Impulsive half marathon!

I did something a little crazy and impulsive today... I ran a half marathon!
I'd heard about the Lacamas Lake 4-Miler and filed it away in the back of my head as a possible July race. But this weekend's training called for 13 miles - not 4.

Brad's been gone for several days climbing Mount Rainier (yay!!!!!) and I didn't want to do a trail run without him (safety first!). Running around my neighborhood for 13 miles did not sound fun. I thought about paying Eryn to ride her bike next to me for 2-3 hours. WOOHOO.
OR... what if I just signed up for the Lacamas Lake Half instead?? I contemplated it for a short time and then decided to just do it! Mom and Eryn went downtown Friday to help me get all registered. No turning back after you pay the fee :)

With a 7:30 a.m. start in Camas, I got up at 4:30 a.m. so I could shower, eat, sunscreen (no repeating this!), potty, pick up my support crew and get to Camas HS in plenty of time.

Ready to go:
My support team - yay!!
Kinda nervous but just thinking of this as another training run. No pressure.
The course was fairly hilly, including a couple big ones. But I managed to stay close to my 11-minute-mile goal. As planned, I did 20-minute intervals with 1-minute walks between.

And to avoid bonking (like during my last training run), I brought 5 ounces of Brad's homemade energy gel and drank some at each walk break. I also took a bit of water at almost every aid station (they were about 2 miles apart).

And I really felt pretty good until around mile 10/11 when I began dragging a bit. But I was still going and sticking with the plan -- and I was almost done! That's when Mom, Dad and Eryn finally tracked me down, coming off the Lacamas Lake Heritage Trail:
We'd been warned that the course ended with a "pretty steep uphill climb" from mile 12 to 12.5. They were not kidding! I had planned to walk it if I needed - it wouldn't help me to try to run it. It was very steep - and no one else was attempting to run, either.

Fortunately, a couple homeowners had sprinklers/hoses going to help cool us down. I ended up getting soaked :)

I ran as soon as the ground leveled off and was soon back at Camas High School, making my way around the track and to the finish line. I gave it my all and finished strong, coming in at 02:29:43!!!! That's a 11:32-minute average... I'll take it!
The fam was right there, snapping pics, getting me water, holding my loaf of Dave's Killer Bread, celebrating with me and watching me dance to the DJ's tunes (actually, they were just laughing at me and taking hidden-camera video of me bustin' a move!)
World's smallest finisher's medal!
After hanging out a bit and enjoying my victory, we drove back to Tigard for celebratory lunch at Elmer's:
Mom snapped this lovely pic of me scarfing my side salad:
Veggie burger:
I've been feeling really anxious about my big Disneyland Half Marathon in a couple weeks. But now, after having this practice run, I'm feeling really confident. I totally did it!! Just think how good I can do with some tapering and prepping, a flat course and Mickey Mouse to cheer me on ;)

Brad is due back from Rainier in a couple hours... boy, is he going to be really surprised!!

:)