Monday, May 26, 2014

She's 12 now, and we are training for her second half

Sauvie Island…ahhhh, my favorite race!

When I first started running I was doing it because it made me feel powerful.  The longer the distance I could run, the more accomplished I felt!  Some lady in the gym on the treadmill next to me, back in 2011, unwittingly challenged me to do the Shamrock run in Portland.  So I did, and I developed a passionate dislike for that race.  Reason number one being the temperature.  My toes were like frozen sausages before the race even began.  At big event races such as the Shamrock, people tend to stand outside and pass out fliers for other races.  The flier that ended up in my hand was my ticket to a half marathon.  A few days later, I curiously looked up the website to the Sauvie Island Flat Half Marathon, there was a video (keep in mind it is March while I am watching this), in this video it was the brightest shiniest sunny day, the people were all smiles, the plates were overflowing with strawberry shortcake served by the islanders, and everyone was HAPPY!   So that is the birth of my first half marathon, every since I ran it in 2012, it has been my favorite, and if the training for the Vancouver Lake Half hadn't have been so freezing, that one would be a close second!

All that to say this, after Emily has watched me cross 4 finish lines (one with her), she decided she wants to run Sauvie Island.  I had a lot of reservations about letting her join in on my favorite race, but now that we have been training for 3 weeks, those reservations are slowly dissolving.  What's the difference you say?  Well, this time we are training in the morning, and she is unstoppable!  I don't know if it is because she is a few months older, or that she is more determined not to stop, if it is because she has already run a half before, or if it is a combination of all three.  So far she has run 6 miles without stopping to walk!  This makes me happy for so many reasons, but mainly because it is hard for this mamma to stop and start up again.  Run/walking is not my thing, and I think Emily is discovering how much easier it is for her to do it that way too.

We have changed up our route.  Yesterday we decided to go find the trail in the nearby state park.  The trail was not marked very well, and it breaks up here and there.  Finding the connections from the break up parts to the next part were a bit of a challenge, but once we got it figured out I asked Emily, "On a scale of 1-10, where would you place this run?"  She stated 9.5, I asked her the same about our city run, and she said 7.5.  I was very happy with her answer because this is a nice compromise for both of us.  My favorite run is the one by our house, but it is not the safest.

I am excited to see how this race comes together, I hope she enjoys it as much as I do.