, I was so thankful she came out to support me and pick me up.  I love my sister so much!  

 I don't know if you can read my time on that photo above, but I finished 1:52:18, (8:34 pace) which is roughly 8 minutes faster than my last half witch was 2:00:03, I remember being pretty disappointed with just wanting to be under 2 hours and being so close.  I'm proud of my time this time and kinda happy that I didn't do better in the sense that I truly believe I can beat this time, which makes me want to do more races... : )

 My Map My Run app was driving me bonkers during the run. At mile 2 it called out that I'd run 14 miles!  I was like Really??  I guess I'm done... haha  The thing usually works very well for me, pretty frustrating when you really want to see your splits.  Oh well.  Maybe next time. 

Our VIPness really wasn't anything to write home about, none of us were that impressed.  I did however LOVE the watermelon at the end, that was pretty much the icing on the cake of a really great race!  So glad I did this one, it was a wonderful experience!!  

Happy running!