Yesterday’s half marathon in Missoula, Montana was great. The race began outside of town on a road that descended for two miles through a heavily wooded area. It sometimes gets very hot in Montana in the summer, so race organizers scheduled a 6 a.m. gun, (or cannon, in this case). It was 52 degrees and the sky was clear and blue. Perfect running weather.Erica and I ran the first five miles together and we saw a bald eagle carrying a fish back to its nest and another bald eagle perched in a treetop just over the race course, perplexedly watching 731 half-marathoners plod by, earthbound and sweaty.
I trained much smarter for the race than I have in the past and as a result I felt good the whole way. I am not a fast runner so I was hoping to finish the race in less than two hours. I ended up doing a little better than I had even hoped and finished the 13.1 miles in 1 hour 54 minutes and a few seconds. That works out to 8:43 per mile, which for me is pretty good. I was very happy with the result.
Next race is a 10-miler in Branford on August 3, then a 12.2-miler in New Haven on Labor Day, and then a 212-mile relay through New Hampshire in mid-September. It is called Reach the Beach and it is the reason I have gotten back into running lately. I am sure I’ll write more about Reach the Beach in future posts.
Looking for blogs under the interest heading of "flyfishing" and ran across yours. Very interesting and well done. Found we have similar views about catching trout, Montana, and politics. I've made the flyfishing trek to Montana for 30+ plus years beginning with my son doing graduate work at MSU. The skill levels come with experience so go easy on yourself. Your got the right attitude.... which is to have fun. thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeletetroutbirder
Thanks for the comment. Just went to your blog and read a bunch of posts. Very enjoyable. I find I use my blog like a diary, in a way--some kind of record of my days. If you don't mind, I am going to use your orange-nailed-to-a-tree idea and see if I can get an oriole or two to come by--I love orioles
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Chris--that's a great time!
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