Gachnar's Blog

As I mentioned back in October, my wife decided she was going to run the half marathon. After many long weeks of training, she ran in the Eugene Half Marathon today. Not only did she train and complete the half, she got several other people to train with her, met her time goal, and crossed the finish line with a smile.

I was able to be there to watch her round the final corner, smiling and laughing with her friend, and I can't remember ever being more proud of her.

I also had a work buddy who flew out from Florida and ran his first full marathon. I met him around mile 18 and ran about 7 and a half miles with him.

As for me, my continuing struggles to overcome my knee issues kept me from being ready to run the full, so I ran the half marathon. I haven't been doing any speedwork, so I had no idea what kind of time I could manage, so I just played it by ear. I ended up a few minutes under my best guess, so I was pretty happy about that. More importantly my knees held up pretty well, though the 7 miles I ran an hour later didn't feel so good.

The positive side was I was able to get up to 32 miles or so per week in my training without too many issues. I'm going to take it easy building the mileage back up until training for Portland starts in June, and hopefully they will be able to handle the 40+ mile weeks. All I can do is take it one run at a time.

Speaking of Portland, my wife enjoyed her half enough that she's ready to try and train for Portland. Hopefully all will go well, I know she will love the experience.