My Big Sis Kicked My Ass

Yesterday I had an epic run. I missed last week’s 8.5 mile after work run, so it was good to get out on a sunny day here in the Pacific Northwest and run through some trees. It was a nice gradual climb and the road, which zig-zagged up the hillside kept pulling me further, enticing me to see what was around the next corner.

Afterwards, I clocked the run, and discovered that I did nearly exactly 8.5 miles, which is what I have been running after work over the past couple of weeks. This was a bit tougher though, since overall elevation gain was almost 1200 feet. I was proud of myself – doing my 8.5 miles, but adding in some good climbing as well.

And then I noticed the lake on the map.

Noticing this lake wouldn’t have been too big of an issue, even checking the length of the run required to get there and back (13.1 miles – curiously the length of a half marathon), wouldn’t have been too big of a deal if I could keep my mouth shut. What was bad, was that my sister, the badass runner who runs just shy of a gazillion miles each week, was sitting at the table with me as I blurted out something stupid along the lines of “We should try to run to that lake tomorrow’. Oh, and it would would require 2,000 feet of elevation gain to reach the lake.

So I haven’t been doing too much running recently. I’ve had two 8.5 mile runs after work the past couple of weeks, and before that I hadn’t been running for a couple of months.

It was drizzly and cold for my half-marathon attempt. The 2,000 foot ascent was a bit rough at times, but thanks to my sister (who wants to be shown up by their sister?), I ran the entire length (ok, I stopped once to tie my shoe). We made it to the lake and started our way back down the hill. The great thing about running 6.55 miles uphill, is that on the return, you run 6.55 miles downhill.

I’m totally happy with my little half-marathon.