Training for the Hippie Chick Half

For the past couple months I have been training for the Hippie Chick Half Marathon, which will be at Champoeg Park on May 10. The half marathon is 13 miles. In March I walked a total of a little over 60 miles. At some point in there, I think after I did a 9 mile walk, my foot started hurting and I had to take it easy for awhile. I learned a couple simple exercises from Patty (weight class instructor) and my foot got better.

So far this month I have walked almost 57 miles, including 10 miles last Saturday and 12 miles today. It took me 3 hours and 11 minutes to do 12.06 miles, and that includes stopping at McDonalds's to pee. I started out going out Old Yamhill Rd and then Tangen Rd. to North Valley Rd., then down Cullen Rd over to Chehalem. Cullen Rd. is a gravel road with big orchards. I came to this one house and these 2 enormous great danes came running out. I started turning around and yelled at them to go home, which they did. Then I didn't know if it was safe to walk past their house or not. So I picked up a bunch of rocks, just in case, since I had forgotten to bring my pepper spray, and decided to brave it. They came out again, but didn't seem menacing. So I just yelled at them some more, and then someone stuck their head out the window and called to them. So I didn't get mauled by giant dogs, which was nice.

Then, a little further on, on Chehalem Drive, I got a migraine, so Rich had to bring me my migraine medicine. He brought my pepper spray too, but I didn't need it at all the rest of the walk.

Feeling good! Feet a tiny bit sore but not bad, and now I know I can do the half marathon! The 12 miles today was easier than the 10 miles last Saturday. Next weekend I'll do 13 miles, then for the 2 weeks until the marathon I am only supposed to do short walks to rest I guess.

Just got hailed on for a couple seconds today, and rained on another little bit. Decided to go today and get it out of the way because the weather is supposed to be crappy all weekend. We have the quilt sale at Baba's house on Saturday and we're going to Eugene on Sunday.