I’m so excited for November 3! I will be running my first official half marathon: the Silver Falls Half in Silverton, Oregon.
Imagine running under waterfalls, through a forest of fir trees, in the pouring rain. Sounds blissful. The race description says it was voted “Best Oregon Trail Half Marathon,” so I am expecting to be WOW’d. We run most of the race on gravel or paved trails with minimal technicality.
I’ve run 13 miles in a day before – a few times during Hood to Coast during the 3 Capes Relay, but never all at once. My longest training run before I developed a stress fracture last year was 12 miles.
Can I do a half? I know I can. Will it take me forever and a day? Perhaps, but that’s okay. As they say, the longer you take to finish the race, the more you get out of your race entry.
Silver Falls seems like a popular race, and the only reason I signed up for it is that I was riding the relay high after Hood to Coast and a bunch of my runner friends were doing it. If my runner friends jumped off a bridge, I probably would too – as long as there was a race at the bottom. The half marathon was 98% full when I registered back on August 26th and is now full.
Silver Falls races are a weekend of fun and consist of five different distances to pick from – 5k, 7-miler, half marathon, marathon, and a 50k. All but the 5k and marathon are sold out, so you will need to hurry and register if you are interested in running.
Since this is a trail run, my running group and I have been trying to run the limited amount of trails near us. The only option that is available to us (without driving quite far) is to run logging roads. Luckily, Silver Falls isn’t a technical course, so running on gravel is excellent training for us.
Running with a bunch of friends should be amazing too. I’ve run plenty of races with friends, but we never stuck together for long during the race. Who knows what will happen during this race. It will be great to see so many encouraging, familiar, and smiling faces.
I’m not sure if I am the only person out there who looks for YouTube videos on racecourses before I run them. I watched the half marathon racecourse, and it appears that we have to run up some switchback staircases. YIKES. I’m not looking forward to this but will add some stairs into my training.
According to the website, it is rainy and cold during this event every year. Yippee. Time to finally invest in some gaiters to protect my feet from rain and mud, and a better rain jacket. Lucky for me, once the initial shock wears off, I enjoy running in the rain.
I can’t wait to see all of the waterfalls, run with my running buddies, and do a new distance. Also, I may find someone to talk to about their website. As a web developer, that site hurts deep in my soul – it is very out of date. Note to self: bring a few business cards along with my Gu’s.
