I find myself asking “why not” of a number of 1/2 marathons here in the Portland area. The Rock and Roll, the Helvetia Half, and I’m sure I can dig up a couple others as the season progresses.
After coming off of the Chicago Marathon last year I kept up the weekly mileage and repeated long runs of 6, 8, 10, and 12 miles each Saturday. On the longest of the long runs I’m only a mile and change short of a 1/2 so why not exchange the lone runner experience for a group event.
Realizing this I pulled the tigger and registered for the Rock and Roll 1/2. Another motivating factor was the course. Rather than the typical Portland route of up into the northern industrial area and back down towards OHSU on the west side of the Willamette, this one starts and finishes on the west side, but crosses over and spends a large portion of the course on the east side. Even if I wasn’t trained up I might have registered for this reason alone.
Wish me luck since it is only a couple weeks away, and help me keep my fingers crossed for fair weather.