Snake River Half Marathon

Well, Saturday was the first "race" of 2008 for me. It was a half marathon. Haley, Annie and I headed out on the road together with bikes in tow (for riding after) at about 7am. We got there with plenty of time to spare (thanks Coops) and warmed up while the wind kicked up. I think we all were pretty excited to be racing again and were anxious to see what we could do. Initially, we thought we'd have a head wind going out and a tail wind coming back.....I was happy if that was going to be the case. The gun went off and the wind seemed to blow a bit from every direction with a few gusts here and there but nothing horrible. Then there was the turn around-WOW. The wind was gusty, strong and never blew consistently from one direction. I was able to draft off of a guy for about a mile or so but it was difficult because I couldn't ever find a spot behind him that blocked the wind. Then I had to bust out to pick up my pace the last mile. My total time was 1:36:48. The consensus was that the course was a smidge long (more like 13.2). This was a PR for me. I had a plan going into the race and I was able to execute it, quite efficiently, even with the wind. And for that, I'm very happy. And I'm always happy when I can take a road trip with friends!

Here's Vicki and I enjoying the post race snacks :)


Here are Haley, Annie, myself and Vicki after the race during awards. We were huddled together because it was really windy and we were cold. Thanks for keeping me warm Vicki!


Annie, Me and Vicki

Here's a group picture of some of our club members that raced. From left to right, Martin & Vicki Scates, Mark Wyborney, myself, Stan Foster, Steve Rupe, Tim Swanson, Kirk Wood-Gaines & Mia Bertagnoli. Not pictured are Eric Worden, Amanda & Michael Berquist, Katie & Jake.


Here's our road trip crew. I placed 2nd in my age group, Annie (1:27:22 got 3rd overall (2 seconds behind 2nd) and Haley (1:24:32) won the whole darn thing (notice that her ribbon is thicker than ours ;). Both of these girls give me great motivation, they are extremely talented and hard working. Not to mention, really supportive friends. Thanks for a great day girls!

After Annie and I dropped Haley off at home, we decided that a lettuce burger (thanks for turning me on to those, Jessi) at Red Robin was sounding quite scrumptious. We hadn't yet ridden our bikes because it was terribly windy out. Here we are, happy with full bellies.

After we ate, Annie headed home to ride on the trainer and I went for a beautiful, sunset ride by myself. What a great way to end a challenging day. Looking forward to the next race!!