EWEB Run to Stay Warm + Weekend

Woohoo, my first postpartum race is in the books! I'll chat a bit about our weekend below, but first a bit of a race recap. 

Yesterday's EWEB Run to Stay Warm half is a local race in which all proceeds go to help families who have difficulties paying their water and electric bills in our community. EWEB is our local water and utility board and they put on the race that includes a 400m kids race, 5K, 10K and half marathon. The race follows the bike path along the river and is always pretty crisp given the time of year. 

Henry woke up around 6:40 a.m., so I nursed him and put him back down (usually he's awake for the day, but sometimes I can get him to go back to sleep for another hour or two). I then ate some pb + banana toast and had some tea while getting ready. An hour later I had a small bowl of cereal too. 

Finally, at 8:00 a.m., the little guy was still sleeping, so I pumped a bit and headed to the race while Pete stayed home with Henry. 

The beauty of a hometown race: leaving your house 30 minutes before the race starts and having an 8 minute commute. 

The race started at 9:00 a.m. and it was in the low 30s at that point. I was happy to have an earband and a thin pair of gloves on. And for once, I think I actually dressed almost perfectly for the weather. Often, I overdress for the cold.

Jessica and I planned to take this race pretty easy being that she ran the Portland Marathon in early October and this was my first race post pregnancy. It was honestly really nice to just chat and run without worrying about hitting specific splits. I don't even own a GPS watch anymore (my Garmin died a while back), but my cheapo Timex does the trick.

Jessica's husband and two daughters were out on the course cheering as her husband ran with the stroller to a few different points and my mom was out cheering for us at a few spots too. We were expecting to see Pete, but apparently the little guy took his sleep seriously and they just barely made it to the finish in time.

Our pace was sort of Goldilocks: not too slow, not too fast, but just right. And I was surprised how quickly the miles ticked away as we chatted.

At mile 12, I urged us to pick up the pace a bit as we headed into the finish. And thankfully, the finish line for this race is just after a short downhill, so it's a fun, fast way to end the race.

We finished in 2:00:15, which is about a 9:11 pace. It was my slowest half to date, but also completely enjoyable, which I can't say has always been the case. It was a good way to come back from pregnancy and adjusting to life as a new, sleep deprived mom. 

Side note: does anyone actually like getting race medals? I could really care less about them and wish races would spend their money elsewhere. 

Smiles = goal met

Thankfully, Jess will forever be the person who dragged me into running, forcing me to run long distance track with her in high school. 

It was 36 degrees at the end of the race, so we didn't stick around the finish line long. The coffee had already been polished off, so I grabbed some chocolate milk, a few orange slices, and part of a bagel w/ pb and headed home to shower. 

Our little fam

I didn't have a chance to stretch really at all as I had to shower and get ready for work at the running store, so that will be the goal over these next few days. 

As for our weekend, it was really nice to have company in town. While little ones make everything about 10x more complicated, it was a lot of fun. 

Friday night I prepared salad, pasta and bread for the gang. Saturday morning was breakfast out (pancakes + bacon = mmm), packet pickup, playing at the park in 30 degree temps, salted caramel lattes, naps for the wee ones, a walk through the UO campus and wood fired pizza. 

Besides the fact that I'm looking off into space, I really love this photo and the huge tree behind us. I'll just go ahead and say it again: fall is the best time of year. 

After getting just a taste of racing today, I want to look for another fun race to train for in early 2016. 

What was the highlight of your weekend? Favorite race distance?