Last Sunday was Lisa and I’s second in a series of three half marathons this summer. (I never got around to blogging about the Oregon Spring Half on May 3. I’ll get that soon). Vancouver represented a new state for both of us as well as a city we spend a lot of time in. I work there, Lisa’s parents live there, we are getting married there. The other fun thing about this race is it included a beer festival at the finish!
A nice shirt and a beer mug for the festival were the swag for this race! Pretty exciting!
Lisa’s cousin Karadee as well as Karadee’s sister Zandra and Zandra’s husband Mike were running this race as well. We managed to find them at the start and while Zandra and Mike were planning a much faster pace than us, Karadee was right where we were planning to be and so we promised to stay together as best we could. It worked out really well. We stayed together most of the way and also hung around with the 2:45 pacer (a fellow Half Fanatic!) most of the way as well. Our goal for this race was merely to finish and enjoy the race. No PRs for this one, at least not for Lisa and I. Karadee and Zandra both PR’d!
The race started at Esther Short park in downtown Vancouver and wound it’s way through downtown, through Officers Row of Fort Vancouver (which was awesome!) and then up the only major hill of the course but it was a doozy! A mile and a half slog up the hill of death. Then we careened down the hill through a couple parks and then along the waterfront and back through Fort Vancouver to finish back in Esther Short park. It was a really nice course, even with the hill of death. We all stayed together until about mile 8 when Karadee just caught some kind of groove or second wind and she took off! We cheered her on as she pulled away. At about mile 11 my calves started cramping up (again!) and we had to stop and walk a bit. Tried to run again but only made it another 1/4 mile or so before they cramped up again. The only complaint I could have about this race is the late stage water stops had run out of gatorade. I doubled up the water and even ate a second Gu for the sodium and potassium but it wasn’t enough to help. We had to walk until mile 13 and then we just had one corner to turn for the finish, so we jogged it out to the finish. I cramped up again immediately but I was able to keep going just until the finish.
We finished! HUGE medals! Very nice.
After the race we grabbed some much needed food and gatorade and then walked to the car to change clothes and get our beer mugs. We headed back to the beer festival for some beer and food! We didn’t realize until too late that the gear check tag from the bottom of the bib got us a free beer from the beer sponser Heathen Brewing in Vancouver. Oh well. But we had our free tokens to get some samples. We had enough tokens to get two samplers (one token each) and then one full beer pour (4 tokens) with our dinner. I sampled a NW Red Ale from McMenamins, a Saison from Heathen and then got a full pour of Kiwanas Cream ale from Pelican Brewing. Lisa tried a Porter from Heathen, another one I don’t remember that she just liked the name, and then got a full pour of Irish Stout from Breakside.
Beer fest selfie!
It did suck to cramp up towards the end, for like the 4th race in a row no less, but we finished and we made it. We had a great time and got to spend most of the race with Karadee which was really fun and made the miles FLY by.
Up next is the Foot Traffic Flat on July 4th, which I spectated last year, but this year I get to run it. This will be the 3rd race in well under 90 days to qualify Lisa for the half fanatics, but after this race we are going to take a break from halfs for a while. The training has been grueling and trying to fit it in among work, school, church and wedding planning has been daunting. For the rest of this year and probably all of next year we are going to concentrate on shorter races, mostly 5Ks but some 10Ks and one 15K (Shamrock). We’ll set different goals, like go for time and work on speed. Both of us would love to nail a sub 30 minute 5K.
On to the next!
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Running From The Past 
I ran this half too. Best and worst run of my life. It was my fourth half marathon and my fastest (by 6 minutes). You’re right about that hill of death. I drove the course (most of it) the day before, and that hill didn’t seem so bad then.
Thanks for this post.