2015 Sleepy Hollow Half

I'm a little late on this blog post!  Three weeks ago, Alek and I ran the Sleepy Hollow half marathon.  I've done this race before and knew to expect a very hilly course.  Given that the race date was March 21, we weren't really expecting the spring snow when we woke in the morning.

Winter wonderland in Brooklyn (on our way there)

Despite the winter wonderland outside, by morning the temperature was fairly warm and it turned out to be good race conditions - we really lucked out this winter!

Overall, this was a good race.  The snow really made the course quite pretty and the course was slightly different from the last time I ran.  This year there was no out and back along the highway.  We simply ran for a stretch on the highway, having done the out on local roads.  This change was definitely for the better.  

Winter wonderland on course

The only thing I would have changed about the race were the water stops.  Our first water stop was at about 4 miles, and the next wasn't until mile 7.  After that they were frequent.  I definitely didn't drink enough prior to the race and was feeling the lack of water as I ran.  I started to get a headache right before the first stop.  From there I took three cups of water to offset some of the dehydration.

About 1 mile down!

I was happy with our time, while we didn't do better than the Love Rox Half in February, this was a much harder course!   We finished in 2:34:52.  

This year's race shirt was a technical shirt (I'm wearing it in the photo above).  The medal was much nicer than the 2012 medal as well!  

Love Rox Half Marathon

This past weekend, Alek and I trekked down to Richmond, VA for the Love Rox Half Marathon.  When we selected a race in Richmond, we expected that by going a few hundred miles south we could escape the cold and snow that may be plaguing New York at the end of February.  Also, the race was followed by a wine expo!

We left for Richmond from my cousin's place in Northern, VA around noon on Saturday.  Packet pickup for the race ended at 3pm.  Under normal conditions, it would have been a 2 hour drive to Richmond.  However, conditions were far from normal.  There was a lot of snow coming down in a state where plows don't keep the roads as clear as we're used to.

We pressed on and made it to the packet pickup at 3:30 PM.  The folks from Richmond Multisports were packing up the race day stuff and getting ready to head out.  They were kind enough to grab our bibs, but they asked us to get our shirts and wine expo tickets either before or after the race.  

The snowstorm spared Richmond, so once we got there driving was fine.  As we arrived at the hotel, we saw people slipping and falling.  It was incredibly icy in a city that doesn't understand that spreading salt will resolve ice issues.  

After settling into the hotel, we made the treacherous 3 block walk to the Penny Lane Pub for dinner.   The pub had tasty food - including a "Grown-Up Grilled Cheese".  Alek ordered it, I had a bite.  Best grilled cheese ever!

On race morning, we were just 2 blocks from the start line, which was also right outside of the convention center where the wine expo was held.  We walked up around 8 to get the remainder of our race stuff and then walked back to the hotel to finish getting ready.  

Love Rox long sleeve technical shirt

It was considerably warmer  on Sunday, which made for mostly great running conditions.  The race was supposed to start at 9:30, but I think it was closer to 10 by the time we started running.  It was a two lap course, around richmond that included crossing a small canal through a park and then crossing the James River over some traffic bridges.  There were a few hills, but nothing horrible.  There was still some ice in the park and around bridges, so we all had to be careful when running.  However, the worst part of the race were partial road closures on busy streets where cars were idling and runners were breathing exhaust fumes.  

The course

The park with some icy patches

Race Start

Frozen Canal

The Richmond Police were out in full force directing traffic.  The officers were saw were all happiness and smiles.  It was great to have their support along with that of the Richmond Multisport volunteers while we were out there.

Alek and I finished in 2:33:19, shaving 17 minutes off of our Manhattan Half Marathon time.  That's a huge improvement for one month!  The course was less hilly than Central Park, but I think we made bigger gains in speed from actually training.  I'll write a bit more about my personal training experiences later this week.  

Finisher medal and bib

After my 21st half marathon, it seemed appropriate that we go taste some wines!  

Wine Expo!

Manhattan Half Marathon: A brief, late recap

I promised this post nearly 3 weeks ago, but life happened. Better late than never, right?

On January 25, Alek and I ran the NYRR Manhattan Half Marathon. Like several NYRR Half Marathons, this is a little more than two laps around central park. The weather was great. There had been small amounts of snow on 1/24 and the blizzard that wasn’t came on 1/26. However, on 1/25 it was sunny and warm (well, warm for January anyway). The park was covered in snow with the reservoir and the pond mostly frozen over. It was peaceful and beautiful. There were also many amazingly adorable dogs whose pictures I was too busy running to capture.

A lonely little snowman in the park.

Peaceful frozen reservoir

NYRR gave neither medal nor t-shirt for participants of this race.  We got only an ugly McDonald's colored hat.  For a winter race, I would have loved a beanie or fleece hat.  This was provides no warmth for a cold winter half marathon.  The description for the race mentioned that this was a Fred Lebow-style hat, so I guess I understand the choice as the race carries his name.  That doesn't mean I love it.

Ugly hat, modeled by me.  I have one up for grabs if anyone likes it :)

 My previous time for a half marathon in central park was 2:05. This year our time was 2:50:02 with a 13:01 pace. I am sadly much slower than I used to be, but I’m working to fix that now! The goal for our February half on 2/22 will be to run faster than than 2:50.

This was also my 20th half marathon! Hopefully for 25, I’m back to setting PRs.

One more note on progress: we now have 1/4 NYRR 5 borough series races required for guaranteed entry into the 2016 NYC Half.

Race Recap: Brooklyn Half

I mentioned in Friday's post that this year's Brooklyn Half would be very different from the race I ran in 2011.  In some ways that was true.  I assumed the course would not change but when I checked where the race start would be I was in for a pleasant surprise.  This year's race began outside the Brooklyn Museum and looped around the park before taking a loop in the park.  I had been expecting two loops around the park. We didn't repeat any of the course!

When we got off the subway around 6:20 the station was packed with runners.  After we got above ground it was still crowded but no longer felt like a sardine.  The port-a-johns were in the corral with quick moving lines.  The entire pre-race setup was fantastic.

Crowded subway station

In the corral

The new course offered a change from what I'd expected.  This was also the weekend of the 2nd annual Great Googa Mooga in Prospect Park.  While it was too early to see any partakers, the signs for bike valet were amusing.

The great pre-race organization continued during the race as there were many water stops and the course was consistently wide enough for the runners.  It started wide, narrowed a bit in the park, then widened again as we went to Ocean Parkway.  There was never a problem with people clusters or passing.  I have to admit to being disappointed that there was no entertainment along Ocean Parkway.  We ran for nearly 6 miles down a long, straight, fairly flat street.  It got a little monotonous.

A dog passed me on the course around the 10th mile, and I saw him again at the finish line.  I'm not sure who he belonged to, but he seemed to have finished the race.

This pup is a runner too!

Even the weather played nice! The temperature was in the 60's (perfect for running) and the rain held off until later in the day.

I came in at 2:09:01.  Not my best time, but certainly not bad for not having run for 3 weeks leading up to the race.  We also got finisher medals to add to our collection!

Finish line photo

Race Recap: Las Vegas Rock N Roll Half Marathon

Pre Race
Sunday's Rock N Roll Las Vegas schedule of events had a pre race concert featuring The Journey Experience starting at 2:00 PM.  The full marathon started at 3:00 PM and the half marathon (my main event) started at 4:30.  Alek and I were well placed in our hotel room on the north side of Excalibur to actually see the starting area and crack our window to listen to the Journey Experience while we made our race preparations.

Our window also gave us a view near the second mile of the marathon course.  We watched as the leaders ran by before heading down to the pre-race festival ourselves.

Leaders gonna lead (see the three yellow shirts in the middle of the strip)

We finally headed down to the pre race festival around 3:30.  It was already slightly windy by that point but nothing too bad.  The temperature was perfect for running and I was pumped hoping to break a 2:00 half marathon!

Pre race (yes, its the wind making my hair crazy)

Concert stage behind me with the Journey Experience

The Journey Experience was a Journey cover band - and they did a great job at revving up the crowd.  They sounded great.  Who doesn't want to hear "Don't Stop Believing" just before trying to set a PR at a race?

The Main Event

The half marathon had 22,000 people organized into 36 corrals.  I was to start with corral 11 while Alek would be back in corral 15.  Each corral was supposed to have its own start countdown.  This mostly worked but just like at Rock N Roll St Pete, my corral fell apart.  I probably started with corral 9 or 10, I'm not sure.  Alek's corral did hold together - so I guess there are just sometimes glitches in the Rock N Roll starts and I always happen to be in the glitchy corral!

Shortly before the race start, the wind picked up tremendously.  We first ran north on the Strip and then after about a mile turned back toward all of the casinos.  It felt nice having the strong wind occasionally gust and push at our backs as we ran south.  Around the halfway point we turned off to the most boring part of the race through a neighborhood.  There were no shiny lights or spectators here.  We then ran back to Fremont Street before again heading north on the Strip toward the finish line in front of the Mirage.  As I headed north, I was now running into the strong winds.  Even though I felt like I was pushing hard, my pace was slower than expected.  I crossed the finish line at 2:02:09.  A personal record for me but not the sub 2 hour goal I was hoping for.  Alek finished in 2:09:10 but I had to wait nearly 20 minutes for him at the finish line because of the corralled starts.  Full results are here.  The finish area had lots of food and drink but the bagels were just no good.  Maybe I'm spoiled by being from New York?

Anyone who has visited Las Vegas knows that the pedestrian path down the strip takes you up and down elevators and sometimes through buildings.  It takes a bit longer than expected to get anywhere.  Running down the middle of the Strip was awesome!

The race was a lot of fun but there were a few factors I didn't plan for.  The wind was definitely one of those.  By the halfway point I was on track to finish in 1:58.  Running into the wind slowed me down a lot.  My water consumption plan didn't work out either.  The temperature was perfect but I'm used to running in more humid air.  The dry desert air left me much thirstier than expected, forcing me to stop at water stops and drink all of the water from my fuel belt.

The finish medals and race T-shirts were quite nice.  Since this is my second Rock N Roll event of 2012, I should get one of their heavy medals for completing two events!  I'll share a photo when I get it.

Race shirt and medal

How'd that playlist work out?

Alek mentioned to me that I never talk about how my playlists worked for races, so I decided on a new section for my race recaps to let everyone know what went well and what didn't.

This playlist for this race was quite good.  Listening to Dave Matthew's "Don't Drink the Water" as I was avoiding water stops early on was amusing, as was listening to Florence & the Machine's "Seven Devils" as I ran past people holding up signs encouraging runners to turn to Jesus.  The instrumental pieces between sections of the playlist smoothed the transitions between themes and the tempo of the songs was also fast enough to keep me going.

Race recap: Trenton Half Marathon

The Inaugural Trenton Half Marathon took place on Saturday, November 10.  Alek and I stayed with my parents Friday and made the 1.5 hour trip from Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley to Trenton, NJ on Saturday morning.  The race was originally slated to start at 8AM but during the week leading up to the race the organizers sent emails stating that the start time would actually be 7:45 AM.  We followed the GPS to Thunder Park, but at 7am when we were 3 miles away from the park the streets were closed.  The volunteer at the closed intersection wasn't sure how to instruct us to get to the race start, so I checked the website.  Parking, it said, would be at Sun Stadium which was about a half mile from the start line.  The site also said shuttles would run from the stadium to the race start.  So we reset our GPS to go to Sun Stadium and followed signs for arena parking.  

The first lot we pulled into was a no-go.  The parking attendant said it was for cheerleaders and instructed us to go to a different lot.  We finally found a lot and then started to follow the other runners to what we hoped was the race start.  This took us to the lot where we were supposed to park, and shuttles were there to pick up.  By now it was 7:13 and I was getting pretty worried about my ability to pick up my race packet before 7:30 when the website said packet pickup would end.  

We got a shuttle, and arrived at Thunder Park, which is actually a baseball stadium, at 7:20.  I put Alek and my parents in line for my bib while I went to find the port-o-johns. After I finished, I met up with everyone at the front of the line where I was able to get my bib and t-shirt fairly quickly.  

The first part of the morning was quite chaotic.  The line for morning-of packet pickup was long and disorganized.  There were several lines based on bib number in addition to a line to find your bib number.  There is definite room for improvement for next year.  In addition the website said there would be signs indicating where to park, but signage for the race and parking was nonexistent as we drove to the race.

Thunder Park is actually a baseball stadium. The race started behind the stadium.  After picking up my packet, we headed back to the start area. Here I met up with my friend Diane who would be running the 10k and her fiance Greg who was also running the half in this lot.  We chatted for a bit, and then it looked like runners already in the corral were starting to move up so Greg and I headed to the corral.  There weren't any time delimiters in the corral, they just asked fast runners to start at the front.  I stayed midpack and didn't have any problems with where I chose to start.  We ended up in the corrals until 8:25 with the race starting 40 minutes late.  

It was a chilly, long wait in the corral.

The first three miles of the race took us around the historic area of Trenton with the only major hill being right at the start at a highway ramp.  My parents and Alek were cheering that the three mile mark just before I crossed the Trenton Makes bridge into PA.  

Running toward the first bridge at mile 3.

The bridge into Morrisville, PA was a steel grate bridge.  My glutes started to hurt as I ran across and at that point I decided to back off a bit.  Usually pain in the glutes starts just before hip pain and I didn't want to risk any long term problems.   There were quite a few people out cheering in Morrisville.  As always, its great to see.

After about 3 miles in Trenton we came back across a different bridge.  This bridge was also a steel grate bridge, but it had a wooden sidewalk.  I decided to run on the sidewalk as the grates were a bit difficult to run across.  As I came off the bridge and onto the ramp on route 29, Alek was there cheering with his "Run All the Miles Sign."  

Right around mile 6

The rest of the race took us on an out and back down route 29 and then through Cadwalader Park.  The highway was mostly flat with hills on the ramps, but the park was very hilly.  By mile 8 I was slowing down and getting very tired.  The park showed evidence of Hurricane Sandy coming through with large downed trees.  

The final stretch of the race led us into the baseball stadium at first base and finishing on home plate.  This was the coolest race finish I've ever completed.  It was especially great to see my parents and Alek in the bleachers cheering!

Rounding to home!

The finish line

I finished with a time of 2:05:10.  My hip injury has once again taken my goal of a sub 2 hour half marathon from me, but I'm not giving up!  I'll be running Rock N' Roll Las Vegas on December 2nd and I'll try again there.

Full race results can be found here.  This race had a very cool finisher medal and long sleeve race shirt.

This race course was fun, and nearly all of it was very wide.  I was impressed with the number of road closures and the amount of consideration given to runners in Trenton and Morrisville.   There were a few logistical issues at the start, but I would trust the organizers to get these ironed out for next year's race.  I would definitely recommend the Trenton Half to anyone looking for an unusual race with a very cool finish!

Weekend Race: Trenton Half Marathon

Tomorrow I'll run the Trenton Half Marathon in Trenton, NJ.  This race is actually a two state race, as it crosses into Pennsylvania.  This weekend is the first time this race will be held but the race description looks awesome!  The part  I'm most looking forward to is the finish, Your name in lights on the big screen, family and friends cheering while you circle the park and head toward home plate for the finish you deserve!"

Since my hip pain prevented me from completing the half marathon portion of the Runner's World Hat Trick, I'm going to use that playlist for tomorrow's race.  Rest and strengthening have helped my hip to get better, so once again I'll be chasing a sub 2 hour half marathon!

The Playlist:

Here I Go Again Whitesnake

The Distance Cake

Let's Get It Started  The Black Eyed Peas

Run-Around Blues Traveler

Born to Run Bruce Springsteen

I still haven't found what I'm looking for U2

Running Away Hoobastank

I Ran Away Coldplay

Runnin Down A Dream Tom Petty

Runaway Linkin Park

Run This Town (feat. Rihanna & Kanye West) Jay-Z

Dog Days Are Over Florence + The Machine

I Would Walk 500 Miles The Proclaimers

Chasing the Sun (Hardwell Extended) The Wanted

Sexy And I Know It  LMFAO

This River Is Wild The Killers

Runaway Del Shannon

Pumped Up Kicks Foster the People

Bionic Placebo

How Far We've Come Matchbox Twenty

I Think We're Alone Now   Tiffany

Walk This Way  Run-DMC

Run Vampire Weekend

Run to You Bryan Adams

Runaway Maroon 5

Runaround Sue Del Shannon

Party Rock Anthem LMFAO

Stronger Kanye West

Walking On Sunshine Katrina & The Waves

Time Is Running Out Muse

Lose Yourself Eminem

Dirrty (feat. Redman) Christina Aguilera

Hot Steppa Ini Kamoze

Darts Of Pleasure Franz Ferdinand

Chasing Pavements Adele

Race Recap: Grete's Great Gallop

Grete's Great Gallop, a half marathon in Central Park, began at 10:30 AM yesterday.  The late start made the morning easy (no 5am wakeup for this one).  The course was different from most other Central Park races that I've run.  It started on the east side and went clockwise around the park, rather than counter-clockwise as usual.  We ran ran just over two laps around the park finishing on the west side.  This means during the race, runners passed the finish line twice before actually passing over it.

The start line!

The first lap around the park wasn't so bad, the race leaders finished as I was passing the finish line for the second time.  They weren't even twice as fast as me (since they had a 3 minute head start)!  It was weird to run the "wrong" way around the park.  The hills that I usually dread were now the easy parts of the course, while the opposite happened with bits of the course that I normally look forward to.

It was cool during the first lap of the race, especially when there was breeze.  However, once the sun came out it warmed up.  I was a bit overdressed for the sunny conditions!  Next time, I should wear layers.

I kept a fairly steady pace throughout the race, with mile times between 9:00 - 9:30.  By mile 9 I thought I could finish in under 2 hours but I had slower miles after that as my hamstrings really started to hurt.  I finished in 2:05, so I'm still chasing a sub 2 hour half marathon.

Alek also ran this one finishing in 2:15:08.  Full results are available on the NYRR site.

We finished (only a little sore).

Race Recap: Lehigh Valley Health Network Half Marathon

Yesterday's Lehigh Valley Health Network Half Marathon was my tenth half and Alek's first.  The race started out in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania right in front of the Hotel Bethlehem.  There were no corrals and with a field of about 680 runners it wasn't that big of a deal.  It was surprising and awesome for such a small race to have bibs with runner's names on them!

The crowd getting ready to start.

At the start showing off our Team Sad Pony shirts

At the signal of a firetruck horn, we were off!  The race started on a fairly wide street (as you can see above), but after the first half mile went on to trails by a canal.  The quick narrowing made it difficult to get around people and any sort of run-walking was difficult.  In addition, the sun was at our faces for the first three miles and Saturday's storms left the trail with many puddles.

After the first three miles, the group spread out and running became much easier.  There were only four spots for spectators to watch along the race course, but at each of them there were cheerleaders from local high schools and few enthusiastic race spectators.  My parents made it to every spectator spot to cheer us and the other runners on!  It was exciting each time we saw them.

Coming down the trail toward a spectator area

Running away from the final spectator area (before the finish).

The course for the race was beautiful.  When Alek and I got to ten miles, neither of us had felt like we'd run ten.  The race seemed to be going by very quickly.  

At one point during the race, another runner asked us what Team Sad Pony was.  Alek and I explained that it was just us and told him about the blog.  We need a bigger team!

A dam we ran by on the race course.

The terrain varied, as I mentioned we were mostly on trails.   This meant we alternated between running on pavement, packed dirt, grass, and in some cases stones.  This was my first half marathon with the Vibrams.  Most areas were fine but the stones hurt. We also ran across an open grate bridge at one point. While running on that bridge I worried about getting my toes stuck and slowed down to be safe.  

In addition to puddles, the previous night's storms also left some branches on the ground.  Around the eleventh mile, Alek got hung up on one and the accidentally kicked it toward me.  It left a tiny scratch that bled a lot (because I'd been running).  

The race finished in Easton, PA near the Crayola store.  There was a cheering crowd and in addition to the normal medal and heat sheet we also received face towels to wipe off some of the sweat.  The finish treats included local favorites Peeps and Mike N' Ikes (along with bananas, pretzels and powerbar gels)!  We finished in 2:06:43.  Full results are available on active.com.  

Finished with medals!  Showing off my wound to everyone!

Finish area with the greatest parents a runner could have!

This race was a lot of fun, I would definitely run it again.  Special thanks to Alek for running it with me and my parents for their devoted spectating :D

Our race shirt, medal and face towel!

Playlist: Lehigh Valley Health Network Half Marathon

This Sunday Alek is going to join me for his first half marathon!  We'll be running in our Team Sadpony shirts to celebrate my 30th.  I've chosen party songs as the playlist theme.  The list is 2.5 hours long (plenty of time for Alek to finish his first).

Let's Get It Started The Black Eyed Peas
The Party Song   Blink-182
Chemical Party Gavin DeGraw
Crash the Party    O.K. Go
Price Tag (feat. B.o.B) Jessie J
Drunken Lament Ludo
Hurricane Drunk Florence + The Machine
Badfish Sublime
Moves Like Jagger Maroon 5
Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) Katy Perry
In da Club 50 Cent
Where The Party At (Remix) So So Def Allstars
Good Girls Go Bad (feat. Leighton Meester) Cobra Starship
Dance, Dance Fall Out Boy
Blow It Out The Features
Mr. Brightside The Killers
It's My Party  Lesley Gore
Shake It Metro Station
The Good Life Weezer
Evacuate the Dancefloor Cascada
Guilty Pleasure Cobra Starship
Stereo Love Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina
Ma Ya Hi (Dragostea Din Tei) O-ZONE
Sexy Bitch (feat. Akon) David Guetta
One More Time Daft Punk
Mexican Wine Fountains of Wayne
Hey Ya! Outkast
You Make Me Feel... (feat. Sabi) Cobra Starship
Like a G6   Far East Movement
Tonight Tonight   Hot Chelle Rae
On the Floor Jennifer Lopez
SexyBack   Justin Timberlake
Blow Ke$ha
Telephone (feat. Beyoncé)   Lady GaGa
Party Rock Anthem LMFAO
Raise Your Glass P!nk
Give Me Everything (feat. Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer) Pitbull
Don't Stop The Music Rihanna
Darts Of Pleasure Franz Ferdinand
Hips Don't Lie (featuring Wyclef Jean) Shakira
Livin' la Vida Loca Ricky Martin
Bulletproof La Roux

Goofy Challenge Training Plan

I start training for the 2013 Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge on Monday.  My training plan is below.  I've modified one of Hal Higdon's training plans to include Saturday runs that are at least half the distance of Sunday runs.  I also had to modify to accomodate a bunch of races that I'm planning to run between now and January.

This will be my third marathon.  As crazy as it seems, I'm hoping to beat my best marathon time (4:36) at this one!

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 1	30-60 cross	3 miles	5 miles	3 miles	rest	4 mile race	8 miles
Week 2	30-60 cross	3 miles	5 miles	3 miles	rest	6 miles	9 miles
Week 3	30-60 cross	3 miles	5 miles	3 miles	rest	5 miles	6 miles
Week 4	30-60 cross	3 miles	6 miles	3 miles	rest	6.5 miles	Half Marathon
Week 5	30-60 cross	3 miles	6 miles	3 miles	rest	10K	Half Marathon
Week 6	30-60 cross	3 miles	5 miles	3 miles	rest	5k and 10k (9.3 total)	Half Marathon
Week 7	30-60 cross	4 miles	7 miles	4 miles	rest	7 miles	14 miles
Week 8	30-60 cross	4 miles	7 miles	4 miles	rest	7.5 miles	15 miles
Week 9	30-60 cross	4 miles	5 miles	4 miles	rest	5k, Half Marathon	rest
Week 10	30-60 cross	4 miles	7 miles	rest	8.5 miles	17 miles	4 mile race
Week 11	30-60 cross	5 miles	8 miles	5 miles	rest	9 miles	18 miles
Week 12	30-60 cross	5 miles	5 miles	5 miles	rest	8 miles	Half Marathon
Week 13	30-60 cross	5 miles	8 miles	5 miles	rest	10 miles	20 miles
Week 14	30-60 cross	5 miles	5 miles	5 miles	rest	8 miles	12 miles
Week 15	30-60 cross	5 miles	8 miles	5 miles	rest	10 miles	20 miles
Week 16	30-60 cross	5 miles	6 miles	5 miles	rest	6 miles	12 miles
Week 17	30-60 cross	4 miles	5 miles	4 miles	rest	4 miles	8 miles
Week 18	30-60 cross	3 miles	4 miles	rest	rest	Disney World Half Marathon	Disney World Marathon

Recap: Perk Up Half Marathon

If you eat hills for breakfast, then the Perk Up Half Marathon is your race!  It rivals the Sleepy Hollow and Fairfield Half Marathons in hilliness.  Running tough courses is fun because knowing that there will be no personal records, you get a chance to take in the scenery.

The race expo was in the gymnasium of The Perkiomen School.  It was a small but well organized expo.  Runners could choose between blue and purple shirts.  They also allowed last minute size swaps.  The race shirts are A4 brand technical shirts - good shirts for running.  The design, including 13.1 on the left sleeve is pretty nice.

Perk Up technical shirt.

The race started Sunday at 8:00 AM, also at the Perkiomen School.  The school asked runners to keep off the well manicured lawns but they had a lot where they allowed us to park.  In addition there was plenty of street parking.  With a field of 450 runners, over crowding wasn't really an issue.  The school was also kind enough to open one of its buildings to allow use of the bathrooms.

Lot open for parking.

Although I went to the expo for packet pickup, race day registration and pick up looked to be super easy.  There was a table not to far from the start line where anyone could easily grab their packet and return unneeded goodies to their car before the race start.

Race day registration table

The race started just in front of the school.  The start line was marked with banners and a DJ played music just in front of the start area.  There was plenty of space in the line up area for all of the runners, including Alvin a beautiful Golden Retriever who had his own bib!

Getting Ready to start!

Start area is full, but not cramped.

Alvin the half marathon dog!

The race started promptly at 8:00 AM.  Even though we didn't have full closure on all of the roads, there were many wonderful volunteers directing traffic and making sure that cars passed slowly.  We were running on back country roads that weren't very busy so traffic was generally not a problem.  

The course itself was beautiful.  With streams, horses, lakes, butterflies, and small bridges it was almost easy to forget the hills!  

Stream just after the 2 mile mark.

The course went up the road next to the stream.

Horses at mile 4

Coming down the hill from the horses

Lake on the course

By the 12th mile, the hills were finished.  The finish line wasn't visible until the 12.75 mark.  The finish area was also well organized; there were bananas, oranges, bagels, soft pretzels, and pizza on the school tennis courts.  The finisher medal is cute though I would have liked to have the year on the medal as well.  Maybe since it's the first year's medal it'll stand out as they add the year later. Collector's item!

Finished!

Medal closeup

It was a beautiful, well organized, fun race and the weather was perfect.  By noon, I had an email with my results.  I finished in 2:14:11 with an average pace of 10:10.  Full results can be found here, although the csv format is a bit hard to read.