Hippie Chick Half Marathon, Eye of the Tiger

"I would never run more than 4 miles, I just don't enjoy it, I'm not a real runner."

Maybe not an exact quote from her, but definitely a mentality Brooke has had for a long time. But today...[cue Eye of the Tiger music]...

...Brooke finished a half marathon (13.1 miles) in 1 hour and 57 minutes.

an exact 9 minute mile.

As some of you know Brooke has been running with a group from our neighborhood to train for this marathon since February. It is called the Hippie Chicks race and it is a very popular race here in the Portland area and has about 3000 runners. We are so proud of her and all the work she did to get to this point.

Brooke was in tremendous spirits and we were so stoked for her accomplishment. She ran the entire time with the exception of a few seconds of walking to drink some water. She even ran through eating her gummy bears at mile 10 (the race officials promised gummy bears at mile 9.3, tisk tisk). I talked to some of her friends and they said at mile 11 she yelled "this is the farthest I have run in my entire life!" that is totally inspiring to me. As she ran into the stadium at the end of the race she was smiling and waving.

She ran with her friend Brittany Gardiner who has run a few half marathons and one full one; After Brooke realized that her running playlist wouldn't work she made Brittany promise to run with her, she was awesome and helped Brooke keep pace the whole time.  She was a huge support, pretty much she wouldn't have made her goal time without her.  Brooke says "She is super inspiring and rocks". Thank you for the support Brittany!

 Brooke and Brittany RIGHT after the race, stoked.

When I asked her after the race why she wasn't totally dead and grumpy at the end of the race she said she wanted to make sure she ran a slow enough pace during the race to make sure she enjoyed herself and could finish strong. Pff, yeah, slow, I ran a nine-minute mile once and wanted to barf afterward, that was after one mile, she did 13. Her goal was to finish under 2 hours and she nailed it. She ran for her friend, Natalee who had signed up a while ago but got hurt so couldn't run in the race; and she got special permission to allow Brooke to run in her place.  Natalee made Brooke promise to beat her time from the last half marathon she ran (2 hours 10 minutes) and Brooke agreed.

We were all having so much fun after the race, a lot of people had a great time and the whole event was really fun. All of Brooke's group finished the race and the whole bunch did so in great time. The two women in her group that made the best time ran an 8:04 mile!  They had a pancake breakfast for the runner, Jamba Juice was giving out free smoothies, and the atmosphere was electric. A great accomplishment for all the runners.

Some of the girls from her Saturday morning running group.

I also forgot to mention that this week Brooke has had some pretty bad allergies, she has had a cold for the last five days, last night she woke up at 2 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep until 4 a.m., and she had a side ache from the beginning of the race to Mile 7. But other than that, or maybe because of that Brooke didn't really hit a wall or anything, but kept a great pace the entire time and kept going.

Carb overload!

Brooke note: The night before was fun.  Eric made me a yummy chicken parmesan with noodles and a baked potato with broccoli, sour cream and cheese. I also asked him to cut and sew my running pants into shorts since it was going to be unseasonably hot for the race and I didn't have any running shorts.  (Eric totally is a rockstar like that by the way.  He stayed up late finishing them for me, and they worked out perfectly!)

We are all super excited for Brooke's accomplishment, she ran her heart out, pushed through her pain and sickness, especially since she's not a "real" runner. Enjoy the pictures!

-Eric-