Confession: I run every race like a scared rabbit. I’m so freaked out that I’m going to miss the cuttoff, that I run the start WAY too fast and then the rails go off and I end up run/walking/swearing at the end. Usually this is about the time I hit the halfway mark in a marathon. So I decided that this time, I would just run a half marathon and train to try to get my second sub 2 hour finish. I had some issues with training, mostly with left heel and plantar fasciitis and some soreness in my opposite leg. I have scoliosis from an extra bony bit on one of my vertebra so my spine leans a bit, which gets exacerbated on roads with banking. Race day everything was feeling pretty good to go though.

We camped near the finish during the weekend before. So my husband and kids dropped me off at the runner drop off at the end. Due to construction, the race directors had to move the parking around and had runners who were getting dropped off to pick up the bus come between 5:30 and 6am, so I ended up on the first bus. The good news was I got to use the porta potties several times with no lines. The bad news was that I knew nobody and my socially awkward butt was standing around with no clue of what to do for over 2 hours.

At 8am it was finally hit the time to line up. I found the 2:00 pace group and took a photo so my coach would know that I was sticking to the plan (for 3 miles anyway). The gun goes off and I would have to take everyone’s word on how pretty it was because my short butt was in the middle of a pack of taller people and it didn’t thin out until after we passed some cows. After about 3 miles, I decided to not keep up with the pacers. They were doing a 9:09 pace, but because I was working to not fall behind with the other runners working in, my watch kept reading sub 9s and I didn’t want to get in the mind set of banking time (which I already was).

When I made it to Woodstock, I was already starting to struggle, but fortunately this section was packed with lovely people cheering, gorgeous building, and it was shady. The leaders were passing on the left coming out of Woodstock, so they were about 2 miles ahead at this time and I contemplated on how lucky they were to be finishing before me. I realized as I made it out of town and towards mile 5 that the runners going into town may be having the same thought about us and decided that I was going to just have as much fun as I could.

At one point, I was misted with cool water and remembered thinking “wow, someone actually brought one of those misting fans, that’s super extra but it IS hot”. Yes, it was hot and no that was NOT a misting fan. A fact I realized when I started getting misted with less than cool water. Yup, that be the sweat of dudes.

I high fived all the little kids with their hands out and I hit every power up sign I could and attempted to text my husband updates. He and the kids were breaking down camp and were trying to time meeting me at the finish. The cell service was spotty so he ended up relying on my time estimate that I gave him at the start.

At about mile 10, my right hamstring starts to tighten up and I start mentally calling “hill” on anything that even remotely looks like an elevation and then I realized I needed to keep myself honest and added a run/walk interval to my watch for 30/30. I ended up running through most of them, but the 30 second alert kept me from phoning it in and walking it. A couple times I was taking a walk break and someone started to cheer for me and it forced me to try to move faster (especially the guy at mile 12 something).

I was running over by .14 so when I saw the finish line, I pushed hard to finish and ended up with 13.24 in 2:10:10 with my official finish being 2:10:08 and a slower pace time. The family found me, I grabbed my race shirt and medal and realized the lines were super long for everything and my legs were tightening up. So I did what any rational person would do and I went for the shortest line which happened to be the free beer instead of the free ice cream. We knew traffic was going to be crazy, so I chugged my beer and then we went back to the campground so I could rinse off before driving back (trust me, this was a need, not a want for anyone sitting in a car with me).

A. Goal was a 1:52 (nope)
B. Goal was to just have fun (successful on that one and finished with a 2:10)

This race was well planned and they overcame obstacles such as a massive construction project on the bridge. The pre-race pasta dinner was awesome and everyone was super friendly and wonderful. I would absolutely run this one again. It sold out super fast, so if you want to do this one, you have to be waiting at the computer right when it goes live. https://cbhm.com/