Vancouver Lake Half Marathon

Last Sunday I did the Vancouver Lake Half Marathon in 30 something degree weather. But it wasn't raining- yeah!
Rode to the race in the Headhunter's van (top picture). My training partner Natalie, (refered to as running partner 1 in previous posts) in the pink sleeves had never ridden in the Headhunter van before so that was fun. Eveywhere you go, people point and look at the van. Anyway, got to the start line and Natalie was shivering so I rubbed her arms to keep her from shaking- it was cold!
In the middle picture I'm helping her work my GPS watch so she could see what pace she was doing. The gun went off and Natalie and some other fast runners from the club took off and I went slow, I thought. Scott from the club caught up with me and we ran together for the first 7 or 8 miles at a blistering 8 to 8:10 pace which is close to my 5K pace last year. It felt good and I wasn't winded, just tired legs. At the second turnaround around 7.5 or 8 miles, I told Scott I had to fade and I slowed to a 9 or 10 pace and just slogged to the finish. At mile 11 I wanted to speed up, but didn't have any extra energy. They only had water stops and I didn't bring a Gatorade bottle or GU thinking they would have it on course, oh well. Got to the finish area (bottom picture)at a pr of 1:55:11. I came in at 162 out of 324- exactly 50% for the race overall. I think I started too fast because I hit the 6 mile mark at 49 minutes which would be an all time low ten K time. Natalie came in at 1:39 and took 3rd in her age group and 19th overall female. We stayed for awards and talked to other Headhunters who ran and then piled in the van and went to Applebee's for lunch. For a really good race report see Sarah's blog, she rode in the van also.