Bear Creek Lake Half Marathon

When I signed up for this race I knew it was going to be hard. The course was described as "not for wimps." It also told about how the first 3 miles were uphill as well as miles 6 to 8. "Your feet will get dirty" it read. So I didn't have very high expectations for my time. Just wanted to practice running and run as much as possible.

My dad took me and Blake to my race. Here is what I heard from fellow runners before the race. "Take a map so you make sure you don't get lost." "Man, I already go attacked by a swarm of bees." "I'd opt for the 10k because those hills are brutal." I started to get nervous.

Blake likes to stretch.

I told my dad my last half marathon time and told him to expect me a littler longer than that because of some hills. After I saw the first mile of hills, my expectation of 2.5 hours quickly jumped to 3 hours. The hills were awful. The whole race was a huge hiking trail. There was hardly any flat land to run on. Even going down was hard to run on because it was so steep. I almost fell a few times because I was going down too fast. I knew I was going to be so sore because of all of the breaking I had to do going down. Then I thought that 3 hours would be a great time--I started to shoot for 3.5 hours. I was huffing and puffing along.

I'm not really a fan of dogs (except for Missy of course). Funny how a man, who about my speed, brought a dog with him on the run. I ran/walked/hiked the majority of this race with "Moose." Sometimes Moose would stop right in front of me. He would run next to me instead of his owner. Not cool. I didn't sign up to do this with a dog.

Part of the race was only wide enough for a single file line. At one point some people had stopped in front of me clogging the way. It was because there was a rattling rattlesnake right next to the path! That made me pick up my pace.

At the end we had to run through a creek. Feet soaking wet. I finally made it and had no idea how long I had been gone. But I knew that it was way more than what I had told my dad. Blake ran with me across the finish line and even got his own medal.

I asked my dad if he was worried because it took me so long. There were plenty who had finished before me. I hoped my dad didn't think that I was lost somewhere. He said he wasn't worried until a certain lady finished the race. I think you can guess who that is above. I'm hoping it was the lady in pink but she is not in the center of the picture. A) I can't believe my dad took her picture and B) WHAT???

My number one fans. I'm so glad they both came with me. Pretty sure I will neve sign up for a hiking half marathon again. Maybe I should have read the course details more carefully. I am glad I did it because it caused me to exercise a lot more than I would have. I was the most sore I had ever been in my life. Sore for a week.