Such high expectations for this race. Sadly, I did not have a good day and went home quite disappointed. I did not run Ridge to Bridge on the 30th due to some minor surgery and then being put on Cipro for an infection. That stuff scares me. I didn't run a step until I had been off the stuff for over a week. So, I basically went into Marshall having only run 3 times since Medoc. Very undertrained.
Was supposed to meet up with several running board friends to celebrate it being my birthday but arrived very late so was unable to make that get together. Then it was just plain crazy prior to the race so didn't even bother trying to find anyone in the crowd. There were many maniacs at this race so did get a chance to talk to some of them prior to the start. Very chilly at the start, around 25 degrees. I decided to wear tights, 2 layers of long sleeve shirts, and gloves. Quite comfortable the entire race.
I started out pretty good. Ran the first 6 miles in about an hour. If this had been a 10K I would have been very happy with my race. Not so much with 20 more miles to go. The course was very flat and probably an excellent course to try and BQ if you're that kind of runner. I'm not. I was hating this course before we even hit the half way point. It was just so boring. Mile after mile of either strip malls or run down neighborhoods. The only pretty part of the race was about 3 miles along a river in a park.
But I kept chugging along and eventually made it to the football stadium. They hand you a football and you run down the field across the finish line. I'd already done that at the finish of the Knoxville Marathon earlier in the year so not as exciting. I'd also been looking forward to the advertised juicy hamburgers at the finish but none left :-( All I could find was bananas and a soda.
Did get a very nice fleece jacket and the finisher's medal is pretty with a buffalo on it.
I can see why this race gets very good reviews on marathonguide. If you like road marathons, this is a good one. Just not my style any longer.
Went out and ran a nice trail half marathon down in Spartanburg this morning. Absolutely loved this race. It was the inaugural Camp Croft half marathon. Nicely run. Beautiful trails. Even snagged 3rd in my old lady age group. I'm pretty sure there were only 3 of us but what the heck. Got a nice beer glass. Ran with Jason Sullivan and his wife for several miles so that was nice to have some company on a beautiful fall morning. Enjoyed hearing about Jason's races and getting ideas of some to run in the future.
Bartram Forest in 2 weeks. Will probably only run the marathon this year with Pine Mountain only a week later. Need to save the legs for that one!
0 comments:
Post a Comment