Max Muscle Half Marathon

Today was my first 1/2 marathon of 2010... 

It started out a bit chilly, but overcast with promises of burning off eventually - so I was indecisive if I wanted to take off my coat before I started or not...  Almost wished I had on a shirt with long sleeves so I could have just pushed them up when I got warm, but it all worked anyhow...

I got to the starting location in Hazel Dell plenty early, after all I had been able to sign up for a free trial - to use a heart rate monitor for the walk and be able to see the results afterwards.  www.stressthenrest.com is the organization that was offering this - more about that later...

I got all set up with the polar heart rate monitor that would record my heart rate every 5 seconds and store it for us to look at later. Then I sort of wandered around a bit and chattered with a couple people and before I knew it, it was time to start!

There were no timing chips for this one, it was just them starting the time when they said GO - and I started my Garmin (GPS) when I went across the starting line - as I had let the runners go ahead so as to not risk being trampled (not really) shortly after the start...

If you look closely at everyone at the starting line - they all have one thing in common... They are all poised to start their watches/timers at the the moment that the race is STARTED... :)

We did a circle around the parking lot we started in & then off over into some neighborhoods to walk around and not be out contending with much traffic. There was great support from volunteers and from the Clark County Sheriff's department to help with the crossings at the major roads. It was sure appreciated to not have to stop and wait for a chance to cross!

I love this picture - tempted to purchase an actual copy (minus the copyright stamp - lol...)

We did a silly little jaunt up a cul-de-sac and a little turnaround - probably to help pad the mileage a bit more to get us up to the full 13.1 miles.  Down through a bunch of residential streets and then we ended up over by the Klineline pond. Was interesting going down a big hill and being able to see that we were going to go down all the way to the bottom - which meant we were going to have to go back up later!!  

It was really pretty once we got down by the water - Klineline Pond met up with Salmon Creek and we ended up on the Salmon Creek trail. I had never been on this trail before, but it was really nice, paved with asphalt and a decent width (when people were paying attention and would allow others to pass).  Our event was out on this trail as well as the normal people out for a Sunday stroll. There were older couples walking dogs, young parents pushing strollers, a few on bikes, and quite a few with cameras that were out bird watching... :)  Oh I could have taken some neat pictures - perhaps I will return sometime for that purpose... :)

Found a few pictures of the trail area - that were taken by the race photographers...

This part on the trail was an out and back - where everyone went out to the end of the trail and turned around and came back. This meant that we got to see everyone that was ahead of us. The lead person was being led by a guy on a bike - and he sure was going fast & didn't look like he was even winded!!  And then we got to see the rest one by one go by us...  It was neat to see while it lasted...  As people trickled by from about mile 5 to about mile 8 and then I was pretty much by myself other than meeting up with the occasional volunteer that was there to cheer us on or hand out a cup of water.

Out on the end of the trail where we were ready to turn around my cell phone rang!  I was surprised that it rang, so I answered to find that it was my friend (aka boss) calling to tell me he had gone by the starting/finish line after church (he was headed into our office which is 1/2 mile from the start) to see what was going on. He said "The first woman just went across the finish line - I figured you would be right behind her!"  LOL he's so funny... And the even funnier part of all of this is I was trying to talk to him on the phone at the one spot that they were taking pictures!  It will be funny if my only race picture has me talking on a cell phone!  LOL

If you look closely through the copyright in my right hand you will see the cell phone that I was holding on to - just having gotten done talking to my silly friend (as mentioned above!)

Except for one spot coming off the trail by the softball fields - the course was well marked, usually with a sign pointing the direction we needed to go, and a person pointing too... But by the softball fields there were several ways you could go - I went straight where I should have veered to the left... I a bit miffed when I finally realized that I should have gone the other way - only had gone a minute or two out of my way - but at that point I didn't find any humor in it...  I was tired!

I did really enjoy doing an update onto Facebook while walking...  I posted at 3, 6, 9, 11 miles and each time when I went to do an update from my phone there would be replies to my post & they were great inspiration...  "Go get them!"  "The weather is perfect," "Way to go girl..."  They were so neat to get :)...  What did we do before all this technology??

Back to more of the walk details...

Most of the trail portion of the walk (I walked others ran/jogged) was flat, with a few rolling hills here and there. Coming back out of the trail area was a different story - definitely had some hills to go back up...  One step at a time and I made it...  The thing that made me chuckle the most was the gal at the last water station telling me that I had made it to the top of the last big hill... Well she was MISTAKEN... there was still another hill past her that was every bit as big!!!  Oh well - I made it up all of them :)

Before I knew it I came out of a neighborhood and could see the shopping complex where the finish line would be... I got to cross the street again - with the help of another police officer that stopped the traffic, and then walk all the way around the complex to funnel back into center where we had started...  I was looking around for my friend that sounded like he might be there for the finish, but didn't see his truck or him...

Little did I know he was there - I didn't notice him until a few minutes after I finished...

He snapped the following picture:

You can tell I didn't know he was there & it looks silly because the other side of the sign says "FINISH" and this side says Start...  But hey... You can see me telling my GPS that I was done... :)

Here's a preliminary finish photo from the event photographer - waiting for the photographer to post more to share:

The above is not a picture of me - but a picture of the final finishers of the event... I was impressed that this husband and wife walked the whole thing... They used every bit of the generous 4 hour time limit - but I was much impressed that they did it!

It was great to have someone to chatter with for a few minutes & a bit later after I had rested a bit more I was off to turn in the POLAR heart rate stuff...  The guy downloaded the data (which I should be able to share here as soon as I get it) onto his laptop & was able to show me that my heart is healthy... I stayed right in between 130-140 for the whole event!  He said out of the people that had the data logged today, mine was the closest to what it should be for the duration... :)  He and I talked a bit more about how I could utilize data like this to help with ultimate fat burning in my workouts... And he suggested I have VO2 testing done to figure out the optimum range for my fat burning...  I may look into that at a future date...  :)

Here's the heart rate chart...  The majority of the activity being in the green range is GOOD... :)

All in all this was a great event - I felt good with my finishing time of 3 hours and 13 minutes & that I was able to accomplish a 1/2 marathon without all that much training...

What's next?  A Duathlon the end of March :)