Sleepy Hollow Half Marathon 2017 Race Recap

I ran my 3rd Sleepy Hollow Half Marathon this morning. It was a little different this year, because I missed about 3 weeks of training due to various illnesses.

I was smart for a change, and decided not to have a time goal. It's been a while since I didn't have some time at the back of my mind during a race, and I have to say, it was almost relaxing.

Earlier this week I stubbed/skinned a toe on a dog toy, and yesterday I hit my achilles tendon with enough force that it was pretty instantly purple.

Excellent timing.

Fortunately, the toe was fine, and the achilles only complained on the hills. It's pretty sore now, but I'm glad it let me run.

I hate worrying about parking at races, so I arrived freakishly early.

I probably could have left a little later.

After hanging out in my car for a while, I went down to pick up my bib and visit with people. Sleepy Hollow is always a fun race, because it's put on by my weekend running group, Rivertown Runners.

It was supposed to be fairly warm today, but the weather missed that memo and we had a decent amount of wind and some rain. It sprinkled on and off throughout the race.

I don't really have any exciting mile-by-mile stories from today. I mostly enjoyed the people watching and listening to my new race playlist.

I did not enjoy the hills. It's not the hilliest race I have run, but since I haven't been running many hills lately, they were pretty tough today. I kill it on the downhill though. I'm always surprised by how many people I pass on downhills. Take advantage of gravity people!

The worst hill is the last one. Every race in Sleepy Hollow ends at the top of this hill, and it's brutal. It is relatively short, but it makes a strong finish a little difficult.

So, not my fastest race, but I did it. Considering how much training I missed, I'm happy with how it turned out. My chip time was 2:06:02.

Sometimes I forget that it's an accomplishment every time I cross a finish line.