Half Marathon Training Run

Yesterday we went to the movies, which is a pretty rare occasion these days.  We went to the matinee in the early afternoon, and did a little shopping afterwards.  We arrived home in the late afternoon enabling me to get my five mile run in before dinner.  It was a slow run down the typical running paths.  The temperature was pleasant, and the run was just fine. I wanted to get my run completed in the morning because I needed to run a half marathon on Sunday.  The temperature was suppose to be in the 90's in Lebanon on Sunday afternoon, so I should have completed my five mile run in the morning as well.  Maybe I should have listened to my wife and just skipped the five mile run!


Today I went to the Lebanon to run the Run Away Pumpkin Half Marathon course from last year.  I arrived around 9:30am, and I had my water, energy gel, and music ready to go.  My goal was to beat my time from from the Corvallis Half since this course is flat.  I set my pace for 6:46 min/mi, and within the first few miles I knew it was too fast.  Around mile 3 I had to stop to let my heart rate recover a bit, and to drink some water.  I acknowledged that this training run was going to be a walk / run 13 mile adventure.

The course is beautiful once you get out of town.  It runs along Berlin road, to Waterloo, and then back to the start along River road.  It was annoying having to stop and rest every mile or two, but I am to stubborn to reset the workout!  I figured that I would treat it as a long interval training run to get my body use to the pace, muscle memory.

Around mile 8 a little deja vu came over me as was the same spot that I struggled through during the race last October.  I tried to tap into using Shawna and Christina as motivation.  I thought of the U.S. men in the 4x400 relay and the U.S. women in the 4x100 and 4x400 relays.  I thought of Mohamed Farah of Great Britain and Galen Rupp of the U.S. in the 5k and 10k.  None of it really helped keep me running, time for another rest and more water.

I hit Waterloo, and started up River road.  Only about four miles left and my pace was slowing to about 7:00 miles.  I rested at the dam for a few minutes, and then prepared for the last two miles.  Start, stop, start, stop! So annoying! I finally got to the finish. My time was 1:32:34, but the elasped time was 1:56: 54!  I didn't think I rested that much!  It was a tough training run, and in the future I plan to listen take my wife's advice and take the day off before these training races!




Please consider donating for my effort to raise $2,012 to support Christina during my run of the Portland Marathon in 2012.
http://gogetfunding.com/project/running-against-tnbc-portland-2012