2009 Lacamas Lake Half Marathon Recap

It was a beautifully warm day. Many runners (around 1500 I hear) ventured out to Camas High School to participate in the Lacamas Lake 1/2 Marathon Run/Walk, and 4 Mile Run/Walk events. Parking was ample, port-o-potties were not. Needed to use the restroom about 20 minutes before the race; they had about 15 port-o-potties lined up and the line was huge, but seemed to move along pretty well. I made it to the start line with about 3 minutes to do some strides and quick stretching.

Miles 1-5: The first mile was almost all downhill with a pretty steep downhill in the first 800 meters. I knew I should start out slow to avoid hitting any kind of wall so I cruised along at about 7:20 pace for a while till I hit mile 5. At around the 5k mark, I glanced down at my watch and it read somewhere around 22:30.

Miles 5-8: We ran by a golf course, and faced some gradual uphills and downhills, and a pretty significant hill starting at around mile 6-6.5. The downhill part felt nice, and it was an out and back part of the course, so I was able to see some friends as I made the turnaround.

Miles 8-12: This part of the course turned into a trail and went along the lake. Nice views of the lake! It was hard to see who was ahead of me, and I was running by myself for a good few miles. There were plenty of walkers along the side which I passed who offered some much needed encouragement. At around mile 10, there was an aid station where I hastily ripped open my energy gel packet, consumed the contents, chugged a few big gulps of water, and was off to finish the last ~5k of the race.

Mile 12-12.5: Passed 12 mile marker… Great! Only 1.1 miles left, I’m feeling pretty good, got some energy left, I’ll be able to finish this strong and fast, right? Not quite… made a right turn, and faced a big hill!!! The website describes this part of the race as “…a pretty steep uphill climb, so save a little extra energy!” Pretty steep?? How about EXTREMELY STEEP?! This should have been bolded and underlined, and highlighted in red! I exaggerate of course, but many people resorted to walking, and I was reduced to a slow jaunt which probably would have been as fast as walking, but I refuse to walk during a race! I was so relieved to make it to top of the hill, round the corner, and see the track where we would be finishing.

Finish: I did my best to mask my exhaustion and to look like I was finishing strong (see finish video). Official chip time: 1:34:58, and new PR! Great race!!!

My Finish Video!

 

My sister and I before the Race

Beautiful views of Lacamas Lake… a very scenic course!