Bellingham Bay Half Marathon

This one was a little impulsive. Cherie had put this one on her calendar, and did a little arm-twisting - very little really. I had planned a half marathon in November, and I wasn't really going to be ready for this one in September. Looking back, I did almost no training, running only four times in the last two months. There has been a little bike riding, but that doesn't always translate. Our running group has had a semi-serious goal of reaching a fitness level where we could roll out of bed and run a half marathon. Today would sort of be a test of that.

This was the second year for this event, and though the weather was terrible last year, overall it was a great debut event. The route looked better than the one we ran last year, and the weather forecast was also looking good, so even though Cherie had to bow out due to illness and schedule conflicts, Tami and I headed up to run.

The race started in downtown Bellingham at the farmers market. Traffic was light, we found parking easily a block away from the start, and the good weather arrived as predicted. Things were looking good. Though I could have no real expectations, I still had a goal in mind if I had one of those "touched by the running gods" days. I had run a PR 2:01:22 in Bellingham last year, so I set my sights on breaking two hours.

There were going to be drink stations every 2 miles, and they were handing out gels every four miles or so. This meant I didn't need to carry anything which was a first. We headed north out of town, twisting and turning through some neighborhoods as we climbed out of the morning fog. After heading through a park at the top of the hill, there was a great tree-lined road back down to the waterfront.

At about mile 7, we passed by the start area so we saw our support crew Scott and Emily. The route did some more climbing before doubling back. We then joined a trail that ran along the waterfront and back into town.

I had a great day. The weather was perfect, the course beautiful, the support plentiful, my IT bands didn't act up, and there was even pizza at the finish line. As an added bonus both Tami and I set new PRs. We don't have the chip time yet, but our gun times were 2:04:54 for Tami and 1:57:10 for me. I am guessing our actual times will be about a minute and a half better.

Great day. I just can't take this as a license not to train.