Riverboat Series Half Marathon -Arkansas
April 14, 2014
2:24:22
Temp: low 60s and damp at the start, torrential downpours at the end
What I wore: hat, short sleeve shirt, Skirt Sports Happy Girl skirt,
PROCompression socks, and my trusty Altra Intuitions
How shall I describe this race? Never.a.dull.moment.
We started the day by following Google map’s directions to the start. Their directions involved gravel roads on the levee, big puddles, and cows standing mere inches from the road. Thankfully, Beer Geek grew up driving on roads like that, so we beat the GPS time by 3 minutes. (If I’d been driving, we’d still be out there…) The race only got better from there…
The course was a 1.31 loop that half marathoners had to do 10 times. It was mostly flat and the only “difficulty” was avoiding the big puddles from the previous night’s storms. For the first 6 laps, I was right on pace and slowly but surely getting too warm. Then the wind picked up and the temp started to drop. As I headed out on my 9th lap, it went from threatening rain to all out downpour. I’ve run in heavy rain before, but this rain was accompanied by lightning and thunder. Of course, I’d ditched my hat earlier in the race, so I had to run lap 9 with water threatening to wash my contacts right out of my eyes. Thankfully, I was able to grab my hat for the last lap, but perhaps I’d have been better off grabbing flippers! I knew they were considering pulling us off the course, so I was booking it to the turnaround so that I could finish. The back half of the course was about 6 inches deep in flowing water, so that lap was challenging!
You can see the weather progression in my changing outfits:
Chilly at the start:
Warming up a bit:
Getting too warm and ditched the hat (at which point Beer Geek told a bystander “Every time she runs by she takes off something and hands it to me. At this rate, she’ll be running naked at the end.”)
And then it started to pour, so I grabbed my hat again:
And finally I finished! Sopping wet, but happy!
The good:
- The course was paved and mostly flat.
- I ran with the same friend as the day before for a while + you get a little slap happy when you are practically swimming with 90 of your favorite runners.
The bad:
- Losing the hairband that held my braid meant a wet ponytail flopping around for the rest of the race.
The ugly:
- The lightning! that was right.there.
- The downpour.
- Puddles deeper than my shoes.
- The crazy drive to get there!
Make sure to enter my 5 things giveaway for the five half marathons in five days!!!
3 down, 2 to go!
Race 1 recap: Kentucky
Race 2 recap: Tennessee
Often those races in the pouring rain are actually the funnest races, glad you made the most of it, although I am shocked they did not cancel it with lightning! I cannot believe it was the same loop that many times! That is so crazy!!! Glad you had fun 🙂
What a fun experience! The good the bad and the ugly! All of it!
It was crazy, but the water was coming down so hard and the streets were so flooded, you just had to be amused.
I will never forget that lightning (before, during and after) the race. And that rain. That Arkansas rain put my Oregon rain to shame.
Way to finish it strong. So much fun. Miss you already.
It.was.insane. Looking forward to seeing you in Wisconsin this summer.
Wow – awesome to see you still smiling after 3 days of half marathons and that horrible storm to run through!!!
This is one of those situations where you just have to take what comes at you and have fun. I’m kind of sad it’s over.
Okay if I thought 6 loops was crazy, then 10 loops I think I’d be going out of my mind. That lightning would scare me too! Can’t wait to hear about the next ones!!!
It’s actually a ton of fun. You are constantly interacting with other runners or the rubber band volunteers or the aid station. The people really make these races a running party.
Seriously, you are my idol.
I love that despite the threatening weather this was still better than the hilly course, haha! Sounds like fun, I love rain runs!