Eagle Creek Half Marathon Trail Run

Let me start out by saying I've never done a TRAIL half marathon. All I can say is, what a difference there is from the road half to the trail.  I'm sure the excessive humidity  that drenched my clothes had quite a bit to do with it, but it was rough.  I've done trail runs before, just not the half and not the half in record humidity.

I remember running down a significant downhill just to be payed back for it immediately with a more significant uphill within the first mile or 2.  Thanks Planet Adventure, I love you too! This was just at the beginning when must runners had yet to disperse and quite a bit of the first few miles were single file, which isn't great for your splits, but hey; I now appreciate the opportunity to walk right off the bat. Otherwise, I would have done it sooner than later, regardless.  

I remember looking at my Garmin at 5.73 miles and thinking, seriously.....no way in he**! I feel like I've just done 10. I'm in trouble.  Too bad I was too hot & already tired to remember that the beginning of all of my runs feel awful up until mile 3 or so. I don't know what it is, but I've always had this "not ready to run" feeling in all of my runs, road or otherwise until my body has had the opportunity to get warmed up to the idea until about mile 3ish.  Just say today took a lot longer to get that "I can finish this" warm and fuzzy feeling inside. 

At some point, we were running a gravel trail that took us through the middle of Eagle Creek Reservoir.  I said out loud to a fellow runner, I wasn't sure what was holding me back from taking my shoes off and jumping in.  I seriously had the overwhelming desire to jump in but knowing the Eagle Creek Beach had closed due to the serious drought and that it was a health issue, I refrained.  I think this where I had seen a fellow runner from Daily Mile and had recognized his shirt and bald head that he indicated in a post would make it easy to spot him. It worked.  So I said a quick introduction and kept moving, slowly. 


Our trail took us out to the road for some quick easy running and back down to the other side of the park.  I had finally got comfortable with the run and was more confident I was going to complete this thing. I had seriously doubted myself prior to mile 6. I attempted to keep up my pace as well as I could after already exhausting myself on uphills and downhill inclines and stepping over numerous fallen trees.  I didn't want to go too fast on the flat stretches in my goal to maintain some energy for any future rough terrain.  

DONE AND 1 YEAR OLDER! 

I walked, I ran, I climbed and I finished. I have to give my hats off to the Planet Adventure organization. As I got into the car, I told my husband that this was my first half ever, road or trail, that I didn't feel seriously sick to the point of just wanting to go home and die. Why do I think this? Potatoes! Yes, I said potatoes!

I am unable to utilize GU or any other form of heavily laden sugar in energy packets, etc. As I've said before, just like with drinking Gatorade, I would be running for a whole other reason.  Yes, that reason! Planet Adventure had little small cooked, salted potatoes at the water stops. I'm almost positive this is the sole reason for why I feel just fine right now, well, besides my knees.  Now if I can just figure out how to carry cooked small potatoes on my runs.  

My my North Face bag provided by The North
Face given to us at packet pick up and my new
race bling as some of you call it. I prefer medal. 

I collected my "medal" at the finish line. It was quite unique, at least unique to my collection.  It is part of a tree with the medal attached. Kind of cute.  My Garmin says I ran 13.4 miles in 2:56:51. I left before finding out what Planet Adventure says I ran. I'll have to let you know. 

Oh, yes! I almost forgot to tell you. It's my birthday. I'm 39! No, I'm not lying. I'm really 39. No, I haven't been 39 for 5 years. I'll be 40 next year, promise! Happy Birthday to me! I couldn't have started it a better way than a hard as heck trail run, right?! 



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