Friday, April 30, 2010

Bainbridge Island Half Results

Location: Bainbridge Island, WA
Chip time: 2:02:09
Garmin time: 2:02:08
Pace/mile: 9:20/mile

Overall: 83/172
Gender Place: 24/87
Age Place: 5/27

 Okay, seriously, I have no excuses....I just haven't posted the recap! No worries and nothing bad happened in this race, I am just SUPER slow this week. Not to worry, I have still been running. Just a ton going on :) Now for the recap!

As you might have seen me write about before, the Inaugural Bainbridge Island Half Marathon was last Sunday, April 25th. Located just a short ferry ride from Downtown Seattle, Bainbridge is a beautiful little island and known for its hills. There was a previous half marathon, the Toe Jam Hill Half, which has been run the past 28 years but has since changed its route and was renamed the BIHM. I am from the island, and never heard of it! Apparently it has been pretty small and not well known. Anyways, I was nervous for my hometown half and I knew the course well. Just check out the elevation if you didnt see it before:


Small graphic, but you get my point!
Anyways, I've been feeling down the past few weeks, so I didn't run on Saturday and headed over to the island. I had dinner at San Carlos Restaurant (a local Southwestern favorite) and had an awesome low-carb salad (with tons of guac and pork, my favorite!!) If you ever get a chance to go, do it! It was my perfect pre-run meal. I also had a peanut butter Builders Bar before I went to bed.

 Waiting for the start

I woke up later than a normal race day, since I knew the island well and there wouldn't be traffic. We arrived at 9 am, easily picked up the packet, tech shirt and chip and was ready to start! The start (Winslow Way and Madison Ave) was held a few blocks from the finish line (Waterfront Park). Since it was such a small race, we didn't even have a mat or anything to signal the start! A guy came over with a megaphone and announced the start. He also said that we didn't need a mat since they would "start" the chips at the same time remotely. I didn't even know they could do that!

 And we're off!

The course as I mentioned was quite hilly, with equally difficult hills and descents. We left downtown and went up an immediate slight hill on Grow. From running in the area I knew to pace myself and not burn out on this slight hill. We took a left and went on a long decent down Wyatt, which was nice. I was able to pick up the pace here and get going. After an even steeper decent down Wyatt, we turned at the head of Eagle Harbor and started a long climb to Blakely Elementary School (around mile 2.5) I was feeling great at this point and ran past quite a few guys who had to stop for a breather. One photo op below:

After we reached the Elementary School, we turned right and went down Baker hill (mile 3), which is a MASSIVE decline! I mean, it was steep! I was running next to an aid car the entire time, and was tempted to ask how fast I was going :) On a side note, the course was monitored extremely well for only 180 runners. I saw multiple police officers guiding traffic and ambulances riding along the course. It was nice to see!

Miles 4-6 were scenic and flat. I was feeling great and when I looked down at my Garmin, I was cruising at a 7:50-8:20 mile pace! That is a lot faster than I normally run, but I kept it up. We ran past the old historic Lynnwood Theater, and continued through Fort Ward State Park. The park is beautiful and has awesome views of the water (towards Bremerton) and you run through the bunkers and trees. Its a really nice area.
I dont know who these two dudes are but this is the only picture I can find :)

We then ran on the scenic South Beach drive, that is right on the water. There are some beautiful houses along this road and being RIGHT on the water was awesome. Plus it wasn't too warm with the breeze off the Sound. I was surprised by my Mom, Boyfriend and Chloe who met me at mile 6 to cheer me on! It was a huge boost for me, and nice to see a familiar face along the route. It really helped for the next horrible hill:


Toe Jam Hill! Let me just say that this picture (from the website) is NOT doing it justice! NOT AT ALL! This thing was brutal. It says that it is a 6% incline, but I think it is much steeper than that. You cant even see the bottom of the hill in the picture because it drops so steeply! I was planning on running this without stopping and slowly, and I mean super slowly, started chugging up the hill. After a hundred or so feet, I was making a snails-pace and was being passed by people walking up the hill. I gave up and realized that it was quicker and saved more energy to take long strides up the hill instead of jogging. The funny thing is that all of the other runners around me were doing the same thing! It was still tiring and I was catching my breath at the top. The nice thing was that once at the top we had almost a full mile running downhill. Still, it was tough to run so hard up hill then hard to stop yourself from slipping going downhill.

Mile 8 ran along the water again (Port Blakely) and we turned to go up Old Mill Road (or known as 3T). This was another steep hill and was equal to that of Toe Jam. I wasnt planning on walking, but I had to. I was really tired and wanted to conserve energy. There was a water stop at the top of the hill and they were handing out Hammer Gels. I ran with my trusty Gu, but I took the Hammer Gel to try at a later time. Once at the top of the hill another friendly runner started to talk with me. It was his 8th half marathon and his first time running on Bainbridge. He said it was the most beautiful course he had run on! I had to agree :) not that I'm biased or anything! He also ran in the Mercer Half and did a sub-2 hour! (Side note, I ended up beating him in this race!) It was nice to talk to someone, and we even kept talking up the hills on Old Mill and through mile 10.5. Old Mill is one of my favorite roads on the island and has a nice little view of the valley and where I used to ride horses. Just a pretty area.

We then turned and started to go back around the head of Eagle Harbor. I had another surprise and saw my Mom and Boyfriend again waiting for me! Here is an example of a hill that I didn't even think was a big deal compared to the other ones:


I was feeling good for how hard of a race it was and they got this picture of me doing a "flyby:"


Yeah, the girl behind me wasn't too impressed. I also tried to offload the extra Gu and Hammer Gels that were in my hand and ended up flinging them at the car! Sorry Mom and Bf :)

After this hill we were along the water again about to head up Wyatt (which we ran down at the beginning of the race). I saw a photog and decided to continue with my airplane theme which I dedicated to Little Bro:


Not sure if you can tell, but the ladies behind me were cracking up. You cant tell how much I was swerving to get these pics, but it was pretty funny. Yes, Im a huge dork :) Luckily they didnt seem to mind that I was totally photobombing their picture. At least they didnt seem to mind and were good sports about it!

There was a guy at the head of the bay who was cheering on the runners. As I came closer, he was actually YELLING at us! It was all encouraging, but he was really putting effort into it! I felt like he was my coach or something, yelling to go faster. We only had a mile and a half left, but most of it was a slight uphill. As we started going, I decided not to walk the last bit, and just go on up the hill. My Garmin beeped at mile 12 and I was at 1:54:00 which was a great time for all the hills and terrain, but I didnt think that I could do the last 1.1 in 6 minutes. I decided to run as fast as I could and just see what I could get.


Well, I ended up finishing at 2:02:09, which isnt a PR or even sub 2-hour, but it was by far the best race I have run. It really blew Mercer Island out of the water for difficulty and extreme hills. It was a well manned race and the few supporters out there were awesome. I wouldnt advise anyone to do this race if they havent trained for it (or if you are sick!!)

BF and I after the race


There was drinks, food and snacks after the race, but nothing exceptional (although the water stations were well stocked and had water, Gatorade and gels). The tech shirt is nice, but they had no medals to hand out (sniff sniff). I guess that's what you get when the entrance fee is only $50 and its benefiting the local Boys and Girls Club. So I guess that's okay....but I really really like medals!!

Finish line and food afterwards

A few hours after the race I received an email with all my race info. It turns out that my 2:02 is only 47 seconds off my PR! Not only that, but I placed 5th in my age group (5/27), was the 24th female to finish and was in the top 50% overall for the finishers (male and female)!! WOW, I wasn't expecting that! Ill still be chasing the sub-2, but I think its coming in my future. I did this race about 20 minutes faster than I was expecting!

More exciting news to come and a week recap on the way. Happy running and thanks for all the kind comments this week, I needed it before the race! :)

Picture Website

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Getting nervous....

Friday, April 23: Run 4 (8:45/mile)
Saturday, April 24: day off

I'm heading back to Bainbridge now to prepare for the Bainbridge Island Half Marathon tomorrow morning. Still not feeling 100%, so I don't really know what to expect tomorrow. I do know that I will be watching what I eat tonight and NO COUGH/COLD MEDICINE TONIGHT! I learned that lesson 2 weeks ago.

Runners up Toe Jam Hill a few years ago

I don't think that I stressed enough how hilly this course is. I mean, its going to be ROUGH. The course elevation and incline is below, and parts are over 6% incline! I drove the course a few weeks ago and my car was straining on parts of it. Lets just say that there will most likely not be a PR in my future tomorrow. I want to think positive, but I need to be realistic and not set up for disappointment.

What did I get myself into??

The good news is that the race is in my hometown AND I will qualify to be a Half Fanatic!! To qualify for their lowest level, you have to do this:

NEPTUNE
1. 2 Half Marathons within a 16 day time frame.
2. 3 Half Marathons within a 90 day time frame.


So that is something to look forward to! Are any of you a Half Fanatic or Marathon Maniac? Hope everyone has a great weekend :)

Friday, April 23, 2010

Pacing & Product Review

Thursday, April 22: Run 7 in 72 minutes (10:18 pace)

Yesterday I went running with my Step-Sis again on some serious hills....and lets just say I wasn't really ready for that!! We went around her neighborhood, but in the opposite direction as before. Woah nelly, I wasn't ready for the hills! My immune system must be down still, because I wanted to stop at mile 3. By mile 6 I HAD to stop and was covered in goosebumps and thought I was going to fall over. I felt okay as soon as I stopped, but it was rough. Good thing she was pacing me, because we managed a 10:18 pace even though I was dragging. Thanks for getting my butt in gear Step-Sis :)

 Watch for bikers!

Part of the run was on the beautiful and flat Burke-Gilman Trail. I had heard about it before and that it looped through Seattle, but it was awesome! Wide paved paths, tons of trees and flowers and great views of the city and Cascade Mountains. Just watch out for the bikers, they seem to think they rule the trail.

Afterwards we celebrated our run with a delicious Deschutes Twilight beer. If you don't already know, I love beer and anything Twilight related. Pretty much, I can revert back to a 12 year old girl sometimes, and Im not ashamed to admit it. But I degress, that is another blog in and of itself. I think the seasonal brew is subconsciously channeling my favorite vampire because there are sparkles all over the bottle. Lets just say it was delicious and you should try it! If they could make a beer that was Twilight-inspired that you could drink while running I would be in heaven!


I know what you are thinking, and no, my product review was not for beer :) I might have to try that sometime though! For my birthday last month I received this awesome present:

Nike Poly Good Dry-FIT Jacket ($65 or sale for less)

With flattering flat-seam construction and extended ribbing at the hem, sleeve and neck, the Nike® Women's Dri-FIT Jacket is your perfect go-to gym cover-up. This jacket gives you a wider range of motion for extra comfort, while Dri-FIT fabric provides sweat defying power.

Features
  • Dri-FIT: This high-performance, microfiber, polyester fabric wicks sweat away from the body and moves it to the fabric surface, where it evaporates. As a result, Dri-FIT fabric helps you stay dry and comfortable
  • Full-zip
  • Side-slit pockets
  • Rib collar, cuffs and hem
  • Fabric: Dri-FIT 95% cotton/5% spandex
  • Machine wash
  • Imported
This jacket is awesome and perfect to wear on cool days or for after long runs. The jacket is fitted but not snug, so it wont cling to you. The material is heavy enough that it drapes nicely and looks great. I got mine in black, but it also came in a bright teal and pink (among other colors Im sure). The jacket also has longer sleeves and longer through the torso, so it wont ride up on you. The neck is also high but larger (a cut Ive never seen before) and looks great while zipped up. See below:

Check out the neckline!

I should be a photographer, I know....

Anyways, its an awesome jacket. I'm having trouble finding it now online, but if you google "Nike Womens Poly Good Dry-Fit Jacket" you should find it. Thanks Little Bro for the present :)

Im off to run in the lovely Sea-town rain. Happy running :)

Nike Jacket image from here


Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Marathon Inspiriation

Okay a little late to post on this, but how exciting was Boston Monday? This was the first year I really paid any attention to Boston, and I found it really entertaining! I was rooting for Ryan Hall (Go USA, haha) to win, but he still had an awesome race. How amazing is it that the winner's time? Robert Cheruiyot's marathon time of 2:05 was faster than my Whidbey Half time of 2:06? Dang!!


I also came across an awesome post from Runblogger who posted a video documenting the 2005 Chicago Marathon. I know, I know, its not the Boston Marathon, but once I clicked on it I watched the entire thing... all hour and forty-two minutes of it. It is really fantastic and inspiring. If you are too lazy to click on the link below, here is a brief review from their website:
Spirit of the Marathon is the first film to capture the story, drama and ultimate essence of the legendary 26.2 mile running event.

Filmed globally in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia, the movie brings together a diverse cast of amateur athletes and marathon luminaries.

As six unique stories unfold, each runner prepares for and ultimately faces the challenge of the Chicago Marathon. More than a sports movie, Spirit of the Marathon is an inspirational journey of perseverance and personal triumph; a spectacle that will be embraced by runners and non-runners alike.
I liked it so much Im re-posting it here:



Seriously thinking about running a marathon after watching that. Did it inspire you??

I'm still feeling crummy, and might take the day off from running. Then again, Ill probably feel lazy a few hours from now and end up running a few on the dreadmill. We'll see....happy running!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Sprinting Sisters

**Well, jogging would be more accurate, but sprinting just sounded so much better :)

 Step-Sis and I before the Seattle Half '09

Yesterday I went for a 6 miler with my awesome Step-Sister. We ran all along Greenlake and the surrounding areas. If you ever get a chance to run around the lake, do it! Its fairly flat, beautiful and has great sidewalks so you wont bust your ankles. We took it a bit farther on one of her favorite routes and included a few long (but not too steep) hills.

Greenlake and surrounding area

It is seriously an awesome run. You not only go past the lake, but there is a zoo too! Where else can you run and have the possibility to hear lions, tigers and bears? (And probably chickens, but that's beside the point!!)

Still feeling sick and drained of energy. I have the Bainbridge Island Half this weekend, which is supposed to be much more difficult than the Mercer Half or the Seattle Half, so I am not thinking I can get my long-awaited sub-2 half. You never know, but I'm dragging in my 6 mile runs. I'll be sure to not take any cold medicine for this one though!

Also, has anyone read this book?


My Step-Sis started reading the Complete Book of Women's Running by Dagny Scott Barrios and has highly recommended it. I flipped through a few of the pages so far, and it looks to have a ton of useful tips, stories and information. Anyone read this or know of another great running book?

Happy running :)
Robert Cheruiyot (KEN)

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Spring is here!

Wednesday, April 14: Ran 6 (10:30/pace)
Thursday, April 15: Ran 6 (10:00/pace)
Friday, April 16: Ran 6 (10:00/pace)
Sunday, April 18: Ran 4 (9:15/pace)

Lots of quick short runs this week. I took 2 days off for recovery after the Whidbey Half, but I really wasnt sore since I didnt run that fast in the race :( Even though I am STILL sick I wanted to get back to running anyways.

Wednesday and Thursday's runs were tough. I have little to no energy and I ended up stopping to catch my breath a few times. I felt like I was still going to pass out or fall over. I felt fine the rest of the night afterward, but the run itself was tough. Friday's was better, but I'm still dragging.



I did make it in to the doctor, and the good news is that it isn't pneumonia! I even had x-rays because that's what they thought it must be since I have had it for so long. The bad news is that there is no medicine that I can take to feel better - it just has to work itself out. Boo that!

So, I decided to use my own "medicine" and have a few hefeweizen at my first Sounders game of the season! We ended up winning in the final few seconds 1-0 against Kansas City. I figured that alcohol kills germs, right?? :)



Today was beautiful and over 70 degrees! All the leaves finally came out on the trees in Seattle, so its starting to feel like spring. I even saw a few bunnies earlier this week too. LOVE LOVE LOVE running in the spring :)



Hope everyone is feeling better and had a great weekend!


PS - We celebrated my Mom's birthday earlier this week but I didnt post anything. So....happy belated birthday Mom :)

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Whidbey Island Half Results

Location: Whidbey Island, WA
Official time: 2:06:50
Chip time: 2:06:31
Garmin time: 2:06:45
Pace/mile: 9:39/mile

Overall: 532/1349
Gender Place: 249/916
Age Place: 68/183


Well, the second half marathon for 2010 completed! Woo hoo! The good news is that running in the Whidbey Island Half Marathon last Sunday completed my goal for the year (running two half marathons in 2010)! The bad news is that it was really a difficult run. I'll start at the beginning....
On Saturday my Mom, Little Bro and I left to go to Whidbey Island. As you might have seen, we stopped at the Tulip Festival on the way up. It was absolutely beautiful! If you are in the PNW, it is worth going to at least once. There are fields and fields of different colored tulips all in bloom at once. My only suggestion is to arrive early, as the highway can become quite crowded with all of the traffic. Pics below (and the ones from here) are taken by Little Bro:

We then made it to the Race Expo, which was pretty small for a half and full marathon. Not many freebies, but I guess that's what you get when there are less than 4,000 people running in the entire event. Well organized and lines were short but they had already run out of the small t-shirts that I preordered! Grr! Seriously, what's the point of pre-registering if you get a shirt that doesn't fit? But I digress.....the shirts were a really nice tech fabric in short sleeves for the half, and long sleeves for the full. 


Luckily we stayed in a hotel that was right across the road from the half marathon start. Since Im not a morning person, this let me sleep in as late as possible :) Also, they allowed pets for a small fee, so Chloe my rat-cow was able to stay too. Pretty exciting stuff for her!

We arrived at the start with plenty of time to spare. I had my usual pre-race protein bar and was good to go. Since I have been sick lately, I took 2 Tylenol Cold Multi-Symptom Severe an hour before the start to reduce my cold symptoms. I figured that if I was able to run on my bad hip in the Seattle Half (with 3 ibuprofen) I could run with a cold (and 2 Tylenols). Probably not a good idea.....I hate people who "fake" cold symptoms or injuries. I really don't get sick very often, and I usually think that most of it is literally "in your head." I figured most of running is a mental game, so I could run through anything.

Little Bro and I at the start
The lines were fairly long for the port-a-potties, but luckily we didn't have to go. The race started on time and we were off! Little Bro pulled out ahead of me early on, but I already figured that I wasn't really going for a sub 2 while being so sick and stressed out lately. My real goal was to hopefully beat my Seattle Half time of 2:16. I was thinking I might run even slower than that, but I just wanted to compete in general and see how it went.

Click here for a map of the route. The first 2 miles were easy and mostly flat or downhill. My Garmin beeped at mile 2 and it had only been 16 minutes! Not bad! At this point I was feeling great and we headed into a pinwheel for mile 3. I was chugging along but suddenly felt completely drained. I mean, we were running on totally flat ground and I was ready to call it a day. This was worse than my horrible 11 miler in February. I made sure that I had plenty of protein that morning and the night before, so I shouldnt have been that tired. I also had a TON of water to stay hydrated the day before. What gives?? Then I realized that it must be the cold medicine! WTH??

At mile 4 I was wobbly as we headed around Oak Harbor. Luckily the course is beautiful and runs mostly along the harbor or in view of the harbor. It was sunny, not too warm and not crowded at all - perfect running conditions and I felt like crap. Mile 5 continues to be flat through Windjammer park (which is also the finish of the half and full marathon races). Running through here felt like I had rubber for legs. I'm pretty sure that I was stumbling and swerving the entire time. I had a few funny looks from people on the course....honestly, it probably looked like I was drunk! (I wasn't, I swear!!) Yikes!

Mile 6 heads up from Oak Harbor into farmland and pastures (with views of the water still). Somewhere along this point I started to feel really sick. I mean, I wasn't sure if I needed to throw up or find a port-a-potty. I struggled up the hill and my face was probably green or ghostly white. I did not feel good. I think that a combination of the cold medicine, being over-stressed the past few weeks and over-exerting myself in the first half of the race just took a toll on my entire system. Blah.

Miles 7-9 were awful. I wanted to die. It was flat and beautiful, but I was dragging. I finally stopped to use a port-a-potty at mile 8. It was either stop for a minute (literally, only a minute) or possibly barf on one of the poor volunteers handing out GU. Also, we were running through plowed pastureland, and there was no tree or shrub to hide behind if I became sick.


I felt a bit better at that point, but had to stop again at the port-a-potties at mile 11. It was either that or get a DNF, and I wasn't about to let that happen. I have to say I was disappointment in stopping, but it only added possibly 3 minutes total to my time (I kept my Garmin running to track time). I was also worried that I might actually pass out while on the course. I was THAT lightheaded the entire time. I managed to grab another GU, but I was so nauseous that I wasn't about to force it down. I decided to just keep running and finish as soon as possible.

Trust me, Im not as happy as I look!

At mile 11.5 we started to run downhill back to Oak Harbor, so I knew we were in the homestretch. I tried to push it, but I really couldn't go very fast. I knew a PR was out the window and I really had no idea what time it was....I figured I didn't need to make myself feel worse by looking at the Garmin. Around this time a pace car drove by my. I wondered what it was then I saw a blur fly by me. The marathon leader had passed me! (Note: the marathon started an hour before us and they ran the half course as the second half of their course). Holy cow he was fast! We were going downhill and I was probably running a respectable 8 minute mile, and he was EASILY running a 5 minute mile! I turned to the guy running next to me and our jaws just dropped. Dang, I wish I was that fast!

Mile 12-13.1 was the longest mile in my life. We wound back through Windjammer Park to the finish, but I was completely spent. My official chip time ended up being 2:06:31, which is only 5 minutes slower than my Mercer Half time 3 weeks ago!


Not only was I woozy and sick, but I was pretty sick for the rest of the day too. The medal at the end did help me feel better though!

 Im a sucker for a medal!

Finishers woot-woot


I really did learn a lot from this race. In retrospect, my time was pretty good. 5 minutes slower than my PR (albeit on an easier course) really isn't that bad. I learned my lesson that you should NOT take cold medicine before running 13.1 miles, or any race in general. Please let my experience show you to not do that in the future! I also have come to respect racing, and loving good running days. I will be SURE not to take advantage of my next good running day from now on!

I also proved to myself that you can really get through anything if you put your mind to it. I should NOT have raced, but I was still able to get it done once I put my mind to it. Might have not been the smartest thing to do, but it does show how mental running can be. (Too bad it made my cold worse the past 2 days, boo) Oh well, live and learn!

On another sidenote, Little Bro broke the 2 hour mark with a time of 1:56! Good job little bro! :) And a thanks to Mom for coming out on her b-day weekend to support us!

Ill leave you with 2 pictures we snapped after the race. Unfortunately, the funny pics my Bro and I tried to take during the run were not captured. There is always next time....




Nice toe-touch Little Bro! That star-jump took the last bit of energy that I had. I had to sit afterwards, haha.

Happy running!

Race Results
A few images from here and here

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Ugh, still sick....

Still sick, but alive :)

Lets just say that running while sick was NOT the best idea.....and now I've been even more sick the past 2 days (no running for me either). I have a lot more insight into running races though - at least I got through it!

Time to relax, recover and eat pea soup. Recap, insight and pictures to come tomorrow!

 Love it, yum!!

Pics below from the Tulip Festival last weekend in Mt. Vernon (on the way to Whidbey):

All colors you can think of and stretching as far as you could see....

Cheese!!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Signed up & off to Whidbey!

Workouts while sick:
Thursday, April: Ran 6 (8:51/pace)
Friday, April 9: Ran 5 (9:11/pace)

Packing and heading up to Whidbey Island today for the half marathon on Sunday! Even though I'm STILL sick, I'm excited to run this race with Little Bro and celebrate my Mom's birthday. I guess Ill have a new topic to post about - running while sick! Recap to come in the next few days...

Also, I signed up for the Bainbridge Island Half Marathon on April 25th!! Its going to be a killer, but then Ill qualify for Half Fanatic status :) Below is a short blurb that I wrote about the BIHM a few weeks ago:


The Bainbridge Island Half Marathon is located on Bainbridge Island, which is a scenic 35 minute ferry boat ride across from Seattle. The half marathon is being held on Sunday, April 25th and will benefit the local Boys & Girls Club. The fee is $50, which includes a t-shirt and chip timer (they are not sure about medals for everyone at this point).

This is looking to be a tough race. This is the inaugural year for the BIHM, and is replacing the 25+ year old Toe Jam Hill Half Marathon (that's a HUGE hill on the island). It is a slightly different course for the BIHM, but still goes up Toe Jam hill, and other hills throughout the Island. I'm thinking about signing up for this race, but because I know the island well, I'm not expecting a sub 2-hour half on this one! Ill be happy just to finish in one piece!

Exciting!! I didnt find any coupon codes, but this race is only $50 (no medal though, boo). Seriously, more medals need to be handed out (ahem, Mercer Half??) I will be sure to take plenty of pictures of my medal from the Whidbey half this weekend!
 
Happy running and a sniffly, achy, coughing, sore throaty Whidbey Half recap to come :/