Race Recap & Review: 2018 Harrisburg Half Marathon

Earlier this month, I ran the Harrisburg Half Marathon for the third time. I'd previously run this race in 2014 and 2017 but this year was a totally different experience because of the weather. It poured down rain before, during, and after this 13.1 mile journey through Pennsylvania's capital city. Not sprinkled, not lightly rained, it POURED.

Let's rewind and start at the beginning, shall we?

Some of our running ohana were in town to run this race. Nathan missed running this last year because of hurricane Irma (he lives in Orlando, FL) so he was able to defer to 2018. Steff and Joe (and their 12 week old golden retriever puppy, Thorsten!) drove in from Pittsburgh so Steff could run the half. Since this race was on a Sunday, we were able to spend a rainy Saturday going to local breweries and showing off some of the excellent beers in our hometown.

Cheers!

I mean, really? This face!

Saturday night, we all started obsessively checking the weather. It had been in the 90's earlier that week but the forecast for race morning was rainy and cold- in the 50's. We all talked about what we were going to wear for the race and then I remembered my father-in-law gave us construction grade garbage bags the last time they visited- perfect for a rainy run! (thanks, Les!) With the garbage bags packed and our race-day outfits laid out, we did our best to rest and not think too much about the impending cold rain that we were going to spend hours in the next day.

Altra Timps to the rescue for a rainy run!

Sunday morning greeted us with windy, cold temperatures, and pouring rain. UGH. For only the second time in my running career, I considered not running this race and just getting brunch somewhere indoors and warm. But, I got dressed anyway and piled into the car with my running ohana to make the 45 minute drive to downtown Harrisburg.

The last time I was dry all day.

When we got to the race, we had about 30 minutes to kill before the start. We all grabbed an umbrella and stood in the port-o-potty line (which wasn't too long, thankfully) so we could take care of all our pre-race business. 😏

Can you tell who's the most excited for this race?

As we made our way back to the car, we talked about our post-race meet-up plans. Since none of us were carrying phones because of the rain- and because we knew we'd want to warm up immediately after we finished- we decided that we would meet back at the car. After putting the umbrellas away, we donned our garbage bags and walked the short distance from the car to the start line...which had actually been blown down by the wind (they got it back up and standing before the race start). Fabulous!

Since I have no pictures of the race to help me remember the mile-by-mile recap, here's the short list of everything I experienced/thought about during the race:

• Holy crap, it's cold. The wind is blowing rain into my face. Awesome.
• Ok, someone has drinks... oh, it's Fireball! Yay, shots!
• Wow, that warmed me up. Coming up on mile three and feeling ok.
• Oh yeah, I remember this part, we are headed to the trail.
• Wow, there are tons of puddles on the trail! It's like a damn mud run out here!
• I'm so glad I wore the Timps. Altra trail shoes are awesome in the mud. 
• Ok people, it's just a puddle! We're already wet- just run through it!
• Thank god we're off the trail... oh shit, the road is full of puddles too.
• First runners coming through- they're at mile 11 and I'm at 7. Damn, I've still got a ways to go.
• Oooooh, more Fireball! Thank you!
• I've worn this bag for nine miles and it's getting hot. Time to make a garbage bag cape. 
• There's Matthew! Hello, love! Mid-race kisses are the best!
• Ok, mile 10, time to ditch the garbage bag.
• And we've got one more Fireball station- awesome!
• Holy crap, I think that puddle went up to my knee. I can either laugh or cry at this point, ha!
• Inching closer to the finish line... damn, my hips hurt. I've got to train better. 
• There it is! Almost done! Thank God! Only a few minutes off my goal time, awesome!!

Initially, I was hoping for a sub-2:30 at this race. After just missing it in May at Pittsburgh, I had been hopeful (earlier in the summer) that I could reach that goal. But after a lackluster few months of training, I was ecstatic that I was able to bust out a 2:34:08 in those horrible weather conditions.

If you want to see just how awful the weather was, here's a great gallery of pictures from PennLive, one of the local newspapers. Luckily, I have just one image from the race (courtesy of PennLive), and I think it's pretty rad. 😜

Living my best life.

Directly after finishing the race, I snapped a couple of pictures and headed to the warm car. From previous years, I knew there would be tons of food at the finish line but honestly, I just wanted to be warm and dry so I bee-lined it for the car. We decided to celebrate our race finishes with a trip to Troeg's Brewery for lunch and beers and then stopped at Hershey's Chocolate World for post-race chocolate snacks. All in all, it was a good day. 

While I can't say that I prefer to run in the rain, I can say that it's not terrible. I kinda feel this way about rain: there's nothing you can do about it so you might as well try to enjoy it. After all, we humans are wash and wear; we will dry out... eventually. 😜

Have you ever run a race in less than desirable conditions? How did you cope?

Race Recap & Review: Shamrock Half Marathon 2016

Wet. Cold. Windy.


That about sums it up.


When Jen asked me a few months ago if we (meaning me and Matthew) wanted to go down and do the Shamrock Half Marathon again, I wasn't too keen on going down. For one, Matthew and I have been trying to save money as our wedding is literally around the corner (30 DAYS!). Secondly, driving to VA Beach is a pain in the butt because of this little town in Virginia called Fredericksburg. It doesn't matter what time of day you travel through this town, there will be ridiculous amounts of traffic. I just don't understand it. Anyways, Jen enticed me with free race photos (because Shamrock is AWESOME and totally has the runner's interests at heart) so Matthew and I registered for the half.

You may recall that my current PR is from this race in 2014 and last year in 2015, this was my "don't call it a comeback" half marathon that was also my little brother's first half marathon. So Matthew and I were both very familiar with the course and knew we would have an amazing time at the race. J&A Racing (the company that puts on Shamrock) really puts on a phenomenal race: flat course, gorgeous medals, beautiful tech-shirts, finisher's hat and beach towel, four post-race beers, live entertainment on-course and at the after party, and new for 2016, free race photos! How could we have said no?

So super early on a Saturday morning, we left our homes in south central PA and started driving down to VA Beach. The expo closed at five pm so we had a deadline to meet. Then all the DC/VA traffic happened- mid-day on a Saturday. A drive that was supposed to take five hours ended up taking close to eight! We mad-dashed into the expo a little after four pm and grabbed all the goodies we wanted before they closed at five. They were selling last year's long-sleeved cotton 8k shirts and beach towels for $1 so we all bought some for the next day as throw-away clothes- the weather was predicted to be a little rainy and cold; in the mid-30's to 40's for most of the race. After getting what we needed, we carb-loaded at a little pizza shop close to our hotel and crashed early.

The next morning, it was clear I had not packed enough for the weather- I think it was around 39 degrees and extremely windy. I had a thin tank top and thin long-sleeved shirt. Luckily, Jen let me borrow her Under Armour Cold Gear long-sleeved shirt. I wore the tank, a pair of pants, and calf compression socks as my base layer and then the Under Armour shirt, a Sparkle Athletic skirt, a Cold Gear Under Armour hat, my finisher's hat from last year, gloves, and a light rain jacket as my top layer. It really wouldn't matter what we wore because the moment we got parked near the start line it started raining. And I don't mean, a little light rain that feels awesome when you run. I mean, an ice-cold, windy downpour that stings your skin. Reluctantly, we all decided to leave our phones in the car and made plans to meet up after the race back at the car where we could at least sit in heat and warm up.

Before we got out of the warm, dry car. 

The towels that we brought were soon soaked through as we huddled together in the corral waiting to start. Jeff and Matthew were going to run their own races; Jen and I were going to stick together. Any hopes I'd had of running a fast race were gone the minute I looked outside to see the weather. This was going to be a "just get to the damn finish" kind of race.

When it was finally our turn to start, I was honestly super worried that I wouldn't be able to finish. It was absolutely freezing and miserable. Had we not driven the eight hours to get there, I might have not even gone to the starting line- it was that awful out.

Once we got moving, it got a little less miserable. Miles 1-4 were pretty uneventful as we ran through the neighborhoods toward Fort Story. The rain started to let up about an hour into the race; after we were already soaked of course :-) Thank God for free photos because I'd left my phone in the car- didn't want to risk it getting ruined in the rain!

We are THRILLED to be running in the rain.

Once we got into Fort Story, we made a quick pit stop at the medical tent for Jen- she had a toe that was rubbing another toe and irritating her so she needed to get a band aid. The true testament to friendship is helping someone get a wet, sweaty sock off their foot and then helping get it back on, mid-race :-)

Jen and I kept a close eye on our mile times and were surprised with how consistent and (semi)fast we were being. Each mile was hovering between 11 and 11:30. Even with the wind in Fort Story, we were able to keep pushing the pace and concentrating on getting to the finish line. My current half PR is 2:28 and while I knew we wouldn't reach that, I was hoping for anything sub 2:35.

Good morning, lighthouse! Gotta love a blurry, free race photo!

Once we left the military base, we headed back on the long stretch towards the boardwalk finish. Highlights of this part of the course? Listening to The Imperial March from Star Wars being played as we cruised through a water/aid station with cookies! Also, the mimosas around mile five were oh so refreshing! There was plenty of beer on the course this year but Jen and I declined- we were waiting for those ice-cold Yuenglings at the post-race party.

The last few miles felt like they would go on forever.  I was so glad Jen was with me because she really helped push me out of my "comfortable pace" zone and kept us hovering around the 11:30 minute mile mark.

At last, we saw the finish line as we turned onto the boardwalk. All I could think about was getting somewhere warm and out of these soaking wet clothes. We raced towards the end and crossed the finish line at 2:35:41; just 42 seconds over where I wanted to be.

Jen and I got our medals, our finisher's hat, our beach towels, tons of food, and a cute bag to carry it all in. Then we headed towards the party tent to get some hot stew, a cold beer, and then head back to the car. On our way into the tent, we found Jeff but didn't end up seeing Matthew (he went straight back to the car). After a beer and some pictures on the beach, we went back to the car to warm up.

Finishers!

Finally out of the rain!

After an awesome hot shower, we got back on the road and began our long, traffic-filled journey home. While no one can control the weather, J&A did a fabulous job of still making the race enjoyable for the runners. Cold rain and wind are never good conditions to run in but... it does make me feel like a total bad ass for running my second-fastest half marathon in terrible weather conditions.

So, will we be back for a fourth year in a row? Maybe! The drive sucks but the race and the organization is superb to other races. Time will tell if we do this one again but overall, it was a great experience- even if the weather was terrible! :-)


Have you ever run a half marathon in cold/rain/snow/terrible weather? Share your stories and strategies below!