First, the expo. I was expecting something huge because the only other expo I've gone to from this racing company was for the Baltimore Running Festival, and it is GINORMOUS! This one...not so much. My husband and I walked through it in just a few minutes since it was mostly merch for the race and local businesses (podiatrists, chiropractors, etc.) so it took my husband and I maybe 15 minutes to get my bib in one building, get my shirt in another, then walk through all the exhibitors.
Afterwards my husband and I went and checked into our hotel for the night (we live less than an hour away, but I thought it would make race morning easier.) I then took the time to lay out my outfit for the next morning to make sure I had everything.
Then we went to check out the Flying Dog Brewery and get a tour of the facilities. (I definitely recommend making the time for it! It was pretty fun and really interesting to hear some of the history of the brewery and see the process.) While we were there my husband and I each got a sample of beers that they had on tap (I had house rules, an extra pale ale, and my husband tried Ella, a single hop imperial IPA.)
While we drank our beers, we started scouting out a restaurant to have dinner and decided on a sandwich place we passed on the way to the brewery called AKA Frisco's. Their sandwiches were HUGE!!! I had a Haight Ashbury, which was turkey, salami, sprouts, provolone, and their wicked wolf sauce along with a small helping of their exploded potatoes since all the reviews raved about it. (They were totally justified--they were delicious mashed potatoes with just about everything you would put on a baked potato.)
Once we were done stuffing ourselves we did a dry run of the drive for the next morning. The hotel was about 5 minutes away from the starting area, so it worked out perfectly. My husband was going to drop me off then head back to the hotel and since he signed up for text alerts when I passed timing mats he would have a good idea when to come back, see me finish and then meet up.
I was so happy when I started yawning around 9:00. (I normally don't get to bed until midnight, but usually later.) I got ready for bed and finished a book on my kindle (I am Malala) and rolled over to go to sleep. I laid there for awhile and just couldn't fall asleep. I think overall I may have gotten about 3 hours of sleep, tops. I ended up turning off my alarm before it was scheduled to go off at 5am. The plan was to leave the hotel at 5:45 so I could arrive in time for a picture with my Moms Run This Town/She Runs This Town running group and then my first picture with the Oiselle Volee group and the usual couple of pre-race portajohn stops.
Other than my issue with sleeping, everything pre-race went off as well as one could expect. My husband and I left the hotel just as my 5:45 "GET OUT" alarm went off, he pulled off on a side street a block from the starting area and I hopped out of the car. I looked around a little bit while drinking my usual cherry limeade nuun, ate my peanut butter and dark chocolate luna bar and checked out the finishing area and the portajohns. (The lines were fairly short, so I went ahead and got in line.) Afterwards I ran into one of the women from my MRTT/SRTT group and we walked over to take a picture with the rest of the ladies in the group. I got a picture with the ladies in our county group then met up with the Oiselle Volee ladies.
Afterwards I thought it was time for one last bathroom stop. Naturally, all the lines I encountered were ridiculously long. With 20 minutes till gun time, I was totally nervous about missing the gun. So I kept walking. And I found a magical bathroom: Indoor plumbing, there was a heater, AND I was third in line! After finding this oasis, I did a little bit of a warmup run to the gates leading to the starting area.
Based on recent race paces I seeded myself at the 11:00 pace sign, right between the 2:20 pacers and the 2:30 pacers. The pacers were totally easy to keep an eye on, and I caught up with (and at one point passed) the 2:20 pacers. The pace felt nice, and then around mile 6 or 7 I dropped back and lost sight of them.
Fortunately the race itself was fairly uneventful--just the usual weaving around people and looking at the surroundings. I stopped at the water stops every two miles and after the fifth mile I started eating my caffeinated limeade honey stinger chews for the sugar (but mostly the caffeine.) The course itself was generally pretty scenic--through neighborhoods with old craftsmen A-frame houses, the historic downtown area, and through open areas with farms in the distance. In terms of hills, it was fairly hilly with the hill right at mile 11 being the worst of them all, and my pace reflected that.
And here's the elevation map provided by race organizers:
Once I crossed the finish line, I grabbed a couple bottles of water and some snacks (the usual granola bars, pretzels and bananas, but they also had a good variety fruit and Utz chips--a Baltimore staple!) I then looked around a little bit and texted my husband so we could meet up and he took my picture in front of the PR bell!
I couldn't believe that I beat my previous half marathon time by 11 minutes and I was so excited to tell my husband! (My previous time was 2:37:33 at the Hokie Half and my time at this race was 2:26:17!!) Once we checked out the vendors (and I decided against getting my two beers--the line was crazy!) I was surprised (and really happy) that my husband managed to get a super close parking space by the Finisher's Village. Afterwards we went to the Fractured Prune to get donuts. And they were awesome.
Overall, I really enjoyed the race and highly recommend it. Getting to the race was really easy--traffic was a breeze and there was still plenty of parking when we got there before 6am. (Post-race traffic was great too because there was hardly any at all!) The expo was nothing special so next year I'll probably get my bib at one of the remote pickup areas and my shirt post-race (and so I can sleep in my own bed the night before!) But the race itself was great--the hills really weren't that bad (except for at mile 11), and the scenery was fantastic! On course support was great too--neighborhoods turned out to cheer us on and there were plenty of water stops (pretty much all of them had both water and gatorade) and later in the race there were a few stops offering gu and chews. The race is also pretty small with the cutoff being 5,000 runners, but this year's race only had around 3,600.
Did you run this race? What was your experience like?
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