Fall Foliage Half Marathon Recap

I had such a fun race on Sunday! We had perfect weather, too!

Tom helped make sure my number was on straight

And mom got a shot of my awkward walk/jog at the start when we were all bunched together.

I started out too fast. It felt so easy and I latched on to a woman in hot pink calf sleeves who started out at a nice pace but was going too fast for my plan. I managed to pull back and let her go, reminding myself that I had 13 miles to run and needed to save some energy for later.

I kept my Garmin on the screen that only shows me my current pace and distance. I didn't want to know the time. I checked my pace when the mile splits came up and figured that as long as most of my splits were below my pace goal that I would finish in under 2 hours. There were only 4 miles that were slower than my goal - all hilly miles.

There were 6 aid stations on the course, about every two miles or so. I accidentally ended up with Gatorade at the first aid station (yellow, the worst of all Gatorades) but I drank it anyway. I deliberately took Gatorade at the final aid station for a little extra boost. The rest were water stops for me.

I took my first GU a little after mile 4. I was trying to take them before I felt like I needed to, hoping to avoid that drop in energy.

The course was hillier than my research had led me to believe. It wasn't terrible, but the hill between miles 8 and 9 felt like it would never end. That might also be because I was waiting to take my second GU until after I got to the top. Uphill running and GU are not a good combination.

I passed hot pink calf sleeve lady on a hill around mile 10, and never saw her again.

At the mile 13 marker I switched screens on my watch. I was tired and felt like I was dragging, so I thought seeing the running time would give me the motivation to speed up and finish strong. When I saw 1:55:xx I knew I was going to break 2 hours. I picked up the pace and closed the gap between me and the woman who had passed me half a mile before.

I pushed to a sprint, passed her and finished in 1:58:05!

Checking for my time.

This is my "ok Mom, that's enough pictures now" face.

I don't think there was a start line time trigger, so we only got clock time. It kind of bums me out because I know my time would have been 1:57:something if they did a chip time too. (My Garmin came up a little short distance-wise, but was 1:57:57, and I stopped it a little after the finish line)

It was fun having Tom and my mom there. I haven't ever gone to a race with anyone there to cheer me on and take pictures, it was a nice change. Plus, now I have fun finish line pictures.

I'm definitely a little sore today, my hip flexors are especially not happy, but considering I just beat my best time by almost 10 minutes - I could feel a lot worse!