Boise See Jane Run Half Marathon Recap

The stats:

Official time 2:02:12
AG: 11/45
Overall: 64/328

The recap:

Friday I picked up my race packet from the See Jane Run store.

 

Packet pickup was quick and easy and I really liked the new reusable bags. The shirts are cute but not quite sure how I feel about the red color yet, I think it needs to grow on me.
I'm also glad they used the D-tags for timing chip this year. Normally the local races have timing chips you wear around your wrist or ankle or ones attached to your bib.

Race morning I got up at 6 am for the 8am start time. I didn't have my normal breakfast of a Cliff bar & pb so had to go with the Luna bar I had got in my packet. I think this came back to haunt me at the end of the race.

This year the race started and ended at Julia Davis Park and the course is on the beautiful greenbelt. The weather was beautiful with the start at about 55 degrees and I think by the time we finished it was in the low 60's.



Me running on the greenbelt back in April

They had their usual "warmup" with some 80's music. It was fun to watch :)


A few minutes before 8 I went over to the starting line. They asked that all the "fast" runners who planned in winning to line up right at the front cause they would be going off gun time and not chip time for the winners.
Not to many woman lined up at the front. Most were staying clear back so I lined up a little bit behind the "leaders" so I wouldn't have to do any weaving.

For this race I didn't really have a goal time in mind. Just wanted to have fun and not push it too hard. I held a pretty good pace of just under 9 minute miles the first half. I knew this was probably too fast but I just figured I'd listen to my body and slow down if I needed to. For the most part the race was uneventful cause I usually run in this area so the course was very familiar.
Around mile 6 I was getting warm (wishing I would have worn a tank top) and my body was asking to slow down. So I walked thru the water stop and took some Gu. I accidentally hit the lap button at some point during the run so my splits were all messed up but I just tried to keep a comfortable pace which was right around a 9:20 pace. About mile 11 my stomach was starting to hurt and there was a bathroom but I figured I could just hold out 2 more miles. Well about mile 12 I really had wished I had stopped to used the bathroom cause my stomach was really not happy with me at this point. I figured it was cause I didn't have my usual breakfast. I didn't want to walk the last mile so I slowed down. As we rounded the corner nearing the finish line I tried to pick up the pace as much as I could to finish strong (and so I could quickly go use the restroom!)

After I crossed I got my cute finishers medal and champagne glass with 2 chocolates in it!!! Yes people it's the little things like chocolate that make me happy and overuse exclimation points.



They had a good setup of food for the finishers.

Luna bars and bananas and another tent not pictured with pretzels and bagels.

I stayed for a little while after the race to chat with my friend and look around the different booths. They had ifitness, glam headbands, axiom gym, gypsy runner and others.

They also had some fun quotes up and a finishers photo area.



Champagne glasses with chocolate candies!

Last year they had Degree there with their own finish photo area but this year it was more of a photo booth. I tried to pose differently for all 3 but they came out silly haha.

The other two are decals I bought from the gypsy runner booth. I also got some arm sleeves but didn't take a pic of.

I was really surprised that this years overall winner came in at 1:40. Now this IS fast to me, but last year the winner came in around 1:20 and considering this is one Boise "bigger" races most winners are usually in that time range. This really made me wish I would have trained to run it faster and I could have possibly placed in my age group. But then looking at the results the top 3 in my AG came in at 1:45-1:47.
You never know what it will be like next year so I hope to try and make this a PR race  :) I'll also be in a whole other age category. Not sure how I feel about that yet haha.

Overall I was really happy with this race. It is one of my favorite Boise races and I was really thankful See Jane Run gave me the opportunity to run it this year! There isn't many races I want to run yearly here but this is definitely one of them!

I'll leave you with some super cheesy race photos.

I really don't know if I'm waving hi or waving stop.

 Well at least I have a race this weekend to improve on my mid-run wave :)

Three Things Thursday - the one where I'm really excited

1. One week from today I will be flying to Seattle for the Seattle Rock & Roll Marathon! I haven't been back to WA since last year so I'm super excited! I'll be staying with Tiffany so it will be a BRF (best running friends) reunion, even though I just saw her 2 months ago but it feels like a lot longer. I'm also really excited to attend the blogger meetups planned.

I really like there Journey On Rock and Roll Marathon ads
Source

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2. Saturday I'll be running the Boise See Jane Run Half Marathon! This race holds my current half marathon PR of 1:53. I don't think I'll be attempting a PR this Saturday. I haven't been training for it. And then I have Seattle RnR the week after so I would like to just survive :) Though I'm really excited to run this race again. They always have cute medals, shirts and swag! And the energy is always so fun! And thank you again to See Jane Run for the opportunity to be one of Boise's race ambassadors!

3. And finally I'm also really excited that I still have readers out there. I know I'm not the best blogger. I only post every few weeks and haven't even posted my recap of the Famous Idaho Potato Half Marathon that I ran on May 19th. Bad blogger, bad.

I could say that I promise to blog more and all that, but it might not happen. So I'll just say thank you for those of you that still read my blog, I really do appreciate it, and I will try to post more often :)

Loved this pic from the Saucony Facebook page

See Jane Run Half Marathon GIVEAWAY

Last year I ran the Boise See Jane Run Half Marathon and set my current PR of 1:53:24

I love going back and re-reading that recap. Not only was it a 10 minute PR, but it was also the first time I ran a half marathon in under 2 hours! I was so proud of myself that day. Looking back at it I remember how hard I pushed myself and how happy I was once I crossed the finish line.  So happy to get my medal that I worked hard for and of course to get my glass of champagne and chocolates!

The runners high I got from that race lasted for weeks. In fact it lead my to a 10 minute PR at Seattle Rock n Roll Marathon a week later!

There was no doubt that this race was on my list to run again this year. So when See Jane Run contacted me asking if I wanted to be their Boise race ambassador of course I said YES! 

So what does that mean for all of you?

How about a chance to win a free entry to the Boise See Jane Run Half Marathon and run it with me? Okay so you don't have to run it with me if you don't want to :)

To be entered to win you must answer the follow question....

What do you run for?

Extra entries if you Facebook, blog or tweet about it (Leave a separate comment for each)

Include @seejanerunsport and @cynthiaruns if you tweet about it.

Contest will be open till midnight on Thursday May 17th.

I will announce the winner on Friday May 18th so be sure to check back!

*See Jane Run provided me with an entry to this race as well as one to giveaway. The opinions expressed are my own.



Robie Creek here I come!

So tomorrow I'm running Race to Robie Creek

My awesome personalized race bib.

Call me crazy but I'm pretty excited. I know it's going to be rough. I've accepted it and I'm ready to just have a good time.

The race is 8.5 miles up hill with some steep climbing! Gaining about 2,000 feet of elevation. Then it's 4 miles of "bone-jarring" downhill (you can find the race description here). Sounds fun right?

I'm actually not to worried about the climb. There will be lots of walking I know that. But it is going to be pretty warm out there. You see this race doesn't start till noon!
Check out the hourly the forecast...

I guess the bright side is it's not in the 90's or higher. They have been sending out email updates and announcing on the news that this will be the hottest temps they've had in a few years. Usually there's snow up at the summit but not this year. They are also offering Gatorade at the water stops this year which I guess they never have in the previous years of the race. I've been hydrating all week to prepare.

On Tuesday I got a text from my brother that he just did something crazy/maybe stupid.
He bought a bib to run this race. I'm pretty excited I get to run it with him! He can suffer with me haha. He came over tonight and Gene made us a pasta dinner which was yummy! I'm letting him borrow my hand held to use tomorrow, figure we can share it if we need to, I don't mind his germs :)

My sister Crystal and brother Jojo

I still can't decide on what to wear. Initially I was going to wear my red team sparkle with my blue run to remember shirt but I want to wear a tank top now and I don't have a run to remember tank yet. I was thinking about wearing my black tank top because it's the only one that I own that matches the red skirt. But not sure if it's a good idea to wear black when it will be warm out? The theme for the race is ninja theme: Samurai Sailtoad. I think black and red is totally ninja and I would be a sparkly ninja :)

Ok I'm rambling. I will think some more about what to wear. I need to go to bed soon cause my son has a baseball game in the morning. Check back for my recap to see if I survived Robie!


In the mean time go check out Running In Boise's blog. She has an awesome giveaway to the Boise See Jane Run Race. This was my big PR half marathon last year and I can't wait to run it again so I hope I win!