Strawberry Plains 1/2 Marathon Recap!

I pretty much ROCKED it this time around!!!!  I ran it thirty minutes faster than last year, which I think is pretty much amazing!  Very happy with my time!


I woke up around 6 am, to do the coffee, breakfast, wake-up thing!  I already had all my clothes laid out the night before.

The race didn't start until 9 am, which was super nice, but I had to check in and get my bib and t-shirt by 8.30 am.  Here's a big difference with this half compared to others.  Most halfs, in fact, every single one I've been to, you have to pick up your bib the night before.  For this half, you don't even have that option, pick up is not until 8.30 am.  This is a very small half compared to most races I've done.  It only costs $35 and it starts at a school in Strawberry Plains.  I dressed in the first layer and headed to the starting point, which was 30 minutes earlier than the actual race start time.

The weather was really good for the run.  It was chilly starting out and of course I had my many layers on!  As you can see from the picture, the need for toboggans and gloves was there.  I bought North Face mittens and put hot hands inside them for this race and what a difference it made!  My hands actually started sweating around mile four and I had to take them off!  I'll take that over those frozen fingers from the last race.  

I ran with this guy Justin starting around mile 3.  It was his first half, first long race period, and it was nice to have someone to run with and to encourage on his first half. His wife was running the half too, but took off and left him on his own!  You couldn't listen to music on this race, so running with Justin kept me from getting bored.  That's a lot of miles to just think to yourself!

The race really wasn't bad at all.  The first 3 miles are on a pot-hole full road, which makes running a little bit of a challenge.  You have to dodge the pot-holes and make sure you don't twist your ankle, or in my case, step wrong with my left foot.  It reminded me of the trail race I did...and hated!  The rest of the road was good, except it was an out and back so the last 3 miles were on that some pot-hole filled road! That's all you want to do for your last 3 miles; concentrate on not falling!  I saw a group of five wild turkeys! A little afraid they would attack me! I know how those big birds can be when runners are near!  Any of you that live in Kingston and have experienced the attacking, hissing geese can sympathize with me!  They handed out gu on mile six and again on mile ten.  I took one at mile six and took one for the road (a.k.a. my next race) at mile ten.  As usual, mile 9-10 and then mile 11-12, was hard!  They always are though! It's like your so close, yet not there yet!

Happy finisher! I ran this in 2.15!  Not bad for the first half of the year and not really ever training to run any faster! Next up is the Whitestone 30k...which is 18 miles! Not going to lie....VERY ANXIOUS!  My plan isn't to run 18 before the race, which is next Sunday, just to get up and run it on Sunday!  My dad is going with me (Yay for Big Poppa Money!), so that if I get to certain mile, like 14, I can call him and he can pick me up or send out some people or whatever needs to be done!  My fear is that my foot will say NO MORE!  I'm praying it doesn't and that I can breeze survive those 18 miles.  The most I've done is the numerous 13.1 miles at a time! I'll accept some walking, but secretly I really want to run all 18! It would just be amazing!