I'm in a bizarre gap between fall races. Last week was this half marathon in Millersburg and my next race won't be for a while. Odd for the fall.
This race was well organized but I just wasn't feeling it. We had some hot and humid weather in the week leading up to this one. It cooled down a bit on race morning, but not enough to make much of a difference. The course was not quite what I was expecting. I knew it would be on the bike path, but I was really expecting some hills considering all of Holmes County is hilly. It wasn't. It was pancake flat as the path runs next to a river. I don't do the best on flat courses, though I was ok with my performance in this one.
We started out on a bizarre half mile run before turning right around and heading the opposite way. Odd. I'm not sure why they didn't just add a half mile to the turnaround point. Anyway, I started out a bit quicker than I needed to with the first three miles coming in around 8 minutes each. There weren't many people around for the majority of the race so I just acted like it was a training run. There were some nice sections of the path, but the majority of it really reminded me of the Little Miami Half Marathon I ran back in 2011. It was just kind of dull.
I slowed down considerably after the turnaround point. I was around 7 miles at the one hour mark, so I knew I was safely going to come in under two hours. I mostly just tried to zone out, listen to music and stay hydrated. Meh. Not much more I can say.
The finish was not my usual strong effort, but I was able to come in under the 1:50 mark at 1:49:51. That was good enough for second in my age group, though again this was a very small race.
Next race: Findlay Red White & Blue Half Marathon- Findlay, OH
