Half Marathon #2 for 2014: Caesar Rodney

Caesar Rodney Half Marathon
March 23, 2014
2:14:38

Temp: 40 degrees and windy
What I wore: hat, tank top, Champion Half Zip, Brooks Essential jacket, Happy Girl skirt,
PROCompression socks, and (of course) my trusty AltraRunning Intuitions

I’ve run this race before.  It was one of my first half marathons.  So, I knew the course:  fast first 6 miles, wicked hill from 6.5-9ish, downhill/flat until a final wicked uphill finish.  I had a plan.  All I had to do was execute it. The plan: run it as a training run.  My legs were tired from the heavy mileage of the previous week plus the secret to serial half marathoning is to not race every single race.

I failed to execute.  My average pace at the start of the hills was 9:59.  Ummm….  Where did that pace come from???? The hills slowed me down, but not as much as I expected.  I guess my “embrace the hills” philosophy from this winter paid off.  In fact, I ran strong until about mile 11 when my legs decided they where done.  (At that point, they’d run 70 miles in 9 days, so who could blame them.)  The last 5k was a 10:36 pace (including the wicked uphill finish).

The good:

• The race was extremely well organized.
• Despite struggling with what to wear, I ended up with exactly the right amount of clothing on.
• The food:  I had a cupcake and a piece of pizza pretty much seconds after crossing the finish line.
• Running into a Half Fanatic that I knew and getting introduced to several others.
• The last minute decision to stay at the hotel right near the start/finish line area. They even gave all runners a 2pm checkout.  Kudos to them for that.
• Seeing old friends the night before and having a couple of yummy beers with them.

The bad:

• The start time.  This race doesn’t start until 9:30am.  I am not a fan of that late of a start.
• The packet pickup ends super early on Saturday, so I had to do packet pickup on Sunday morning. (This was actually a big part of why we got the hotel room.)
• The weather.  Both times I’ve run this race it’s been below average temp for March.  Yesterday it was windy in addition to the 40 degree temps.

The ugly:

• The hill in the middle.  Miles 6.5-9 are just HARD.  Not as steep as the hill from RnR, but just a constant upward grade.  It took a lot out of me and my quads are super sore today.
• The finish.  Who wants to end on a steep uphill for the last third of a mile?  I hate hate hate the end of this race.

I never thought I’d run this race a second time, but it worked well for my schedule and we got to see a friend of Beer Geek’s from college.  I don’t know that I’d go out of my way to run it again, but if the opportunity ever presents itself, it’s a race I enjoy and would not mind doing again.  And the beer I had at Stewart’s brewpub afterwards was definitely the way to celebrate finishing #2!

Today is the last day to enter my PROCompression sock giveaway!!!  New giveaway starts tomorrow!

2 races down, 11 to go to get to Venus!