I didn’t think I’d get a chance to race another half marathon this year with training for the Chicago Marathon, but when Coach Dawn asked if I wanted to race the weekend of September 10th, I thought why not. I had it on the calendar to be a pacer for the Oregon Fall Marathon that Saturday so I just decided to race it instead.

The Oregon Fall Half Marathon took place in Canby, OR at St. Josef’s Winery, which is 22 miles South of Portland. I had been there before for pacing the Oregon Spring Half last year. They changed the course this year and we didn’t have to be shuttled to the start line, which was nice. The weather was good at the start of the race, 55 deg F according to my Garmin data. The half marathon started at 8 am and there was also a 10k race that started at 8:30 am. Here’s a pic from the start area:It was a decent sized crowd. Team RWB was there, a great group that enriches Veterans’ lives. It was announced that the half marathon and 10k were full. I think the half marathon was capped at 300 people. Here’s a pre race pic of me and Angela. She rocked this half btw!The race started on time and we were off. Here are pics I took along the course:I didn’t want to start too fast so I set my watch up with my paces. It beeped quite a bit at the beginning since I was going too fast lol. There’s always so much adrenaline at the start. It was hard watching everyone pass me by, haha. But I think it paid off big time, since I felt strong most of the race. It also felt good to pass people along the race. It was a nice course, running by farms and vineyards.I didn’t remember it being too hilly last time I ran it but I guess it’s a lot different when you’re racing. There were rolling hills which made it tough and it seemed to get warm quick. There was a point in the race where volunteers were handing out cold towels, which was awesome! I was thankful for that!Toward the end, the last couple of miles, I had hoped to go faster but it just wasn’t there and my pace slowed a little. I was fading and the hill at the end didn’t help. I finished with an awesome time though…since I PR’d!! Woohoo!!Post race pic. Happy to be finished!Here’s the medal which is also a belt buckle.Post race pic of me and Angela in front of the magazine type background.Love how we can print out our results!It was another great race put on by Uberthons! At the end they handed out bottled water and there was a misting tent. I always love going in the misting tent on hot days! There also was a nice Qdoba buffet which I didn’t partake in. The only bad things I could think of was that there wasn’t enough Porta Potties and I only got 13.06 miles on my Garmin. There was a long Porta Potty line at the beginning of the race. It was an improvement from last year since they increased the number of Porta Potties, but it still didn’t seem enough. As for getting only 13.06 miles, not sure what happened there. Angela got 13.06 miles also, so the course may have been a little short.

My stats:

I’m looking forward to my next race, the Chicago Marathon. Do you have any races coming up?