Rhinebeck Hudson Valley Half Marathon Recap

I ran the Rhinebeck Hudson Valley Half Marathon this morning! It's the first year for this race, and it was tiny - like, less than 100 people ran the half, tiny. There was also a marathon (which was pretty much just running the half course twice - no thank you) which less than 30 people ran.

Tom was super nice and drove me up to the race early this morning. It rained most of the drive, but let up before we got there. Packet pickup was a breeze, and for the first time ever at a race, there were no lines for the restrooms.

The marathon started at 8, and the half followed around 8:30 to help keep some separation between the hordes of people running - ha!

It was a really pretty course, and it was mostly rolling hills, nothing major.

I started out feeling good, which lasted until about mile 7, when I started to cycle through feelings ranging from "I got this" to "I'd like to stop now." I was shooting to stay at/under 9:00 miles, but that was just not happening. At around mile 11 I started to drag, which was aided by the fact that I realized there was no way I was going to PR. By the last mile, I was really pushing for some speed, but I just couldn't get my legs to move any faster. I didn't even do my usual sprint to the finish. I definitely let my mind get the best of me on this one.

If I didn't spend the last half mile of the race throwing myself a pity party, I would have broken 2 hours. Don't let the clock confuse you, it was started at 8 when the marathon started.

I finished in 2:00:03, a 9:10 pace.

Once I finally got over my pity party/tantrum and checked my time, I saw that I placed 3rd in my age group!

Ignore the fact that there were only 7 or 8 people in my age group. That's what I'm doing :)

It's also my second best half marathon time, so I really shouldn't complain. I've got another half in 27 days, maybe that will be my PR day!