Whenever I go to Oregon for a visit with friends and family,
I always find a race to run and then plan my trip around it. This time, I found TWO races to do while in
Oregon! The first one was the Sisters
“Better Half” Marathon in Sisters, Oregon.
The second was the half option of the Bend Marathon in Bend,
Oregon. The 2 small cities (more like
large towns, really) are about 20 miles apart from each other. I reserved a room in a hotel that was a 5
minute walk from the start/finish of the Bend half, which I was running on
Sunday, the second day.
I was one of the first people to register for the Sisters
Half when registration opened up on January 1st this year. Registration was only $45!!! That’s just crazy talk! This is the cheapest half I’ve ever run.
On my drive to eastern Oregon from my parents’ house in the
Willamette Valley, I drove through Sisters first, so I stopped at the Sisters
Athletic Club to pick up my packet for this race.
The club was super nice and packet pickup was strictly
that…packet pickup. There was no
merchandise to purchase or vendors for anything on site. Just a lady in a side room with a table, a
list and a boxes of bibs and shirts. The
bibs were plain, just your number. There
was a sticker on the tear off piece that had your name, gender, age group, and
shirt size on it, but that was as personalized as it got. So, I customized my bib with the blue sharpie
I have in my purse.
After I got to my hotel, I went into downtown bend to
FootZone and picked up my packet for the Bend half. After that, I rummaged through all my running
clothes that I brought and picked out my outfits for both races. The weather forecast called for chilly temps
both mornings, so it’s a good thing I brought my arm warmers because I didn’t
bring any long sleeved shirts or pullovers!
Race morning, I got up around 6:30am. It felt really weird to be leaving so late in
the morning for a race start. Most races
start at 7 or 8, so you need to already be parked and on site no later than
6:30 usually. And I was just getting out
of bed at that time! I left the hotel
around 7:40 and stopped at the store because I forgot to buy bananas the day
before when I was at the store. I then
drove to Village Green Park in Sisters and found front row parking because I
arrived so early for such a small race. There
were 82 people who participated in the full half (there was a relay and a
quarter half options too)!
I was a little disappointed that there was no recitation of
the national anthem in any way, shape or form.
The race began rather unceremoniously with a lady just looking at her
watch and doing a countdown barely loud enough for us to hear and then yelling
“GO!” At least, I think that’s what she
yelled. At any rate, we were off! We made our way down the street and then
through part of another park on a wood chip trail.
Then through another new neighborhood with nice, but not “as
nice” houses. Still really nice,
though. Then out on the road that goes
toward the Mackenzie Pass.
We made the loop around near the middle school and high
school and then made our way back toward the start/finish area. Since I was running the half, I just ran
right through and started my second loop.
I took a premature turn coming out of the other park we ran through, but
the distance was still the same as it would have been had I turned at the
correct point.
I finished and pressed “stop” on my Garmin and FitBit. I finished in 2:19:24. Sure, I was hoping to finish in 2:15:00 or
faster, but really, I didn’t try too hard.
I was enjoying the course and the scenery. I even stopped a couple times to take selfies
and walked all but the very first water stop.
Instead of medals, they were handing out logoed pint glasses
to the finishers…which you got to fill with a FREE pint of local craft beer!
 |
| this is a pint glass, not sure why it looks so small |
There were no photographers on the course anywhere or even
at the finish, so I drove to the out-and-back part of the course and used my
selfie stick to take my own race photo!
I didn’t realize that they were actually going to hand out
age group awards, so I hung around long enough to eat a turkey wrap and a mini
bag of potato chips, drink my free pint of local craft beer and then a pint of
water, and then I left. There were 20
ladies in my age group. I came in 9th. So, thankfully, I didn’t have to figure out
how to go claim my growler prize after the fact. Not that I would have known what to do with
it as I don’t really drink, so it would probably have just sat on a shelf and
collected dust. My age group (30-39) had
the most runners in it. Out of the total
82 half marathoners, 50 of them were women and 20 of those 50 were in my age
group. Daaaaaaaang!
Also, and this is a little amazing, I stopped my Garmin at
2:19:24, they hand recorded my official time as 2:19:23.8!!! WHOA!
<cue Twilight Zone theme music>
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