Deadwood-Mickelson Trail Half Marathon

Last week I ventured to Deadwood, South Dakota to run a half-marathon with my running partner, Kristin. Although Kristin was a trooper and trained all the way up to 18 miles with me during my marathon training, she had never run an "official" half-marathon until this race. It was awesome to join her for this moment. Not only did she run the race, but she ran it in well under two hours smashing her goal all while battling a barrage of recent injuries including IT band issues and a dog bite. Kristin and her husband, Jim, are from the Deadwood/Lead area, so this was also a trip home for the two. It was fun to see their stomping grounds. This particular area of SD, including Spearfish, are gorgeous. The weather was unusually cold, so we didn't get to do much hiking, but we managed to squeeze in a few chilly spurts of hiking and even ventured into an old mine for a tour. The run was on a beautiful course complete with roadside streams, mud puddles, and breathtaking views. The course was mainly downhill, so it was easy to PR on it. I ran a 1:52:59--a PR for me. This wasn't my official recorded time and didn't include stoppint to tie a shoe earlier on, but I think it still counts :) All in all, it was a great mini-vacation.

A pre-mine tour action shot 

A waterfall near Spearfish Canyon

The guy in the middle is Doug; he's a colleague of another runner we know from Ogallala. This was his first half also, and he was a pleasure to run with! About every mile, he'd call out, "Coach! What's our pace?" Dutifully, I'd holler out our pace and mileage...and he'd mutter some sort of profanity and a concern that he might not survive with us...but he did! He ran the half in under two hours as well. It was fun to push each other. 

Providing entertainment for the camera man

Last 1.5 miles of the course...still smiling!