Vernonia Half Marathon Race Report

This is after the race.  We had lots to laugh about and were just happy to be done. 

Race:  Vernonia Half Marathon.
Where:  Vernonia, Oregon a.k.a  the backwoods.  Volunteers wearing hunting jackets were included.
Description:  This race was a half and full marathon course.  The marathon course would have been a perfect BQ course since the entire second half was almost all downhill!  We all met at Banks High School and took a 35 minute bus ride up into the woods for the starting line.  The half marathon course was mostly flat but the last 4-5 miles was a gradual uphill which wasn't the best.  The very last .2 was very steep switch backs that were actually kind of scary running on tired legs.  This race was small (only 200ish people in the half) and it was not chip timed which made for a not as accurate of a time.  There were faster runners at this race than I expected!

This was during our warm-up.  I was still freezing my buns off and hadn't decided if I would keep my pink top on or not.  As you can see, I chickened out on the short shorts.  Too Cold for me!  I thought the cows in the background give a good perspective of where we were.  

Goals: To run strong and enjoy myself!  My husband was running with me and he had a goal to PR and break 1:30 so I went along with him and decided to hold on to his goal until other plans came up.  Can you tell that I'm not a runner that plans my races these days.  In fact, I don't even know what this thing called a pace band is but I'm thinking it might do me good to be better at having a plan if I have any serious goals in the future. 

Celebrations/Random Bullets
*  My time at the 10k point was 42:42 or something like that. Maybe 42:40 but what is 2 seconds.  This is only 20 seconds off of my 10k race last week so this made me feel STRONG (goal #1)
*  I didn't PR but I ran 6 MINUTES faster than my most recent half marathon last June. 
* I'm going to go with my Garmin stats on this one because of the fact that the race was not chip timed.  However my Garmin time tells me that I ran the same time as the race time but it is with a turn around to the water station after dropping my cup.  My Garmin time for a 13.13 was 1:33:41.
*  My husband got first in age group and I got a 2nd place ribbon but I'm pretty sure that is because the overall winning woman with at time of 1:28 was in my age group so they didn't include her in the AG division for some reason.
*  I was 4th woman overall.  A woman my age with a nursing bra came flying past me at the very end.  She beat me by 20 seconds.  Again, darn water stop!  She had all these beeping sounds coming along with her so I'm thinking she had her Garmin set to pace her (I don't even know how to do that yet).
*  I met some really cool people from the Red Lizard Running Club and have decided that joining the Red Lizard running group might be good for me as a runner! 
*  I just realized that my half time qualifies me for the New York Marathon.  Does this mean that I'm a shoe in for the NY or is it still a waiting game or what??  I'd really love to run NY in November for my 33rd birthday present to myself! 

Having fun on the bus and making fun of myself

And more laughing at our mile 8 episode

Things I might have done differently and will learn from for next time:
* I really need to learn more about fueling properly AND how to efficiently get water at the water stops.  I don't want to wear my hydration belt in a race but I STINK at trying to get the water and electrolyes.  At mile 8 I was right at 7 min pace or a bit under and I dropped my cup.  Instead of going on, I stopped and went back and drank and then started up again.  (This did not make my hubby very happy).  Stupid me, I agree with him that this was not a very smart move if I was to stay on pace. 
*  After the cup drop, I had a hard time getting my sub 7/7:00 min pace back.  The pack of men we were running with took off and my husband said "come on!  Get your butt up here and back on pace!" I have to say that I had the Garmin and I was supposed to keep us on pace.  Poor guy, he never knows when to push me and when I'm not in the mood for pushing.  I said something like "shut it bitch!"  Okay, well, maybe just "shut it" but I think bitch makes me sound tougher.  After that, he put his earphones in, blasted his manly music and shot off like a rocket and made up for lost time!  He would have broken 1:30 if it were not for me slowing down. 
*  I would have probably taken a GU at mile 5 and then say 9 or 10 instead of only having one at mile 10. 

Splits:
6:33
6:48
6:56
7:04
6:55
7:00
7:05
7:14 (cup spill that knocked my mojo off! A good 20 second delay)
7:15 (starting the gradual uphill climb.  bad timing)
7:19
7:38
7:43
7:22
6:13 pace for the last .13

Overall : 1:33:41

Second place.  Got beat by that nursing mama at the end.  I think she was dripping breast milk too. 

First place in his AG

And his look says it all to me. He is totally causing trouble here. 

Overall Feelings:  This was fun!  I feel great and my husband and I are having some great laughs about our experience.  In fact, he is having a little too much fun rubbing his blue ribbon for his AG win in my face.  I would have had one too if I would have stepped it up and had some balls!  I'm so excited to do this again!!  I'm confident that I'll get that sub 1:30 another time! 

I'll be annoucing the Hydration Belt winner tomorrow sometime!  Hope all of you that raced this weekend did well!  Eager to read your race reports.

Oh, tell me what you know about the NY Marathon.  If I made the qualifying time according to my half time does that mean I can apply and run no matter what??
Amanda


P.s  I'll post this again on my next post since so many of you have already read this but here is the map of our course.  You can see the incline at the end and note mile 8 and how much I slowed things down. Darn!  Trying not to let it bother me.  ;)