This was the inaugural race for this group. It was touted as a scenic, flat race along two rivers, the Willamette and McKenzie. We chose this one because Shelby gave us a free registration. This past week on Tuesday they sent us an email saying they changed the course. It was supposed to be a loop and was now going to be an out and back.
It began at Crescent Village in Eugene. It wound through some really nice neighborhoods and a brief stint along McKenzie River. That was the only river part. The rest was roads and neighborhoods. 26 90 degree turns on the out part of the half. The turns aren’t bad but man, out and backs for that distance are no fun for me.
The first half of the half we ran with a pace guy who was doing a 12 min pace for the full marathon. It was nice chatting with him and he did our 4 and 1 pace with us. We averaged about 11:35 min/miles over the course so not bad.
The hard parts for me are the last two miles. My feet just hurt by then but we kept on going. The final stretch was through a wind tunnel. The breeze was killer today, though we had nice clear weather for all of it. 7am is not an ideal time to start but our hotel was only 3 minutes from the start so at least we didn’t have to get up really early. 🙂
I am not sure of my placement and will update when I know. For now, here is my record. A minute slower than my previous but that is ok. Still a decent time IMO.
