It's been a while since I've hit one of these milestones. I have maybe two more half marathons this year and W and I are expecting our first child. It will be a while until I hit 80 or even 75. I always think back to how I started running half marathons in 2009 and am always amazed when I hit a number like this one. It's been a blast!
I ran this race back in 2014 and had a good showing. Despite it being 45 minutes away in Wooster, I haven't ran it since then. The short driving distance, 7:30 start time, and inexpensive cost make this one a winner.
I came in with no real goals as I haven't ran a half since the Flying Pig. My training has actually been pretty good recently as I got a 7 and 9 miler in during the weeks leading up to the race. But I also remembered this race being quite hilly and very humid with the August race date. Let's get to it.
Miles 1-5: My GPS continues to be a pain so I have no splits for this race. We headed north from downtown on a slight incline. I felt loose early on and tried to keep at a conservative pace. Most of the race heads through residential areas with various levels of hills. I should say, none of these are massive hills. There's just a lot of them and they slowly wear you down. I looked at my watch a few times and guessed I was just under 8:00 miles for the first few miles. It felt good until we headed east for a long loop through a residential area. This section is up-down, up-down. Again, it's not major but it is enough to hurt.
Miles 6-10: We finally ended this residential section and headed for a long straightaway north of town. This is the most dull section of the race but it is easy to zone out. We then head east for a bit prior to doing a long loop through a city park. This is probably the best part of the course as the rollers aren't bad and the park is at least pretty. It breaks up the monotony some. My miles were more in the 7:35-7:40 range during this section. The course then doubles back and we run the same course in reverse on the way back to town. This does include that unfortunate residential area which seems much worse on the way back. I did slow to a walk for a few minutes during the return. The temperature was decent throughout the race but the humidity was awful.
Miles 11-13.1: Just hold on for a good finish. This was really all I was thinking. We did get a nice net downhill to the finish on the return. But man did it seem long! The final mile was probably the worst because you can see the finish for a long time. I thought I might be able to finish around 1:40 but the finish kept looking farther away. I was able to kick it in for a nice finish of 1:41:20. This beat my time from 2014 by more than two minutes. I finished 24/113 overall.
This was a challenging but good race. I certainly enjoyed myself and simply thought "This is number 70" several times throughout the event.
Next race: Mid Ohio 13er Half Marathon- Mansfield, OH
