Eugene Half Marathon Recap

A few weeks after running the Boston Marathon, I went to Eugene, OR with my wife to run the Eugene Half Marathon. When we arrived it had the feel of a running town, and the first thing we did was go on a run along the river, which was filled with awesome paved trails. I think we could have easily gotten lost, but we didn't want to run too much the day before a race.

After picking up our numbers in town, we went to Hayward Field to get a look at the track. The gate was closed and locked, but that didn't stop us from snapping a few pictures at the entrance and checking out the University of Oregon campus.

The next day we walked over to the starting line, which was on the road outside of the stadium. The first half of the race went through the neighborhoods in Eugene and was a combination of flat stretches and rolling hills. There was a lot of crowd support throughout the race, not necessarily in bunches, but it was very consistent. The second half of the race was on the paths along the river, which we had gone on the previous day. But there were so many different paths I don't think we repeated any.

As we made our way back to the stadium I braced myself for the finish - 200 meters on the track at Hayward Field! As I turned onto the track, it felt really soft below my feet and I couldn't help but smile as I made my way to the finish line. Even though I was running a great time, I didn't want to rush the last 200 meters so I could try and take it all in - the crowd in the stands, running in the same place the Olympic Trials would take place just weeks later - it was awesome.

After the race we stretched, joined in on the pancake breakfast, watched the first full marathon finishers and then got a massage.