My Oct. marathon was the Portland Marathon! Although I think the price is totally crazy it saves me from having to travel in Oct. out of state and I do love a marathon that I can sleep in my own bed and go run the next morning and drive home quickly afterwords. I registered late for it this year as we had expected to be on sabbatical taking our honeymoon at this time, but plans changed with the house and Winterhawk so we are thinking sometime in 2014. Which is great because we have something new and fun and exciting to look forward to! Anyways back to the run. Leading up to the race I caught a nasty cold that actually had me at home the Thursday and Friday before the race on Sunday. It was one of those head colds that sounds totally disgusting and everyone freaks out if you come into the office but you don't feel all that bad. So I thought it would still be a fun race and I would just take it easy. By Sunday of the race I was not feeling 100% but was happy that I did not have a fever and would be able to run. I headed down town and took up my parking spot at my husband's office which is awesome because I have parking and running water bathrooms for my pre race routine. Its a great way to start out the day! The weather was perfect so I headed down to the start and was ready to run. I jumped in 2 min before the start which means that I went out with the A group- not where I was planning on starting, but it worked out ok. The run for the day could not have been more perfect. It was a beautiful morning in Portland and as I watched the sun rise I loved just being out there. The race actually felt great given how I was feeling and with the expectation to just run and have fun it was a blast. No major issues at all and I came upon Jess just before the bridge and chatted for a bit which was a great boost. I finished the race feeling strong and had a lot of fun out there. I am already registered for next year:)
My Nov. marathon was the In Unity we Run Green River marathon in Kent, WA. This is a low key event that actually was cheaper than Portland even when you consider gas and a hotel in WA, go figure! Jash came with me to run this event so we had a great drive up together after work on Friday. It gave us a good car ride to catch up from the busy week. We got to our hotel with a kitchen- always have to have a kitchen and made our own pre race dinner and relaxed and enjoyed the evening together. We were only 10 min from the start of the event so we were able to sleep in and still get there with plenty of time. And of course no parking issues with a low key run. They really are becoming more and more my favorite for so many reasons! We started out in the rain, which we had prepared for and ran the first few miles together and then settled into our own paces. The rain let up after a few miles and it was not bad weather at all. It was slightly windy for the first half but nothing too bad. Jash headed back to the hotel after the first half for a warm shower and to get changed and I headed out the other direction on the park trail for my second half of the marathon. By this time the wind had gone crazy! There were downed tree limbs everywhere and I watched some big ones come crashing down in front of me. Still it was some beautiful views and the wind made for a very fun adventure! It was up to 58 MPH gusts and I really felt like I was going to be swept off my feet at some points. We had to run the last 6.5 miles back into the wind and it was crazy to do on tired legs but also a great reminder to stay strong and keep going. At some points I just had to laugh because it was fighting a losing battle, and you just had to keep going and push through. Some fun pictures from the day below thanks to Ross Comer.
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