It was the Rails to Trails in Norwalk, WI. I did the inaugural race for this event 4 years ago and to be honest, I didn't like it then. It just isn't the course for me.
I knew it would be a tough run since I ran hard last weekend at the Haunted Hustle and my body hasn't fully recovered. Plus my eating was geared towards racing, so I was low on energy. AND it is a hard course. Essentially half of it is up hill - no I am not exaggerating. The worse part was the hill from the turn around for the next 3.7 miles. That is a LONG way to run up hill.
A big draw for this race is running through the old railroad tunnel which is 3,810 feet long or .7 miles. Given its length it is very, very dark. The race organizers put out lights, but they are just beacons in the distance. I had a headlamp but I couldn't adjust the angle so it did a great job of lighting up the reflective part of the shoes of the runner in front of me. However that did help a little bit. Can you tell I am not a big fan of the tunnel? I spend the whole time worrying that I am going to twist an ankle since in addition to it being pitch black, the surface is very rough due the age of the tunnel (built in 1873) and to all the dripping water. And I get to do it twice - out and back.
ANOTHER THING about the tunnel is that it screws up my Garmin. I should have known this, but forgot to turn off my Auto pause. So, I had no idea how fast or slow I was going which was probably a good thing.
Lastly, although the weather was warm - 52 degrees - it was windy, windy, windy (gusts up to 25 mph) with the fairly rare occurrence of the wind coming out of the south. Which of course meant that it was in our face for the way back to the finish. Oh Joy! Hills AND wind! I guess it could have been worse. A woman in the chicken-q line said that last weekend when they checked the weather rain and sleet were predicted.
So given the 6+ miles of uphill and the tunnel - not a big fan. However, that is my fault, not the race organizers. It is a quaint race and volunteers are great. The made a lot of improvements from the first year (eliminated going PAST the finish line for an addition 1.5 mile out and back) and now offer a complimentary beer. Plus they have the timing of events figured out so people running the half don't have to wait to get the post race chicken q. I loved the chocolate milk. One criticism was the shirts were HUGE. I ordered a medium and it was more the size of a men's large or XL. Luckily my friend Al swapped with me so I think I can actually wear it. Guessing what shirt size to order for races is always a challenge.
Oh - one more criticism: No link to the results on the event's webpage, but a simple Google search took me to them. It is so nice these days that race results are available day of instead of waiting for days for them to appear.
So, I kept it under 2 hours with a 1:57:28 which which gave me 11 out of 50 in my age group. Actually 12th, but the first place woman took first for women overall with 1:35. DANG! but she is a young one - 41, so what it figures. Unfortunately for my ego, half of the women who beat me were also older than me. Sigh. And quite honestly, the reason I probably got that time is because I passed my dentist about 2.5 miles from the finish and I just couldn't let him see me walk. Yes, I thanked him when I saw him at the post race.
I feel like this is kind of a bummer post, but beyond getting #7 done and keeping it under 2 hours, I am just not that thrilled with the race. The good news is that I have a reasonable amount of recovery time before my next half in December 11th in McAllen, TX!!! (Of course, I am ignoring the fact that the weekend before I am running 20 miles as part of my marathon training).
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