Hot Half

Okay, who turned on the heater.  I walked out to the car at 4 am this morning to head for the Frederick Half Marathon, in Frederick, MD and it was like 70 degrees.  I honestly was thinking it would have been in the 50s or 60s, but 70s...that nuts.  So I started drinking water and pumped in about 2 liters before the rae.  And I'm glad I did.  It got over 75 degrees before the end of the race and that for me is hot.  I ran a good race, not earth shattering like the National, but solid non the less.  I pull in across the finish line in 2:05:26, about 3 minutes slower than the National effort.

This course had problems from the get go.  It is going down as I did it, and I won't be back.  The course was advertised as flat for the first 13 miles and then rolling hills to the finish of the marathon.  But the truth is the first half was also rolling hills.  Granted there were no major inclines on the course, but there was very little flat.  You were going up or down.  The second problem with this course was it was twisted.  There were more turns from one street to the next that it was impossible for the crowd of runners to manage the narrow streets and corners got clogged with runners making the turns.  The final and most important problem with the course was the lack of volunteers.  There were aid stations, but they got back logged with runners trying to get water off the tables because there were at times only a handful of volunteers.  Give the heat, that was not a good thing.  I saw at one water stop, a runner knock over about 30 cups of water trying to get one.  The poor volunteer was trying his best to help, but for the runners coming up behind me, they were not going to get water at that stop.

So given the heat and the problems with the course.  I'm glad I did it.  I did a good job, but this is one that I'm not sure I'll run again.