Today was the annual Helvetia Half Marathon.  The weather was quite a bit different than last year.  Last year it started in the 60s with overcast skies and slight sprinkles … and then dropped down into the 50s before by the end.  Today was almost cloudless (trust me, that sunburn I’m currently sporting on the neck is testimony to this .. Ouch! Ooch! Youch!!!).  Temps were in the low 50s to begin with at the race and finished up into the lower 60s by 11:30.   Outside of above mentioned sunburn, a really great day for competing.  Only headwinds we hand were on the last mile, but I should have guessed that would happen!  LOL.  

As though of you who know me know … I didn’t train as much as I should, but I still managed my Golden Rule … which is "Thou Shalt NOT take more than Three Hours to do a 1/2".  2:50:27 was my time.  About 9 minutes off last year’s time but not too shabby all things considered.   I’ll need to find out the details, but I think I did the last 1/2 faster than the 1st.  Once again, no blisters (Ya!) and no "honeybucket" visits (Ya!!) helped with times.  I can’t say enough about the on-route facilities.  About every 1 1/2 miles there were water, glukos (sp?) and toilets.  You never ran out of anything nor were the lines 20 long  with frantically hopping up and down folks waiting for their turn.   The Helvetia Half is one of the nicest 1/2 marathons I’ve seen.  The down side to finishing is the fact that you’re in a football stadium and have to climb up the bleachers to get out.  LOL.  The lady who gave me my medal took one look at me and told me where the beer stand was (Bless you, My Child!!!).  After grabbing my T-shirt I did INDEED head over to the beer section, watched people finishing the race, and listened to a band play off to the side.  

On to the next one!!

I did make my goal of being under 3 hours … 2:52:22.   Would have been nice to do faster, but given that I hadn’t really walked at 5mph for many weeks, I’m happy with that.  As usual, slowed down the last 3 miles as I was running out of gas.  Sucks to be old.    Next up (as far as I know) is the Helvetia Half Marathon in June here in Portland.  We have BEER at the finish line (C’mon .. this is the land of Brewpubs!).   I can also spend time now lifting heavy weights.  Well, heavy for me.  Guys like Phil Wylie, John (Hercules53) and Steve (pitbull75) might mistake my barbell weights for individual dumbbell weights (lol), but i’m not arm wrestling them for the tab or anything else for that matter.  So it’s pushing as much weight as I can (right now) in the best form that I can muster up.  

Maybe this year I’ll hit the Portland Marathon again.

No more training walks (outside of pushing wheelchairs .. which can be exercise enough) before the race.  I’ll write my experiences of this 1/2 when I’m done and back home. 

I also didn’t think the times were too bad given not a whole lot of sleep last night.  I’m taking care of an abandoned cat right now and let it sleep with me last night.  This cat has NOT figured out how to lie next to a human, it needs to be ON the human.  As in starting on the stomach, progressing up the chest, front paws either on the chin or around the neck and purring nose about 5-6" from your face.  It wants to make sure you FEEL the LOVE.   I’d feel it better if I got some more shut eye.  LOL.  

Maybe one more long walk and the rest of the time will be 1 hour walks aiming more for speed than anything else so that I get more used to walking fast.

Welcome to June in Portland! LOL

This time around there were no blisters …. no standing in line at the honey buckets … and no joint pains along the course.  These are all GOOD things.  The result was that I did a better time in 2007 than i did in 2005, and I know I was in better shape in 2005.  Still my first 6.5 miles were done at a pace of 4.8mph, and the last 6.5 were done at 4.9 miles.  It takes about 2 miles to get out of the pack so that really slows you down.

In 2005 I did the Helvetia in 2:47.  This year I did it in 2:41:59.   As Red Weston says, life just begins  at 50! LOL.  So yeah, I did better at 50 than I did at 48.   

Were there any downsides to this year’s race?   Just a couple.  One happens ever year.  That is, at the end of the race you’re in a nice stadium, and they have you climb up a couple of flights of stairs to leave.  C’mon folks, I just finished busting my tail.  Climbing stairs is NOT something I’m looking forward to.  I swear they do this just to give the EMT’s at the end something to do.    The second one was that like all good PNW events, there’s beer at the end.  This is MicroBrew Heaven, after all.  Well, sitting outside in the cold, wet rain … having a nice cold beer .. sure put a chill in the proceedings  .. pun DEFINITELY intended.  3/4 of the way through my cup I figured I wanted to get back to my car so I could turn on the heat and electric seats and warm up!  That last 1/4 of the plastic cup disappeared in less than 1/4 of a second.  

Now I can start lifting weights again!  For the month of May I really couldn’t find the time to do both .. lift weights at the gym and get in the training walks.  So, I’ll be starting up my walks again getting ready for the Portland Marathon in October, but it won’t be a crash course trying to get ready after the long, cold winter.  I have the summer to walk … and find time to heft some iron.