Vancouver Lake Half Marathon

Sunday I did the Vancouver Lake Half Marathon. Woke up to the yard and roads being covered in snow and a 31 degree temperature. It wasn't a problem driving though and made it to the lake and got the packet and t-shirt. Lined up and Natalie got up front and I stayed back with coach Denise and ran a medium pace to start and then about a 9 pace until the halfway point and then my right leg got stiff so I had to fall back from Denise. She yelled back "come on- you're faster than me." Kept running, but it felt like a crawl.
Came in at 2:05 for a 9:36 pace and ten minutes slower than last year. It was really fun saying high and high-fiving all the people from the club I go to that were doing the race. The club had a van and tent/awning type thing set up and had a stove with turkey soup made by Brian and hot chocolate. Got back to there and found out Natalie had won her age group!!
She smoked the course at a 1:36 even with slush on the path part of the course.
The day before Sarah, Julie, Natalie, and I went up to Mirror Lake by Mt Hood and did a 5 mile snowshoe. Natalie and I were first time snowshoeers, but Sarah and Julie were pros. We had to walk for almost a mile each way on the plow hill just to get to the trailhead because of no parking at the summer trailhead. Got to the lake and it was beautiful and we were alone. Sarah pulled out a flask and hot chocolate and we drank and made snow angels.

Then on the way down we did follow the leader going off trail in silly ways. Saw about 20 people coming up as we were going down. At one point we met a group of about 6 or 7 young girls, so Julie took their picture and they took our picture. Got back to the cars and went to the Huckleberry Inn in Government Camp for unhealthy, but filling food. That whole day was a blast- but may have tired my legs for the run. Pictures are courtesie of Sarah.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Since my last post- I lost the girl. Made tons of plans for the year and then bam.
Today (Jan 1st) I did the annual Sharkey swim at the club I go to for the third year in a row. It's a 5000 meter swim in the pool. Had five people in our lane and we each pulled a hundred meters 10 times. Rotating through the five people made it easy to count. At 3500 we stopped for about 30 seconds to regroup. One girl smashed her finger on someone's foot early on, but kept going and finished with a purple swollen finger. This was Natalie's first year doing the Sharkey, she had never swum over 2800 meters. Forgot to look at the time when we got out so I don't know how long it took, but I felt great and could have gone for a 112 mile bike ride no problem. The club had pancakes and sausage, but a group of us went to Rose's restaurant and I had a spinach and swiss cheese omelet.