Eugene EWEB Half Marathon

The EWEB Run To Stay Warm Half Marathon was the first race of mine in my new home, Eugene, OR. EWEB is the local energy provider here. All proceeds benefit EWEB's Customer Care Program to help income-eligible customers who are having difficulty paying their utility bills. Each year the Customer Care program helps thousands of families stay warm throughout the winter months.

Due to my personal lack of any real training I had no expectations of myself for this run. I have been able to bike once or twice a week as well as complete a long run once per week with additional treadmill runs at school. The University of Oregon gym is always calling my name to train and sometimes I get in there for some speedwork, but my time has been consumed by graduate school. In addition to the lack of training, I have not been completely healthy. Getting drinks at the bar with my new friends has become the norm, great for my social life, but terrible for my athletic life. I was hoping that this race, my first race since 70.3 World Championships, put me back on track and light the fire under me once again. The morning was a chilly 45 degrees and cloudy. I biked to the start from my house 2 miles away. Love that! The race started inside EWEBs abandoned property, currently under planning development, which houses an old steam plant in addition to toxic soils due to old energy practices. As part of my Urban Ecology Design class I am designing this 30 acre redevlopement property as well. My concept of a velodrome track site has been embraced, to my surprise, so I'll have to see how far I can take that and perhaps get EWEB to build a Velodrome on the property. But I am getting way off track here.. back to the race. I started the first mile or so with the leaders then fell in to a comfortable sustainable pace. I ran through the 6.5 mile mark in 39 minutes. By mile 10 I was starting to get anxious and wanted to find that finish line as I felt my legs might be running out of steam. After about mile 5 it was a very lonely race, and there was I time I questioned whether I was on the correct path. The course basically ran us along the Willamette River and over 3 bridges that crossed it. I was able to draw energy from the river. The portion of the river which runs through Eugene is breathtakingly beautiful. I lost a couple minutes on the back half of the race and finished in 1:21. Though it was nothing spectacular, I was very pleased with the result since I did this race on a whim to assess where my running fitness is at. Considering I am not it elite condition currently and I am easily 5 lbs heavier since I started school and the lack of any planned training, and the lack of rest, averaging a 6:10 min/mile pace for a Half Marathon is a good starting point for me this winter.

Eugene is known as Track Town USA and I think I held my own in this race. I think this race has re-motivated me to continue to push my abilities as an athlete and start training hard again. I got a lot of love from the local community wearing the Team Wheaties jacket and singlet.   People on the side were yelling "Go Wheaties!" That was fun.  I will probably sign up for another local running race that takes place mid December.