Seaside Half Marathon

Well, it's come and gone. Seaside has a lot to offer. It's such a beautiful, quaint neighborhood. The weather had been absolutely great and then ... the cold front came in. Saturday night the winds whipped up and blew hard all night long. You could hear it getting colder.

Race Day...Sunday, March 1. We reluctantly got up to get ready for the run and were dreading getting outside. It was so cold inside the camper. After donning 3 tops and 4 bottoms, I was about as ready as I could be. We left at 5:30 in order to find a parking place; 2750 racers were to be there and the half started at 7 a.m. We questioned our sanity while we waited as long as we could in the truck. It was 32 degrees when I got up but the worst part of it all was the wind! It was sharp and piercing and would cut straight through you. It was documented to have continuous 25 mph winds with very strong gusts; therefore, making the wind chill drop into the 20's! Everyone was shivering, shaking and trotting in place in order to keep warm.

The race finally began. After the first mile or so, my body warmed up and everything was going great. The cool air made breathing easy and my pace was great. Soon the road turned into small hills. Blowing, gusty winds made it very hard at times. But nothing hurt or cramped. As I got to the 12th mile, I was feeling better and better and I found I had lots of energy left. I began to pass several people. This was so exciting. People were cheering all of us on and it just made the adrenaline rise up in you. I passed about 10 people as I was about to cross the finish line. It was true victory for me! Not only did I run the entire race but I finished well and got my medal!

Kent decided to run in the 5k race. It turned out to be a good choice since he won first place in his age division. He finished 132nd out of 720 runners. I finished at 2 hours and 10 minutes. I couldn't believe it especially with the disadvantages of the weather and hills thrown in. I'm pleased with my time for my first half marathon. Though Kent was not subjected to the hills, he still had the weather to contend with. I was 27th out of 88 in my age group and 979th out of 1812 runners.

My thrill is my medal! I could hardly believe I had run 13.1 miles! It just seemed an impossible feat. I loved it! As a matter of fact, I think I will be planning another one ... this time during a warmer time of year.

After the runs, we had a wonderful lunch provided by Jim 'N Nicks BBQ. We like to froze afterwards when our bodies cooled down and we settled down to eat. The wind picked back up and the sun did a great job hiding! A quick excerpt from their website. "The 2009 race is over and everyone is thawing out! We can't thank our sponsors, racers, and volunteers enough for braving the coldest and windiest race we've ever experienced." See, I wasn't exaggerating!! (I'll post pictures as soon as they are available.)