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Half Marathon #2

This weekend was a busy one. We were lucky to have our good friends Jake and Meredith come out to visit us. They flew in on Friday night and we stayed out way too late catching up! The main reason for their visit was to participate in the Platte River Half Marathon relay on Sunday. So on Saturday, we decided to help them prepare for running in the altitude by going on a hike near Golden. The first trail we picked was a little too trecherous. But we did find a second trail which turned out to be a really nice hike, although a little windy. We were so lucky to have great weather the entire weekend for all of the outdoor activities we participated in. Sunday was race day. We prepared by eating a big pasta dinner at Olive Garden on Saturday night. Then we went home and had a quiet evening watching a movie and falling asleep shortly after. All through the week, the forecasts were calling for rain/snow on Sunday, but when we woke up, it was a typical bright and sunny Colorado day. Perfect running weather, except for the gusty wind that persisted all weekend. The race went really well. It was almost entirely downhill, except for the last mile, which required us to run up and over a bridge/overpass. My mentality was to run faster to get it over with or give up and walk. We ended up running faster and finished the half marathon with a personal best of 2:03:06. That's three minutes shaved off of the half marathon we ran last fall! Jake, Mere and their friend Heather ran the relay, which consisted of two people running 5 miles and the third person finishing the last 3.1 miles of the race. Jake ran first. He took off pretty fast, but I managed to catch up to him eventually. (Matt had to stop to use the restroom at the very beginning, but he eventually caught back up to me.) When Jake finished his 5 miles and Mere started running, I couldn't keep pace with her very long at all! It was a fun race, made even better by having so many friends to run with. Here are a couple finish line pictures for you!
The countdown is on for our full marathon: less than three weeks!!

Comments

Sarah said…
Speed demon! You should start tapering soon right?
Monday, 11 April, 2011
mom m said…
Way to go!! I'm glad you had fun and set a new record. Thanks for the pictures.
Monday, 11 April, 2011
Laura said…
Sarah- The half marathon is technically tapering from our training. :) We took some time off during our trip to Ireland, so we will probably do one more long run, and then rest our legs for the big race!
Tuesday, 12 April, 2011
Alissa said…
That's awesome you set a PR! I'm amazed at your running accomplishments so far. Looking forward to watching you finish the marathon!!
Tuesday, 12 April, 2011
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