Half Marathon Season

So I have been drastically searching for races in or around my area, and there are tons, several that are in the Oregon region. The hard part is that I am sans vehicle and therefore cannot travel to said half marathons. I really wanted to partake in the Portland Marathon this year and make it my first real marathon but.... I will be in Jamaica. So I wanted to sort of stay on track with my goal of a half marathon every season or so. It was a no brainer that doing a half marathon while in Antalya was a bad idea, two words HEAT STROKE! Having a heat related emergancy was definetly a concern of mine. Therefore I waited till September to start it up again and after attempting to get myself to Colorado for the Colorado springs half, I found that the Xterra National Half Marathon was being held here in Bend OR. Needless to say I signed up, and Saturday the 18th of September was race day! I convinced my wonderful (and extremely talented) friend Mallory to run with me and here is our story...

The day started out calm, cloudy, no wind, possible chance of rain a little sun but not much. Overall temp was in the 60's. A perfect day for a 14 mile run! Ya! 14 miles rather then the normal half marathon distance of 13.1 miles. For whatever reason they wanted to stretch it a bit. No biggie right? Except that you add 14 miles to "flat" trail race and tell 300 of the best racers in the nation (50-60 amateurs me included) to go race in hopes of winning the 1000 dollar prize. the first 5 miles of my race were the best 5 miles I have ran in a while. The trail was mostly flat, and thanks to my new 10 dollar watch I purchased at Fred Meyer the night before I knew I was running 7.5 minute miles! I was on a roll, total high thinking I would be able to keep up with the "big kids." Well my high went literally downhill, as the trail race began to surprise me with steep hills, rocky patches, and cliffs! Ya, there were several up and downhill parts that were hard to manage and needed to be walked (not a fan of running downhill.) Then there was the epic moment where I tripped on the girl in front of my, not my fault she flat out stopped running as I was booking it up one of the hills. To add to my frustration I ran about 50 yards in the wrong direction, completely missed the slight turn in the trail and only when I realized I was literally running in the bushes did it occur to me to turn around. It was a dead give away, no one was anywhere near where I was. 

I ended the race at 2 hours 28 minutes which is my worst half marathon time, even if I had my best 5K time within the race. I stand in my own defense that had I been more prepared for the trail race trials I would have been able to predict potential mishaps and run more efficiently. Needless to say I did not win the 1000 dollars, didnt come close since the fastest female camein at about 1 hour 10 minutes. they say that trail runs should be 10 minutes slower then road runs, which is accurate for me honestly. My previous half marathon (which was only 13.1 miles) was 2 hours 17 minutes. I have yet to be able to beat my best time, in Berlin where I got 2 hours 5 minutes and my ultimate goal is to break the two hour mark, mostly for accomplishment sake and for the general "who wants to run for 2 hours straight?"

I still think that the half marathon has taught me that I am not ready for a marathon yet, every time I finished a half marathon it crosses my mind usually around mile 10 that if I were asked to basically turn around and run the opposite direction to reach the finish line there is no way in hell i woudl do it and therefore i am not ready to tackle that 26.2 mile stretch, but GOOD LUCK to my friend Mallory who will be partaking in her first marathon October 10th in Portland. I will be probably a little hung over since October 9th is my 24th birthday, and I will be in Jamaica...