Race Recap: Celebrate Life Half Marathon

On March 11, my training partner and I braved the Day Light Savings time change (Spring Forward, people) and got up at approximately 4AM and drove to Rock Hill, NY to participate in the "Celebrate Life Half Marathon".

Where is Rock Hill, you ask? It's here.
Not that far, right?

It was only $38. It was good timing for our anticipated Boston Marathon. It was a good distance. First 500 participants gets an awesome windbreaker. So in early December we decided this would be a good idea.

Of course, we didn't consider Spring Forward. Neither of us really looked at the course map or the elevation map either.

We also didn't exactly plan to be semi-injured; I have been fighting a tight right quad off and on now for 2 weeks. My training partner has some form of tendinitis. We both limp around the office like sad zombies. My partner ended up not doing the race even though she drove us up there. I then had sudden monthly issues. Nope, we weren't off to a good start.

When we get to the registration/start area, we see that it's a mix of NYC teams (lots of Van Cortland folks, a lone FrontRunner queen, a few different tri-teams) and quite a few hard core runners (singlet, shorts, arm warmers in 32F weather). A few people were showing off their Boston Marathon 2011, 2010, 2007, 2005 (yes, I took note) jackets too.

...you know there's something wrong when there is a severe lack of certain-color coordinated folks. It was definitley foreshadowing what was about to come.

You see, the place's name is Rock HILL. We should have taken this as the first sign. But my training partner and I were blinded by the awesome windbreaker!

So when the gun went off...wait, there was no gun or singing of national anthem or horn or nothing...the race sorta just "started". People were shuffling along past the B-Tag magnets. I almost missed it!

As I was saying, as the race started, I realized this was an incredible mistake. The start was at a basin like bottom, surrounded all four corners by giant hills.

The course is 13.1 miles of constant hills. Giant hills, long hills, steep hills, short hills, easy hills, rolling hills. There's really not much of a descend until the last mile. Even the "flats" were covered in little annoying speed bump-like inclines.

Check THIS out! GIRL, this makes Central Park look FLAT.

Oh, Oh, and incident happened too! See the giant hill at the 4M mark? Well here, two skinny little things decide to draft off me. It was uphill and it was a tad breezy. Not only are they drafting off me, they are heavy breathers. One has iPod so loud, I can hear her tunes. I'm about to punch them in the face. But we all know that's a big no-no. So I suddenly stop. Note the drop in cadence. They crash.

That's right folks, don't draft off with this Diva. NEVAH.

After that incident, it goes much better. I get to run my own race at perceived exertion of 7 or 8. Being semi-injured, I'm not pushing too hard, but kept it at a comfortably challenging level. It's a hard course, but I manage. I come in 10th in my age group, but am the fastest person in my old-ass age.

There was supposedly an awesome afterparty catered by Outback Steakhouse. We skipped it because we decided we were too cool. Truth: we just wanted to go home and sleep.

Now would I do this again? Probably. Would I hate myself for signing up come next year? Probably. That Spring Forward is really annoying. I'm chronically lacking sleep, my quad hurts, I'm cranky, and the awesome windbreaker is too big on me, but we runners know..."THIS TOO SHALL PASS".

PS: Ugly Race photos available upon request.