Spokane 1/2 Marathon

This weekend will be my 3rd Spokane 1/2 Marathon. Its a great and slightly challenging race. The first year I ran the Spokane 1/2 was 2008. It happened to be the weekend after I ran my BQ at the Portland Marathon. I was still sore from Portland, but since I had already signed up for the 1/2 I figured I should follow through. My foot was killing me- at the time I didn't know I was coming down with PF (NOT FUN!). I figured a little adrenaline and some tape would get me through the 13.1 miles. My husband (fiance at the time) asked me if I felt okay to run and I said "yes, but if I needed to walk it in, I would". I was figuring that it might take me a lot longer than I was anticipating to finish. The first couple of miles hurt like heck and it was cold! I couldn't keep warm-there was ice on the course it was so cold. After a while my foot stopped hurting-  I am not sure if it was the adrenaline or if my foot was numb. I ran the whole race and a bit faster than I had anticpated. Adrenaline can work wonders ;-)

Even though I was able to finish this race, I don't suggest running a 1/2 marathon the weekend after running a marathon. These 2 weekends put me out of commission for the rest of the year while I let my foot heal.

2008 Spokane 1/2 Marathon Results
1:44:27
Overall #86
AG (20-24) #2

2nd place 20-24 AG, 2008 Spokane 1/2 Marathon

Cam and Tia @ the Spokane 1/2 Marathon (it happened to be Tia's 1st birthday :))

The 2nd year I ran Spokane I was more prepared as far as the course was concerend. It wasn't a huge shocker to hit the infamous "Doomsday Hill" at mile 9. I even ran it a bit faster than the previous year, but I also hadn't ran a marathon the weekend before. I just ran a 1/2 marathon instead. :-)

2009 Spokane 1/2 Marathon Results
1:41:36
Overall #74
AG (25-29) #5

Unfortunatley I have no fun pictures from the 2009 race....

This year Spokane will be a training run for me, goal pace of 7:45/mile. I was originally going to sign up to run the 10K, but my training plan from FLAB had me running 13 miles on race day so I signed up for the 1/2 instead. I am actually looking forward to this race. It's pretty low key, but it is fun and I don't have to get up super early for it. The race starts at 9:00 am- I live 3 miles from the start. That means I don't have to get up until at least 8:00 am, right????

The next weekend (10.16) I am running the Girlfriend's 1/2 Marathon in Vancouver. I am so excited for this race! I have met some amazing runners/bloggers online that will be there also. I am hoping that I get to meet some of them and hopefully they want to meet me too! :-)

--Tasha