Sunday, October 4, 2009

The Half! It is finished!

I did it!!! Hooray! Yesterday at approximately 10:56 am PST, I completed my first half marathon in the picturesque Bavarian village of Leavenworth, WA.


Since Leavenworth is about 2 hours away from Seattle and my race started at 9 am, we thought it would be a good idea to stay closer and avoid a 6 am wake up call. Methinks it was for the best. Hence, on Friday afternoon, we headed to a cabin ("An Oasis") in the Plain area of Washington. No, that isn't me being silly and calling the area around Leavenworth "plain"... there is an actual town east of the mountains called "Plain". If you want to draw the tourists in, that is how you do it. Believe you me, that town was HOPPING! Horses, goats, old trucks, a market - it was CRAZY!


Anyway, back to the cabin. Duncan and I were joined by Rawb, Sarah, Colin and Liz. The first night after enjoying a massive pretzel with some beers at little restaurant in Leavenworth, we picked up my race packet and headed into Plain for some pre-race enchiladas and sleepy time! Woo sleep!


Then, 7 am wake up for me! I have a terrible time sleeping before races, so it was no problem. I tried to down some oats and hydrated a lot. Rawb, Sarah and Dunc left with me to bid me farewell for 13.1 miles of awesomeness.

Here I am with my game face, stretching before the race.

And I was off!!! Oh, it was really cold. I don't know, like 35 degrees cold? I wore that coat for about 3.5 miles until I ran into my awesome full crew of cheerleaders:


Yep, they are spelling "BETSY" for me at about mile 4... but I couldn't really read it... I see it now, very clearly.


I only expected to see them here and then at the finish, but this crew was most excellent and took their job very seriously. I saw them again just about at mile 9 at the top of the last hill on Duncan Rd. (what a crazy coincidence!!! My boyfriend's name is Duncan!!! WHOA.):


That is my surprised running face. It was nice to see the gang again, it got hard after mile 9.


After Duncan Rd, I was looping around through neighborhoods back to the start at the US Fish Hatchery, when I hear this crazy car yelling and blasting "You're the best around, nothings ever gonna keep you down!" 


I knew I would probably get to see my team once more before the finish, and there they were at mile 12:


Still waving, I was very happy to see them. That's how I got the juice to beat those two goof balls behind me.


I was cruising at around 8 minute miles through the last couple of miles and check this out...




18
595
ELIZABETH
EVANS
HALF
24
F
F2024
01:56:29
01:55:59
00:08:54

Smashed by goal (1:59:59) by almost 4 minutes!


After some water, a bit of food and electrolyte replacement, I was pretty dang pleased with the race:


Got a sweet medal, an awesome finisher's sweatshirt and a delicious breakfast.. pumpkin waffle! Yum!


Plus, we were in town for the first weekend of Oktoberfest in Leavenworth. Which apparently means you need to wear funny hats... the boys tried it out, but in the end decided against these beauties:



With Dunc's love of German food and my need to replenish my calorie stores, we all happily visited King Ludwig's for dinner and demolished a massive platter of food...



Drank some delicious German brews



And clapped along to the totally sweet Polka band

We had some awesome times at the cabin and in Plain, but I think I will leave it up to Dunc to recap the good times at An Oasis.


Thanks to everyone for all the race well wishes. I couldn't have done it without all your love!

6 comments:

  1. You are fantastic! What a woman, and what a fabulous support team. Go, go, go! Yay Betsy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Betsy!

    You don't know me, but I am an old friend of Duncan's from High school. I just wanted to let you know you've inspired me to start running! Also, I love your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  3. BETSY SMASH RECORD!!
    I think a half marathon is an excellent race length, and I think including a cabin of some sort in the mix is a very good move.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Does that number in front mean you came in 18th? That sounds really good!!! You are CWAZY!

    MAMZ

    ReplyDelete
  5. uhm...
    who the heck is elizabeth?
    betsy, are you lying to my favorite, but only, cousin in Washington, and me?

    What's that? you aren't? ok, good. i was scared there for a second. but really, who is elizabeth?

    good time, though.

    unlike Nat, I wasn't inspired to run, only because i don't like running. I think running is bad for this chubby boy.(belly pat)

    Peace out,
    Toby
    (That guy on the farm in the east you visited a month ago.)

    ReplyDelete

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