Parkway Half Marathon

I completed my 4th half marathon yesterday and it was fabulous crossing the finish line!

My new ASICS GT-2160s did well, no unusual pains in my feet, ankles, or hip from the half or all the training.

The Parkway Half Marathon is another big annual half marathon in Sacrament that’s on it’s 6th year, but it was my first time running it and with a team to raise money for the non-profit company I work for which was also a new experience raising money while training. What was interesting about this half was there were two courses, one for people walking and one for runners. The running course followed the river bike trails on top of the levee, then turning around and heading back below the levee. It was a gorgeous path, lots of shade trees, water views, wild turkeys, and picnic areas. But it was a little tedious for over 13 miles, the scenery was very similar for the entire race.

And the bike trails were narrow the entire route which made things interesting in the crowd, starting off for the first few miles was slow as everyone separated into their paces, I had a tough time passing a few groups and got cut off and crashed into a lot. It made me appreciate the Urban Cow and the Shamrock’n halfs because they covered bike trails, down town, mid town, old town, and many more scenic areas to break up the route and make it more interesting. And they started off in large streets making it easier to navigate around the running groups. But the weather was much better for the Parkway, it was sunny, in the 50s with a slight breeze and plenty of shade from the trees a long the trail.

This group of guys celebrated crossing the finish line with Jagermeister shots … at 10 AM in the hot sun.

Just the thought of that turned my stomach, but whatever floats their boat! :-)

I celebrated with a lot of water and half a banana from the snack area since that was the only vegan option being served in the food area. The rest were huge, sugary cookies and meat-loaded sandwich wraps. Blah, luckily I wasn’t hungry!

Of our running team, I was the 2nd of 6 running the half to cross the finish line, not bad! The first was a guy who was a running noob and crossed in well under 2 hours – grrr! The medal is pretty sweet looking, a fun add to my growing collection. I need to come up with a fun way to display them in our house, I’m thinking a trip to Ikea in the near future.

And the finish line in the park was nicely packed.

Lots of supporters, dogs, vendor booths, and entertainment, it was a fun and lively scene.

The bounce house looked fun, too bad I was too wiped to hit it. :-)

My eats this weekend around the half weren’t too exciting. Friday night we had a team dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory for a pre-race carb loading meal and, while the company was good, the food was not! Vegan options were slim, I ended up with minestrone soup and angel hair pasta with marinara sauce, two dishes I usually enjoy. But the soup literally tasted like a canned salt lick while the marinara sauce actually had no flavor or texture. And the pasta was clumpy and sticky! The cheap price was about the only good thing, but I could make better food at home faster and for less!

Yesterday I pretty much lived on Vega smoothies for a pre-race breakfast and post-race lunch since that’s about all my stomach was craving and my kitchen is still pretty empty. Yes, I’m dragging my sore legs to Costco to load up today!