This was my 5th half marathon and by far, the biggest struggle. I loved the race, and will definitely be running it again, but my knee gave me huge problems and I ended up over ten minutes off pace because of needing to stop and stretch my knee.
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| They launched hot air balloons at the start of the 5k and the start of the half! |
The race expo started on Friday afternoon and we got there at around 5pm. My mother and brother were running the 5k which was also on Friday night so we hung out, watched the hot air balloons, and had whoopee pies
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| Where's the race?? |
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| You had to walk through corn to get to the race. |
My brother and mom both pr-ed! I told them to run fast so we could eat dinner sooner- I am obviously the world's best cheerleader. We ate dinner at the race. I forgot to take a picture but for $12 you got unlimited pasta with red sauce, pizza, salad, drinks, and breadsticks. You also got a huge slice of apple or shoo-fly pie. Mmmmmm pie.
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| Beautiful morning! |
The race started at 7:30 am but we got there at 6 am because parking was hard. We walked around, watched the balloons, and watched the mime. Yes, you heard that right, there was a mime entertaining people at the bathroom lines. Other race directors take note- bathroom line entertainment= best idea ever!
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| My dad and I repping VanCortlandt Track Club at the start! |
The race started just after the balloons went up. It was such a beautiful morning- my favorite running weather is low 50's and partly sunny with no humidity. I got my wish today for sure. Because you run in mostly farmland, you can see for miles. This also meant you could see the balloons for most of the race- SO COOL! The first 10k was actually okay for me, I was running 9:30's because I wasn't feeling 100% so I decided to be very conservative. I tried to focus on the scenery instead of my body, I listened to some jams, met some Oiselle peeps, and looked at the hot air balloons. When I hit mile 7, things started to fall apart. My knee was killing me. It would next extend well, especially on the downhills. I used my garmin and attempted to stretch at every mile. I dropped to 10:30 because of stretch time. I didn't actually eat during this race because I was moving so slow that I really wasn't even that tired. By mile 10, I was feeling pretty betrayed my my body, but I admitted defeat and decided to just protect my body by run/ walking the rest of the way. I was able to finish, but I was more than ten minutes off the time that I wanted.
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| A disappointing finish |
Everyone has bad races- I've seen more than my fair share, but this was the longest race I've done where I really had to scrap it since my DNF 3 1/2 years ago. I considered DNF-ing but stupidly wanted to finish. I don't think I really did any damage but I am still in some knee pain one week later. I'm planning a visit to the sports doctor this week to make sure everything is okay. Well I finished number five- not so fabulous, but in the pep talk from my dad, I realized that I had to be proud of myself for sticking it out, knowing what was good for body, and still finishing a challenging race that many people are unable to do. I am going to take care of my knee and then look forward to the Philadelphia 1/2 in November!
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