So…this is a long overdue race recap!
On October 26th, I ran The Reservoir Run Half Marathon in Weston, CT. This was a small race with around 300 runners and it was located about 25 minutes from my house. I wouldn’t say I was exactly well trained for this race and I knew it was a hilly course so I had no expectations going into this race. I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be a PR but I still wanted to give it my best effort.
The first 3 miles of the race were great. Not too much weaving through runners and the course split for the half marathon runners and 5K runners before the second mile. The middle of the course had a lot of rolling hills, but I kept pressing on! The funniest thing is that between miles 4-9, I had negative splits. How in the hell did I have negative splits on the rolling hills section? Sometimes I just don’t understand my legs!! Around mile 10 I stopped at the water station and stretched my calf muscles, which were burning. I also chomped on two of my Honey Stinger Energy Chews. I just love the pomegranate flavor. Side note: I’m still trying to decide if the GUs or chews work best for me. Right now I’m leaning toward the chews…they are less messy and taste better!
Mile 11 was BRUTAL. This was the section called the “Weston Climb”. It was a very, very steep hill. Basically everyone stopped running and had to walk up the hill. I may have seen one brave person running this hill. I lost SO much time during this mile, but I really didn’t care. I was starting to have some knee and hip issues so I wanted to play it safe. After getting over the hump, I knew I had less than 2 miles to go so I tried to push it until the end.
My finish time was 2:30:38. Not my best time by any standards, but I was happy that the race was over and that I survived a not-so-easy course. Right now I don’t have any more half-marathons scheduled for the rest of the year, but I am thinking of signing up for one in NYC in December.
Since this was my third half marathon in 42 days, I qualified for the Half Fanatics! Half Fanatics is a club of runners who are fanatical about running half marathons. Half Fanatics have different moon levels. Right now I’m on Neptune (basically the entry point for the club), but the more half marathons I do, the higher the ranking. I’m hoping to move up one or two levels in 2015!
Overall the race was difficult for me, but I enjoyed the challenge. Earlier this year I completely fell apart during another half marathon with a lot of hills, but this time I took my time and fought through the pain as much as possible. I wouldn’t mind doing it again because it’s a small race and I like to support the local races in my community. In addition, proceeds from the race benefited three different charitable organizations.
The following weekend after this race I ran the Dash to the Finish Line 5K in NYC on November 1. This took place the day before the TCS NYC Marathon. Recap of that coming up in a separate blog!
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