oregon adventures

Monday, May 03, 2010

Camas-Eugene Half Iron- Sort of


This weekend I did the distance of a half iron over two days. Saturday morning did 2000 meter group swim and then saddled up and rode the RACC (Ride Around Clark County). Started from the club I go to because it's on the route. The first 20 miles or so it rained, but then it started to clear up, but never did get warm. Had a big group to ride with and raced sometimes and rode social pace most of the time for 65 miles. Then off to Eugene for the half marathon down there. Because of the bike ride I missed meeting up with Lizzie Lee. Luckily Sarah picked up my packet for me, so when I got there met up with her and Ken and Sondra and Rusty and Tom and went to McMenniman's for dinner.
Next day the run started at 7 AM. I was right across the street in a motel so I waited until 10 minutes till and walked over. Almost 7000 people between the half and full, so I had to push through just to get to the 12 minute pace shute. Saw Sarah and someone sang the anthem and they started. I'm tall enough I could tell they had started, it took several minutes until we started moving. I ran with Sarah for a couple miles and then sped up and weaved my way up in the crowd. At one point on a slight hill you could see a sea of runners ahead and behind in all the colors- love seeing that. My knee started hurting a little pretty early, so I just ran a nice comfortable 9-10 pace the whole time. At mile 11 sped up a little, but it was too much effort to weave in and out of the crowd, so I didn't speed up too much. Finished at 2:09 which is 14 minutes slower than last year and good for 73/125 for my age group and 1716/4057 overall. They had pancakes with sugar-free syrup and Subway sandwiches and cookies and chips, etc. Cleaned up and went to three wineries south of Eugene and then ate lunch at a country cafe. Then back to Eugene for nine holes of golf at Oakway golf course. That makes all the public courses in the Eugene area that I've played now. Then on the drive home I remembered the Phillies were on ESPN, so I went to AM on the radio and I turned it on with 2 outs in the 4th inning with the Phillies down 5-3. The next 9 batters scored while I was listening and the Phillies won 11-5. Good weekend!
Next up- Reach the Beach on May 15th. It's a 100 mile bike ride from Portland to the ocean.