Kathy Week 16: The Goat Mountain Gallop: UPDATE

I galloped Goat Mountain! What a great event for my fitness and the Clean Water project. I'm still on some kind of high from the endorphins. Dear Skinny readers, I have to tell you that I love feeling strong and fit! It was so worth it to go through my training, and to be able to accomplish this goal.

Here are a few highlights of the race.

The view of Goat Mountain from Molalla, where we registered by 7:15 am, and where we finished. The forecast said there was a 30% chance of precipitation. What to wear? Raincoat or shell...long pants or knee-length...I went with the knee-length pants and left the raincoat in the car at the last minute. Good choice - the rain held off, and it was pleasantly overcast the whole way.

At the registration table at Molalla HS. See #278 off to the right? She'll show up again later.

At the start line in Colton, waiting for the race to begin. As you can see, we're in rural country. It was a beautiful walk the whole way. Cows, horses, roosters, llamas, and barking dogs--oh yes, and there were a few goats, too--kept us company. Very little traffic on the roads - yay! And every so often, people on their front porches or in driveways were standing by to cheer us on.

Here we are at the start line, listening for last-minute instructions from the starter-gun guy. He was joking with us, trying to help everybody loosen up.

We're OFF! I was actually #2 in the race for about 3 minutes. Then the gals in the yellow jackets passed me. I held onto a position among the first 10 walkers for several miles. By the time we finished, I think I was about #20. Pretty good, compared to 2008, when I was next-to-last!

There were 8 county sheriff cars that kept track of us along the way. They were stationed at the road junctions, and they kept patrolling along to make sure everyone was ok, that the other drivers were going slowly, that we weren't taking up too much room in the road, etc. At this point, I'm still up near the front. You can see the gals in the yellow jackets. You can also see #278 in the white shirt and white hat in the middle of the photo.

That's the last of the photos from the start of the race. For the first 3 miles, I covered a mile every 12 minutes. After that I was walking a 14-minutes-per-mile pace almost until the end. I slowed down near the end, and averaged 14.5 minutes per mile for the race overall. (In 2008, I averaged 17 minutes per mile, so I shaved nearly 1/2 hour off my time! Wow!)

There are a number of good hills on this course. I did a very fast walk going down the the hills--almost a jog. And then I just powered up the hills. Oh, the training on the Oregon City hills really paid off!

About mile 4, #278 and I started taking turns passing each other. I would pass her going uphill, and she would pass me going down. She introduced herself--hello to Jennifer from Salem! She works in the schools there as a physical therapist. I pulled ahead of her on the steep hill just past mile 5, but by mile 7 were walking together, and we stayed together for the rest of the race.

It was great to have a fast walking partner, who was keeping the same pace I was. I think we both walked faster because we had the other one there, powering along. Did I mention how good it felt to be able to keep that pace?

By mile 8, the runners were passing us pretty consistently. They started out an hour after us, at 9:00 am. Everyone was covering a lot of territory!

The race organizers had water and Gatorade for us at mile 2.5, mile 6, and mile 9. That was sure welcome! (There was also a portapotty at mile 6, but I didn't need it.) I had tried out some little packets of "Hammer Gel" for energy on my long training walk two weeks ago, and I liked it. The packets are 100 calories each, and they gave me a good burst of energy every hour. I also slipped down 3 ibuprofins at mile 5, and I had also taken some at home before the race.

Here we come, heading for the finish line! Josh, Sarah, and Kat (3 of my grandkids) joined Jennifer and me a little way before the finish line.

Great time! It's really 3 hours 9 minutes 51 seconds - the timer is set for the runners, who started an hour after the walkers.

A few more statistics: I walked 13.1 miles, at a pace of 14.5 minutes per mile.
According to my pedometer, I walked 28,777 steps.

Ooh, my knees were pretty shaky for a few minutes. I needed to hang onto something for a bit!

Thanks to my partner, Jennifer, for helping me with my gallop around Goat Mountain! What a day.

Oh, and like Katie mentioned in a recent post, "It's all about getting the cool number and the tee-shirt." So here I am back at home, post shower, with my clean new tee-shirt. I have to say, I had a great day! I hope you did, too.

Remember: It's not too late to enter for the Bubble and Splash giveaway. The giveaway ends at midnight tonight.

Click HERE to donate money for Clean Water projects around the world. The project helps families that don't have access to clean water. You can read more about my project on last week's post.

These women walk farther than my half-marathon every day to fetch water for their families. In a world with so much, it just takes a little to help families have access to clean water. I'd love to have you sponsor me. Together, we can make a real difference!

Then post a comment to tell me you donated, and I'll enter you in the drawing for the fabulous homemade soaps. So simple!

Thanks everyone, for your support with the Clean Water project! So far the donations are right around $200.00! Every little bit helps...