It was supposed to be a cool, rainy Sunday morning. The Weather Channel had a flood warning out starting at 8AM in the New Brunswick, NJ area. The race itself started at 8AM. When I woke up it was merely overcast. Despite this, I put on my raincoat and wind pants so I could be ready for the impending monsoon.
Where's Wendy?
The race wasn't quite as flat as I'd expected from the description. It started with a few small hills but nothing quite like Sleepy Hollow. It had some hills throughout and finished on an uphill.
By mile 3, the raincoat was making me too hot and it still wasn't even raining. I took my coat off and carried it, hoping to run into Alek so I could easily hand it off. At mile 5, I did just that.
Shortly after the hand-off it started to drizzle on and off. This worried me a bit because when I gave Alek my raincoat, he told me that it was difficult to get around and that he'd meet me at the finish. I had to hope the rain wouldn't pick up and that I'd be fine without the coat.
Approaching the 8th mile, I saw Alek walking around the race course looking all sad (he thought he was too late to meet up with me here). I was excited to see him there, although I still didn't need the jacket. When I called out to him, he cheered up and ran ahead to get some photos. After this, he caught a shuttle to the finish line where he would wait for me to complete the final 5 miles.
After this point the race went over a pedestrian bridge and then through Buccleuch Park, where Cherry Blossoms were in full bloom and littering the ground. It was beautiful to run through.
I finished in 2:03:27 for a 9:25 average pace. This was a new half marathon record for me! Full results are available here.
Just as I finished, the skies opened up. We didn't get any finish line photos with the medal. It is a really cool medal with color on both sides!
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