Portland Rock N' Roll Half Marathon

Yesterday I ran in the first ever Portland Rock n' Roll half Marathon. I can honestly tell you that the overall training experience, race and recovery has been night and day compared to training for a full marathon. I think that training worked well with my busy schedule, didn't completely take over my weekends, and I was still able to enjoy other physical activities because I wasn't tired from long training runs. I'd highly recommend training for a half marathon for anyone interested in endurance events. The distance is challenging, it doesn't set you back a week to recover from, and the last two miles you aren't asking yourself why you are doing this!
I ran the 1/2 just under 2 hours, which was my goal. I didn't do as much speed work as I would of liked too... but with all of my fitness classes and other outdoor interests, I managed to fit in a short run during the week, and a long run on the weekends. The weather was perfect, cool with a slight mist. The race was well organized, and there were plenty of aid stations.

This was the training program I followed loosely. I wasn't training to race.... and I only fit in two runs a week....

I averaged 8:55 per mile...  I ran at a comfortable pace, and I probably could of pushed it a little harder, but my main goal was to finish strong, and have fun! 1:57 was my finishing time, which honestly isn't very fast, but at least there's room for improvement! 

The course was really fun, it was mostly on the east side of Portland, it started on the waterfront and then headed towards Mt. Tabor. The last half of the race was a slight down hill which I was pretty happy about. I learned my lesson from the last race I was in, and started off slow... and each mile I got faster and faster. I love negative splits! I enjoy running in these big events, it is so inspiring to see people of all ages, shapes, fitness levels, working so hard to accomplish a goal! It's also so humbling when 50 year olds are passing me... gives me hope for the future! 

So would I run another half marathon? Hell yeah! Another Marathon? No Way!   Until next time! Happy training!

Half Way through-  I'm still smiling cause I only have 6.5 miles to go! 

My boyfriend was taking photos of me while he was on his skateboard, he skated with me for a few minutes at the half way point! ( A great place to have your cheer squad is at the half way point!)