2015 Volcano Half Marathon... I did it!

I have finished my second official race, The Volcano Half Marathon!

And here's my second official race photo... no finish line shot, unless the race organizers got one. I was sore, tired, hungry, and thirsty; but glad to be on the other side of that finish line! 

Edit: Race results are now in, and I did indeed set a PR for this distance! My final time was 2:07:57, and they have my pace at 9:33.8 per mile -- no wonder I was exhausted! My previous PR at 13.1 was 9:50 pace! That puts the volcano course at 13.38 miles long After alerting race officials to the error, they have since recalculated, and my pace was what I had originally figured: 9:46 per mile (still a PR).

I don't have official race results yet, but based on my RunKeeper app, I should have set a PR (by about 3 seconds per mile). While my overall pace was better, I think the change in routine and crazy early wake-up helped contribute to approaching the dreaded "wall" once again. I also may have pushed it too hard on mile 11, as that was my best mile of the entire run -- which led to me fighting off leg cramps and the feeling that I was going to toss my bananas on mile 13 -- which ended up being my slowest mile of the run.

The course was gorgeous, meandering through Oregon farmland, and there were spots where I felt like raising my arms and letting out a "woo-hoo!" roughly half way through -- but the last mile was hell.

But I got 'er done, so I won't complain too much. 

I'm pretty sure I'll do another one, possibly at the end of the summer... but I'll wait and see how I feel on Monday before I sign up for it. Monday edit: Signed up. :-)

All day long... barely!