13.1 miles. Done.

I did it! And ran most of the way! July 26 finally came and it wasn't too bad. The heat wasn't fun but we started at 8:00 and the majority of the race was shady. I was feeling pretty lucky that morning because my race number was 27, which happens to be my favorite number, although some people might think it's 37.

The first few miles were as I expected. I kept my pace going around 10:00 but found myself going a little faster to keep up with the crowd around me. At about 5 miles, I started to feel either a blister or actual blood on both feet (later confirmed that it was only blisters, although quarter sized). There was a hill at about 7 miles, although I can't remember the exact place. That hill was my first walk of the day. I decided to walk and be able to make it through the rest of the race.

Miles 8 - 11 were on a trail that was about 3 feet wide which made for perilous passing with forest on one side and lake banks on the other. This was my first real mileage on a trail so that was interesting but not bad. I saw my mom at about mile 11 trying to drive through the craziness that was Camas to get to the finish before I did. Traffic was so crazy that she didn't get there until about 20 minutes after I was done.

Mile marker 12 was the beginning of a ridiculous hill, which I also walked. Then came the finish.
I finished in 2:19 which is better than I thought I would do. You can see the official results at: http://results.racecenter.com/2009/res_l109.htm

Thanks to everybody who cheered me on and I won't be leaving anytime soon. I will be running another race in Portland in October and will be posting all my Crossfit activities and a new training regimen here.