EBM Running Log

As you would expect, living in the Seattle area it rained today.  I don't want to whine too much about the rain but, I find it hard to start running when it is raining. If I start my run and the rain happens during the run, that's fine.  I don't find that to be a big deal, it's a mental thing for me.  I didn't plan to run that far today, and it's been a few days since I've gone running.  I really felt I needed to get back on the road.  I've had some personal issues to work out around the house, I'm really using that as my excuse. Water leak from our dishwasher, insurance company, and contractors.  It's been a little busy and it's thrown off my schedule. I should be training for the upcoming Ragnar Northwest Passage this July.  I'm just a stand-in for this race but I can only assume I'll get the undesirable time slot and get a hard section.  This means I need to step up my game.  Today went for a leisurely 4-mile run, not too bad. 

Yesterday was the Vancouver BC Marathon, and I ran the Half-Marathon.  The weather worked out really well, it was a nice sunny day in Vancouver.  The race started at 7:00 AM with a temperature of 55 degrees.  Overall I'm pretty pleased with myself, I was able to break the 2hr mark in the race.  My official race time was 1:57:16.  The next time I run this I would like to make 1:50 pace.  I kept up with the 1:50 race bunny for almost half of the race, but they pulled away in the hills.  I have some work to do to fix that.  Here are some pictures of the race. Laura and I picked up our gear the day before the race. I'm getting ready to head out the door for the race, as you can see it was still early. Manish and I waiting to start the race. Manish took some photo's of me running.  As you can see here I was in pure agony.

I feel like I've been on a long road to arrive at this training point.  Perhaps I should back up a bit and explain a little.  I've been running off and on for years now.  In January I decided to run the Vancouver Half Marathon, my buddy Manish brought it up one evening at dinner.  I thought about it for a few minutes and agreed to do it.  This could be fun.  I also figured it would be a good personal goal. It feels like a long road to get to this point.  Winter sucked, I really didn't like running in 20-degree temperatures, bur.  Then I was sick with that terrible cold that was going around, that laid me up for a few weeks.  But with the race coming up quick I laced up my shoes and got out there, a lot!  I pushed myself every week to extend my runs farther and farther.  I'm finally at a point where I can run 11.5 miles and not feel like I killed myself.  I'm slightly sore after my big runs but not enough to bother me.  It's not the full 13 miles but it's c