13 miles of running, 800 miles of driving

Last weekend I met up with my sister Anita and my cousins Anna & Aakash in the Bay Area for a cousin reunion. The weekend consisted of driving up to Humboldt Redwoods State Park on Saturday to run the Humboldt Redwoods Half Marathon & 5K on Sunday.

In addition to the four of us, my sister's two friends (Katie and Heather) also attended, as well as four of my friends (Tim, Wendy, Andres, and Daisy). In total, four of us ran the half marathon (me, Anita, Katie, Heather), three ran the 5K (Anna, Tim, Andres), and the rest provided moral support (Aakash, Wendy, Daisy).

For my first time running an official race, this was a great introduction. The weather was perfect (mid-50s, overcast), the scenery was breathtaking (figuratively), the course wasn't overly crowded, and everyone was really friendly. Best of all, Anita and I both landed on a 10.5 minute/mile pace and ended up running the entire half marathon together. Our elapsed time was about 2 hours, 18 minutes, though I didn't actually check the official time when we crossed the finish line.

With all the driving, I managed to log 800 miles in two days, which proved to be far more exhausting than the actual race. I got back last night around 10PM after dropping Anita off at the airport to catch a red-eye to JFK.

The race was a lot more fun than I thought it would be--so much so that I think I might run another half marathon. Aakash got inspired and decided that he wanted to start training to run a half marathon in six months, so the four of us are thinking about the Eugene Marathon.

Anita has pictures from the weekend, so I'll post those when I get them.

UPDATE: Anita uploaded her pictures from last weekend, and they can be viewed here.