Special because this breaks my previous record for half-marathons in a calendar year!
Last year was a banner year, where I ran almost 1,000mi more than any other. The 72 half-marathons I managed partly inspired me to see how many I could do this year if I set that as a goal, and www.howmanyhalfs.com was the result!
Using a half-marathon as a recovery run four days after my first 100K race, I had to laugh a bit at myself.
For the second year in a row, I pushed for a personal distance record at the Lumberjack Endurance Runs in Port Gamble, WA. Last year, I ran the 50-mile distance (and somehow got first place!). This year, I went for the 100K distance (62.2mi), and managed to finish in 12:43, good for 3rd place overall, 2nd place male, and 1st place in my age group. When it was over, I pushed through another couple miles to complete the 5th half-marathon of the day!
Mt. Zion is a smaller mountain in the Olympic National Forest, closer than the National Park and great for trail training runs. This was the third route Mark Goodro and I have used to the summit, and involved a little bit of bushwhacking and the exploration of a newer trail in the area, the South Ridge Trail to several viewpoints.
This is sort of the opposite, or complement, of Monday’s run (#63): this time starting with the slower hill sections and then picking it up for about 5k.
In this one, I ran the four named hill trails of Gazzam Nature Preserve–Peter’s Trail, Westwood Shore, Russ Knudsen, and Veterane–first in that order, and then in reverse order.
In the first part of this run, I completed 10 intervals of 2 minutes each at sub-6:15min/mi, with 1 min recoveries in between. Then I ran back over the four largest hills of the south end of Bainbridge Island: Toe Jam, Fort Ward, Blakely, and Baker Hills.
That brings the total half marathons within the past seven-day stretch to eight!
This was a prep run for the upcoming Lumberjack 100k, which goes five times around an approximately 12.5mi loop. I did three loops today, plus a little bit more to break 40 miles.
I’ve got a short run week, so I wanted to get it started right! This is a slight variation on a perimeter route I’ve run a couple times this year, except with a little more trail.
Today marked the return of a local race, the Trillium 5k/10k Trail Run, and I was bummed not to be able to make it this morning. Instead, I waited until the warmest part of this 80+ degree day for a progression half.