Lacamas Lake Half Marathon!!!

Holy Crud.

This weekend was the Lacamas Lake 1/2 marathon.




So... this is the event I've been training for more or less since the Race for the Roses. I devised a schedule and mostly stuck to it... making adjustments to make sure I don't over train or so that I could run smaller events and still feel like I'm preparing for the half.

This was kind of a big milestone for me in my short running career (16 months so far and counting). This was the first goal running event (8Ks, 10Ks, and even 15Ks don't count) that I trained myself for, instead of leaning on TNT to train me. Granted, I was leaning heavily on the running foundation that training for the Race for the Roses half in April gave me, but I learned from experience last winter that if you stop running, even for only a month, it's really hard to pick it back up again, and it's almost like starting over. I made sure to not let that happen this time around. I put together my schedule and stuck to it.

Between Race for the Roses and the Lacamas Lake halves, I ran no less than 6 organized smaller runs. Crazy how I caught the running bug!! Every one of them has been worth it tho!

Sunday morning, I feel like I outdid myself all over again, on many fronts.

I'll admit. I didn't quite know how things were going to go. Not only did I train myself, but I never managed a continuous run beyond 10 miles in my training, altho 2 were scheduled. If you recall, my 12 mile run was intolerably miserable, hot, and stifling on a treadmill in my mom's garage. I managed the total distance in 2 shifts tho, walking a not insignificant distance in the process.

My 14 mile run landed on the same weekend as the run like a girl 10K trail run. I attempted an 8 mile run following the 10K, but that quickly bottomed out, and I turned around at about 2.7 miles due to side cramps and straight up exhaustion... I had used too much of my energy in the 10K trail run earlier that morning and the second run simply wasn't going to happen. The trail run was a challenging course, and I totally forgot to "take it easy" and "save my strength" for the longer run later that day. I got swept up in the excitement of the event and put in everything I had. Oops.

So, with really only a 10 mile run under my belt (albeit an excitingly optimistic 10 mile run) I ventured headlong into this weekend.

Sunday morning, bright and early, my mom and I get up and get ready for the event. Forecast was low to mid 60's, mostly cloudy, and drizzly rain in the afternoon (after the event was over). Because of this, I chose basically the same outfit I ran the Cane 10 10K in: longer running skort and a T. My mom had gotten the event technical T with her registration, I had not (I think cause I was disappointed by how fricken large the Cinco de Mayo shirts were). Turned out tho, for this event, they got different shirts for men and women, and the women shirts ran on the small side. My mom had gotten a M, but she thought it was too tight for her, so she gave it to me (or frustratingly tossed it in my direction is more like it). I chose to run in it... just cause. My mom saw me dressed in it on race day and gave me a grunt that pretty much said, "you're welcome. don't you have a nice mom?" I also threw a polar fleece pullover on top to keep me warm till I ran.

The drive out to Camas High School was 28 minutes, so we had to be out the door by 6:15am. The half marathon walk began at 7am, half marathon run at 8am, 4 mile run/walk at 8:30am, and the 1K kid run at 10:30am.

We get to the highschool (after a little confusion over the mapquest directions) with plenty of time before the walker start (for my mom). We got decent parking, walked over to the track and milled around a bit checking out the location. The expo booths were still setting up, and there were only really a handful of people standing around looking ready to walk a half marathon. We visited the row of porta potties, and then came back to the track. The walkers were asked to line up at the start while they were still setting up the big digital race clock. I swear the clock only was set up entirely 10 seconds before the start. Finally at 7:05am or so the walkers were set off. This was the first event I've seen where they let the walkers loose first... and I think it makes a lot of sense really.

Earlier my mom and I noticed that the event wasn't timing chip timed, so the "timing" of the event was going to rely ENTIRELY on "gun time"... i.e. the clock starts for EVERYONE when they say "go." Because of this, there is a distinct disadvantage to your time if you hang out at the back and be polite letting the faster peeps go first. If you care about YOUR time, you want to cross that start line as close to the beginning of the race as you can.

My mom and I decided to do this, and I noticed she was on the outside ring of the track, right at the start line during the countdown.

The walkers took off. There was a handful of faster walkers that had separated themselves from the rest of the walkers by a quarter of the way around the track already. My mom was right at the front of everyone else looking strong. In the group of walkers was one runner: some tall lanky teen-aged kid in a blue shirt and yellow split-side running shorts... who bore an uncanny resemblance to that runner kid in Juno. On the go, he started jogging in the pack, and looked around REALLY confused that no one else was running. He ran with the pack of walkers around the track, out of the stadium and then re-entered the stadium from the main entrance. He had figured out that he was the only runner, and that wasn't right.

I laughed and laughed at this poor kid's expense.

An older man near me clearly dressed to run said something like, "well, runners don't always read very well..."

hee!

Then, I had about an hour to kill.

I walked around the expo booths, then I visited the porta potties again. Because I wasn't sure how well I had prepared myself for the run, I made myself feel better during the 12 hours leading up to the run by drinking as much water and electrolytes as I could manage. The sum results were needing to pee more than I normally do before a race.

Finally I wandered back to the car to get my arm wallet containing my cell phone and my jelly belly sport beans, my ipod shuffle, and to ditch my pullover. I also ate a black cherry shot blok while in the car and washed it down with more water. It was still only 7:15am. The parking lot was beginning to fill up, and more and more people were arriving. I realized right around then how good my parking spot was. I just sat in the car and stared at nothing for a while... I was a little tired, and somewhat surprised how much this event snuck up on me, unlike Race for the Roses. I kept wondering whether I did enough to prepare myself. Am I really ready?? Then I think about my mom, and how she's already on the course, and how nervous SHE was the night before (albeit somewhat due to the 2 cups of coffee she had at dinner, but she just couldn't sleep the night before. She was up half the night reading up more about the half marathon route). I silently wish her luck and decide to just go ahead and face the music. I get out of the car sans pullover (not as cold as I was anticipating), lock the door, and head back to the track... it's about 7:30am.

The line for the porta potties is like, 50 people long, and I have to pee again. Eh, I've got time. I get in line.

At 7:45am I'm standing on the track stretching. A nice older gentleman next to me asks if I've done the Lacamas run before. I admit I haven't, so he tells me the course is mostly flat with a couple serious hills. The most notable hills are the way out on the 3 mile out and back (obviously coupled with a serious downhill on the way "back"), and then the 1/2 mile ascent at mile 12 back up to the high school (which is coupled by the 1/2 mile downhill at the very beginning of the race once out on the street). He wishes me luck when the announcer guy asks the runners to line up on the track to do some pre-run warm-ups. Most everyone seems confused, but everyone obliges. We line up, and a guy from some physical therapy business starts leading us through a ~5 minute session explaining how by doing some simple exercises, we can warm up our muscles, activate our nerve endings, and be more-ready to run. Some of the moves remind me of Tae Bo. Some of the people around me were complaining that they were getting too tired to run by doing the exercises (but I think they were just joking).

Eventually we're asked to move to the start line. Following my mom's lead, I find myself edging forward to the very side of the track, but the inner side. Most people are happily chatting and didn't hear the national anthem being sung... but by halfway through the song a hush came over the runners, and we all listen to the song. After the song is sung, we then are given a 10 second countdown to our start at 8:05am.

GO!!!

We start running around the track, the same course the walkers took 1 hour earlier. I think about my mom for a second and realize she's probably more than 4 miles ahead of me just then. Cool.

My goal for this run was to simply beat my PR (personal record) for the distance, which I believe was a 12 minute mile pace (2 hour 36 minute half marathon time) that I was never able to run faster than during the portland marathon training, and certainly not after the portland marathon was over. My Race for the Roses finish time was approx 2 hours and 42 minutes... or a 12:30 minute mile pace.

Needless to say, the runners that show up to a small half marathon like this one are the ones who are serious runners. I can't imagine a beginner runner earmarking the Lacamas Lake half as their first half marathon, and a half-marathon isn't really a distance that less-serious runners decide to do off the cuff (like, say, a 5K or a 10K might be). So, I was surrounded by some pretty hard-core looking people... and well... at the beginning I had intentionally placed myself INFRONT of them all to try to get a good time. heh.

So yeah, people were FLYING past me at the start. I got caught up in the race start excitement, and then, ofcourse, the 1/2 mile downhill on the street, so it wasn't until mile 1 that I was able to work on slowing myself down a touch to be able to maintain my strength. My garmin informed me that I did the first mile in roughly 8 minutes. oops. By then tho we were on this nice flat 2-lane highway along the calm shore of Lacamas Lake. Things were going well... altho I remember thinking I had to pee again, but I told myself to ignore that. People were still just flying past me tho. I did my best to not weave and maintain a straight line so that it would be easier on runners passing me.

I was SO in the way.

I keep checking my pace tho on my Garmin. I figured as long as I was feeling good in my heart, lungs, and muscles, and wasn't going TOO fast, I should be ok, but I was seriously questioning my ability to keep up this pace for 13.1 miles.

I force myself to ignore the people passing me and slow down to a 10 minute mile.

That took A LOT of will power.

at about 3 miles, we go up a little hill and turn onto another highway. We're no longer in sight of the lake. This road is a bit busier, and the local traffic seems annoyed that our event is taking up a whole lane of the 2-lane highway. I move over a little more to the shoulder.

I hear someone coming up behind me having a conversation... asking someone's age. A woman informs the questioner that, "she's 10." The questioner is very enthusiastic, and reminisces that he was 10 when he started running. Shortly after that a mom runs by me with 2 daughters at her side. The three of them are wearing matching purple t shirts, and the youngest girl has the smallest pair of Reebok running shorts I've ever seen. Cool!

At the second aid station at mile 4, the TNT run aid station, the last water-hand-outer person in the line recognizes me as I walk past while gulping water from a paper cup. It's Maddie. She takes one look at me and says, "JACKIE!!!" I try to say "hi" with my eyes and eyebrows, and wave at her with my free hand while I swallow, but I don't stop to chat. I am concerned about my time, and take off from my water break with new gusto, passing a number of people including the mother and daughters in purple.

We run past fields with hay bales laying in them, and rolling hills, and many many cows. If it weren't for the 2-way traffic trying to eek around us in the 1 lane we weren't taking up, I think I'd be enjoying the view a lot more. A couple times we had to compress as far as we could onto the inexistent shoulder to avoid being hit by a truck pulling a horse trailer, passing a car going the other direction or whatever. It's a shame the event wasn't able to close off the roads for us.

Shortly after mile 4, it started raining. Not hard, but definitely more than a drizzle.

I am glad my clothing choice for this morning is holding up well to the rain. I'm still perfectly comfortable. I notice some guys near me squinting through the rain, and I'm glad once again for my running cap that's saving me from that. My ipod shuffle was good company too... giving me a little extra energy on some of my favorite songs.

At one corner, we came across one of the volunteers looking out for us on a bike (there was a whole crew of them that I saw at the walker start), and I was so happy from the music I was listening to that I clapped 4 times in rhythm with my music, smiling big. Shortly after that realizing that no one else could hear the music, and I was being a total dork.

I was approaching the out and back with the big hill. Mile 5. I also could finally see some walkers heading "back" at this point, and I start searching through them to find my mom. There she is!! I wave my arms and say "mom!" but she doesn't see me. She's still looking strong tho as she moves in amongst the trees and out of sight. Technically she's exactly 3 miles ahead of me right then. Now embarrassed a second time in the same 1/2 mile stretch of the scene I was making, I dig back in to my run. I've got a hill to climb. The rain is starting to subside now, and is much less of a concern, but I notice with a little dismay: my socks are a bit wet. This could be bad, but I decide to have a little faith in my bolga socks. So far they are my favorite running socks for their thinness and softness. I need more pairs cause I currently save the one pair I have every week after laundry day for my most demanding foot activity of the week.

Up the hill. A number of the runners ahead of me are slowing down and walking, and I don't. I chug up the hill and around the corner. Down a long gradual slope passing some slow walkers still on the "out" of the out and back, around some construction barriers where the 6 and 7 mile markers are. There are a number of walkers and serious-looking fast runners headed back. Once past the construction barriers and across a cul-de-sac, there is a right turn and infront of me is one serious looking hill. I take a deep breath, thankful for the uplifting song on my shuffle, and chug up it. I pass dozens of people. At the top I feel my heart pounding, but there is a nice flat section of road before the turn around, where I'm able to get my heart rate down. Some people pass me. I get a quick drink of water at the turn around, and then head back to the downhill.

I learned in the Run Like a Girl 10K trail run: I like downhills. I let myself go on the downhill to just FLY past people. Once back on the flatish gradual uphill section, I bring myself back down to a reasonable 10 minute mile and realize... I'm still going strong and I'm about halfway done! Neat! Oh, right about then I wonder about my time/pace. I look at my garmin and notice I'm at 6.61 miles (.4 miles past a 10K distance or so) and my garmin is reading 1:04:15. I start to wonder what my 10K time was.... is it possible I just did a 1 hour 10K?!?! Thats a tough call. I FEEL like it's entirely possible that I did a 10K in an hour tho. I also wasn't totally bottomed out of energy either... so I'm starting to consider a 1 hour 10K totally within reach, if not unofficially already achieved! I make a mental note to also check my time at 10 miles. I have a funny feeling I'm going to set a new PR for that distance for myself this morning.

*** note: I just checked my Garmin results from this run, and determined that YES! I hit the 10K mark in EXACTLY 1 hour!!! NEW PR FOR 10K TODAY!

After the gradual uphill, we make a right back onto a busy 2-lane highway, still sharing the road with people still on the out, and go down the other bigger hill to mile 8. Wee!

About this point, I pull out my bag of orange flavored sport beans and start munching away on them, careful to not inhale the electrolyte jelly beans or my own saliva as I run. It's kinda tricky. Luckily I timed it right, cause I come upon the next water station shortly. I figure I'm feeling good now energy-wise, but in 30 minutes more without a fuel boost I'm going to be slowing down a touch. And, that's about how long it'll take for me to get the jelly beans into my blood stream.

Here we branch off to the Lacamas Lake discovery trail. I realize slowly, I've run this stretch of trail before, just after the Portland Marathon. This trail is narrower, and hard packed dirt and gravel. Plus, there are now a good number of walkers on the trail that we have to pass, as we've caught up to a lot of them. It's small rolling hills, and VERY scenic. Old growth forest, the lake shore just to your left. It's all very nice.

I'm noticing the runners around me starting to poop out a bit. We are kinda forced to run single file along this trail due to lack of space... and I find myself getting annoyed whenever I end up behind someone who is slowing down to an 11 minute mile or so, and after putting up with it for a while, I finally pass these people when I have a good opportunity. I'm also wondering at myself. Where did I get this kind of energy!?!

The rolling hills of the trail fly by, and I scuttle up the uphills with shorter determined steps, and let myself fly down the downhills with the same happy abandon I learned in the Run Like a Girl 10K. I feel like I OWN this stretch of the route. I'm definitely feeling stronger than many of the other runners around me look. I've also notice I've been around some of the same people now for a couple miles in a row. It seems I've found my running pace group finally. I pass mile marker 10 and hit my lap button on my Garmin to save this. 1:38:47. Yep. A 10 mile PR for me. Beat my old PR by 7 minutes!

We emerge from the trail, back onto the street. There is a cop stopping cars at least so we can run nonstop as we cross the street to the right-hand side of the road. I thank him as I trot past. The traffic is REALLY backed up in this little rural intersection. Poor drivers. This stretch of road is a little more commercial, but there is still no shoulder and LOADS of cars. It's a little nerve wrecking to be as far over as you can like that. We follow this road for a touch, and finally turn right. We've reached mile 12. This is the dreaded uphill I've been hearing about.

I see it looming in front of me. A veritable pilgrimage of walkers and runners are slowly climbing this slope. There is no traffic at least, and our event is taking up the entire road as everyone creeps upward however they can manage. Most are walking... slowly. This is a serious grade.

I run for a bit... but at about half way up, I can't anymore. I also hear one participant laugh at her friend about how, if you walk up the hill, you can save your energy for an impressive finish... as the finish line is only like 3 blocks further once you're at the top. I walk up the second half of the hill with long strides. Surprisingly I'm still passing loads of other people while I walk up the hill.

Some people I passed on the trail run past me on this portion. Notably a father and teen-aged daughter who I've been around a lot during the entire run... also I recognize some purple shirted girls. The youngest is tearing up the hill, her mom and sister left behind her.

At the top, I try trotting again, but my heart and lungs take a bit to catch up. I pass some of the people who ran up the hill (father and daughter), but they pass me again quickly as I try to recover my strength. Then... unfortuneately, with the highschool back in sight, not only do I feel my knee twinge, but I start dealing with a side cramp.

dangit.

I struggle to control my breathing to conquer the side cramp, and slow to a walk for a little while. I want to sprint across the finish, but that is SO not going to happen with a bad knee and a side cramp!

Finally, entering the stadium the way we left, I step it back up to a run. The track surface feels good under my feet, and my knee stops protesting at least, but my heart and lungs still aren't up to a legit sprint. I just run as fast as I can at this point... approx an 8:30 minute mile. I spot my mom, she's done with the race and sees me. She gets her blackberry out and moves to the finish line to snap a photo of me. There are no other runners around me in at least 100 feet in either direction actually, so I can't exactly catch anyone at this point, and there is no one trying to catch me. I just cruise in to the finish. I smile at my mom's blackberry as she takes a photo, and then smile at the Evan Pilchik photographer with my arms raised in victory as I cruise in to the finish line, whooping a bit in triumph. I hear the announcer say on the loud speaker, "Good job number 47!" That's me!




In the chute after the finish line, I hand the official guy my tag from my bib, and then stop my garmin at 2:10:50.

Wait... 2:10:50?? Holy cow! I check my garmin facts about the run, and it says that is a 10 minute mile pace!!! WHAT!?!? I just ran a half marathon at a 10 minute mile pace??? Jebus!

I meant to beat my old half time, but I never expected to beat it by 32 minutes!!!!!

According the official race results, my time was 2:10:45.... a 9:58 minute mile pace.

My mom finished literally 5 minutes before me in 3:06:05.

I wasn't very high up in the runner standings... as I mentioned before the runners all looked very serious. I was still extremely proud of my results though. How could I not be!?!! Especially considering how challenging the course turned out to be! Hey, that was more hills than the portland marathon!

My mom, on the other hand, was in the top quarter of the walkers. Heck, she was 9th place in her age division!! Next year, if she walks the same speed in this race she'll probably be in the top 3!

After the race, I got a nice thai massage for free. That was nice since I was totally stiff. Today? yeah forget about it. I am walking funny for sure.

Here are some of my garmin stats from this event:





note where the time line passes the 10K mark....


More photos to come later...