Another new race. There were several to choose from yesterday that were closer to my house (and flatter) but I thought that an extra day of rest for my legs would be a good thing.  Also my friend Mary promised to be there and run.

My race goals:

• Run the whole thing
• Finish under 30 minutes
• Have fun!

The weather was predicted to be nice.  But you never know:

However, the weather report was right again.  Yesterday the weather was perfect. We hung out on Lake George with friends.

 

 

Today was also a  beautiful sunny day and even warmer than yesterday.  I decided to wear my Half Marathon outfit!

The race was schedule to start at 1 pm.  (I prefer an early morning race!).  By 11 am, I was hungry but didn’t want to eat too much.  I had a Honey Milk & a banana.

I left early because I knew that it would be crowded. There were supposed to be about 1500 runners.

I got there around 12:30.  Just in time to watch Meghan’s Mile, a kids race. Boy were these kids fast.  The boy who won finished under 6 minutes and the girl winner just a little over 6 minutes.

Mary arrived around 12:45 and we snapped a pre-race photo.

She is recovering from a stress fracture & pneumonia and I warned her to take it easy!

It was very crowded.  We started in the middle of the pack but I started my Garmin when I crossed the starting line. 

I immediately started weaving in and out of the crowd.  This was not an easy course and it was hot!  I tried to keep a good pace and was doing great until the steep hill after mile one. I starting slowing down, and was very warm & thirsty.  As a result I stopped for every water stop and there were like 5 or so.  I even had to stop and tie my shoe . UGH! I tried to run a little faster the last mile but again, it ended with a hill.  At least, I sprinted through the finish line. (watch me at 3:24 below:)

 

 

Garmin Time – 29:24

Splits:
Mile 1 – 9:14
Mile 2 – 9:43
Mile 3 – 9:27
.14 – 7:37

The official time was listed as 29:45.  I came in 4th in my Age Group (50-59).  Darn if I didn’t have to stop to tie my shoe, I may have gotten an award.

Anyway, I waited for Mary to cross so I could take her picture. I was so proud of her. She did great…she is on the road to recovery!!

They had a lot of food – apples, bananas, bagels, cookies, Greek yogurt but we opted for the free Stewarts ice cream cones. YUM!!!

All in all, I enjoyed this race.  I didn’t expect to PR and it was so nice to run outside in the warm weather.  I even got some sunburn.

On the way home, I took a detour through Washington Park.  Although the tulips will be in peak bloom for next weekend, the weather was so gorgeous (and rain is predicted for most of the week), I decided t stop to take some pics. And I took about 40!!

Happy Running! Hope you had a nice weekend of running!