Holiday Half Marathon

It was raining.

It was cold.

It was windy.

I was miserable.

weather beaten and torn

Last Sunday was the Foot Traffic Holiday Half Marathon in Portland. It was the first half marathon for Cathie, Tracy, Kathie and Nancy. Way to go, ladies! YOU DID IT!

Cathie, Me, Tracy, Kathie and Nancy

The rain never really bothers me - thank goodness because I live in the Pacific Northwest! - but I prefer the heat and sunshine. However, when walking, cooler temperatures are usually a blessing.  Wind - I don’t like it but not because of my hair! I don’t like wind because of my hearing aids. The wind makes a very loud, annoying noise in my ears and I can’t hear anything beyond it.

On Sunday, WE HAD IT ALL. We were drenched, cold and windblown. We were weather beaten just like my bib above. We were walking high on a ridge overlooking the Willamette River and were completely exposed to the elements. At one point the wind was blowing so hard that the rain was actually going sideways. After the turnaround, there were times when the rain was blowing directly towards us, soaking our faces. But... we continued. This race wasn't about time - it was about finishing. And believe me, finishing was all that I cared about.

(Oh! I had a big surprise around mile 2 but I will get to that later.)

The route was through neighborhoods and along the river. It was mostly flat and went out and back. It was an easy route, except for the weather conditions. It wasn't really raining when we started but that didn't last long.

I was ready for the race to be over around mile 9! I was tired of the wind and rain and I was COLD. My fingers were so cold they hurt. I had two pair of gloves and traded the soaked ones for the dry ones but they soon were soaked too. As we passed by the local taverns, I couldn't help but dream of going inside one, plopping my drenched rear-end on a dry bar stool, ordering a beer and calling the ol' husband to come get me! But ... it was only a dream.  I kept walking....

Kathie, Nancy and Tracy were up ahead of Cathie and I. We made a quick stop and just didn't bother to try to catch up with them after that.

The race had a time requirement of a 15:00 minute mile pace. Obviously that wasn't happening for us and we fell behind the pace vehicle. That meant we had to move to the sidewalk and off the road because it was opening back up to vehicle traffic. Once on the sidewalk, we spent a great deal of time dodging the puddles lakes! (I don't know why we even bothered though because our feet definitely weren't dry.) There were no more policemen at the intersections and the volunteers were closing up their aid stations. At one point I almost took us in the wrong direction because the cones / route markers disappeared too. Wow. It was an experience, for sure. But... we continued.

When we finally turned the last corner, I pointed out the finish line in the distance. I thought Cathie was going to cry! We were SO HAPPY to finally be done!

We crossed that finish line and received our awesome bling! (Snowmen are my favorite holiday characters!)

I didn't bother to look at the timer because (1) it certainly didn't matter at this point and (2) I just knew we were close, if not over, the 4 hour mark and I honestly didn't want to see that.

The only people in the area of the finish line were the few volunteers calling out names and handing out medals - everyone else was gone. We walked into the parking garage where the event food, water, first aid, massage tables, etc. was located and to our BIG disappointment, nearly everything was gone and they were cleaning up! Not a bagel in sight! Not a banana either! Unbelievable!! There was a table still serving soup (which I couldn't have because it contained onions) and a table with a few glasses of beer left. Thank goodness! I dug through my pockets with my frozen hands until I found my beer tag (it tore off of my bib - in fact, my whole bib tore off due to being soaked!) and then downed that precious liquid gold in no time at all.  ;)

Everyone was proud and happy but exhausted and drenched.

Nancy, Cathie, Me and Kathie

When I got home I finally looked up the race results. Surprisingly - very surprisingly - Cathie and I finished in 3 hours and 34 minutes! That's an average of 16:19 minute miles! For Cathie's first marathon and in AWFUL conditions, that is a great time! (Kathie, Nancy and Tracy finished six minutes before us.)

So WHY was all the food gone?! We weren't THAT far behind the 15 minute mile pace!

Honestly, I was totally happy with that time and am so, so proud of the ladies! Awesome job!

Now... about that surprise! There was a 5k going on at the same time as the half marathon. They started on the same route but turned back at their halfway point, which was close to our mile 2.  I was wearing my black rain pants, black rain jacket, a stocking cap and had my jacket hood pulled up over my head. That left my face exposed but not much of it! While walking past the 5k runners who had already turned around, I heard someone shout out my name! I turned and looked to see who it was and saw Maureen! Maureen - who I have never met in person.  Maureen - who is a blogger. Maureen - who used to be heavy and started running marathons! We read each other's blogs and she recognized me! How cool is that?! I will never know how she recognized me in my outfit but she did! (She has beautiful red hair so I knew exactly who she was when I turned around!)

Thanks for finding me and saying hello, Maureen! We really need to go out for coffee! Check out her very inspirational blog, Buttoning My Jeans. You won't be disappointed!