Foot Traffic Flat Half Marathon Review

Hi! 

I hope you had a great 4th of July!  We are pretty wiped out over here from all the fun, we had an amazing Independence Day.  Hence why this post is going up after 9 on a Friday night and it has taken me over an hour to just get this written down.  This mom is beat! 

Yesterday morning Katie and I had an early wake up call (4 AM) so that we could run the Foot Traffic Flat Half Marathon on Sauvie Island.  Luckily I was able to get to bed early the night before because dark o'thirty isn't anybody's friend.  

Terrible Selfie 

I didn't know what I was going to wear until I started getting ready for bed and it was time to lay everything out.  I bought some cheap necklaces from the Dollar Tree and put my headband together with what I had around and possibly stole some bows from the girls.  I wore my white Lululemon Pace Setter skirt, my Portland Fit tech tee from last year and of course my Mizuno Wave Riders.  

I needed to get there early because I didn't pick up my bib at the packet pick-ups and bib pick up started at 5:30 AM.  Luckily I have the bestest friend in the world and she picked mine up since I got stuck in the parking back up.  A lot of people took the shuttle to the island but I am el cheapo didn't want to pay out any more money to ride the shuttle and figured I would just get there early enough to park.  There was plenty of parking that I could see and I would have been stuck in the traffic even on the shuttle.  

Pre-Race

I was parked by 5:50 AM and had an hour before the half marathon was set to take off.  We sat and kept warm in the car till it was time for the marathoners to take off at 6:30 AM.  Both Katie and I were surprised at how few of them there were, probably less than 200 total.  

Then we figured we should get in line for the porta potties along with everyone else running the half.  I don't think the lined moved the entire time we stood in it so we just gave up.  

Race

The race started on time which was nice but Katie and I both agreed it should have started in waves.  The island is small and uses a two lane road and we were only using 1 lane for the race.  We were backed up for the first 2 miles and did a lot of swerving and walk/jogging.  It was fine because neither of us were going for time and ended up stopping at the mile 2 aid station to use the porta potties.  .  

Yes I ran with my parade flag the entire race, win! 

There were 7 aid stations for the half and I stopped at 6 of them for water and one for a snack.  I am realizing with each half marathon I really need to be ingesting more calories.  I brought 1 Peanut Butter GU and ate half of a sample size Cliff Protein bar, wasn't a fan of either.  The race pretty much lived up to its name minus one little hill on the out and back and the miles seemed to click off fairly quickly.  Like I said earlier we weren't running for time, just out for a fun run celebrating the 4th together!  

  

Post-Race

The finish line had another aid station with plenty of water for everyone and of course our medals! 

They had fresh strawberry shortcake and hot dogs for all of the runners and surprisingly the line for hot dogs was insane.  Katie and I were perfectly content skipping the dogs and heading straight for dessert!  The race started and finished at the Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island and we wanted to check out their cute little country store.  I found the cutest little tiny straw bales for sale and had to buy a few!  

Katie and I both said we would run this race again.  I am not sure what the situation with the porta potties was because there were a lot of them but the line just didn't move.  I would also suggest starting the half marathon in 2 or 3 waves just to spread us out a little bit at the start.  Other than those hiccups I thought the rest of the race was great, they had plenty of volunteers to help with traffic and at all of the aid stations.  The course was scenic and passed by really quick.  They had kiddie pools filled with ice water for runners to use post-race which I though was awesome if you are into that sort of thing, which I probably should be.  Plus the store sells teeny tiny straw bales, what is there not to like?!  

My actual photographer friends are all groaning at me right now 

  

Happy Birthday America! 

Tell me about your 4th of July!  

What was your favorite part of the day?

If you did a race tell me about it, please!  

Do you ice bath?  

- I have once and it actually did wonders, I need to make them more routine.