Redding Road Race Half Marathon 5/6/12
Redding Road Race Half Marathon, 5/6/12, "A run for the cows"
Another race with a nice easy drive- in the western half of CT, but lots of highways, so easy to get to. You actually drive in along the course, and it didnt seem too bad, rolling hills. Got there, plenty of parking, lots of people directing you where to go, packet pickup was really easy- shirt was already in the bag(a 6-pack cooler with the race logo actually), short lines for portalets. Went and visited the cows while waiting for the race to start- one particular cow must have been the ring leader- she had something to say to everyone walking past the pasture, kinda funny actually. Ran into a woman I had first chatted with at Savin Rock, and then had run into at Danbury, where she was watching the kids so hubby could race(he'd watched them at savin rock so she could run), so chatted with her for a bit. Close to race start lines were a little longer- one of the New Pond Farms women grabbed a bunch of us and brought us to her house to use the bathroom(she lives on the farm property)- now THATS a brave woman- runners on raceday?? walked up the road to the start line, chatted with a few people, one of the first races id ever been to where no one wanted to start in front- definitely a lot of relaxed racers vs "serious runners"(except for one particularly fierce woman, who ended up outright winning the 10K, awesome for her!!). The RD asked how many people were first time HMers- joking, "congratuations! Youre going to set a PR today! The rest of you- enjoy the run!" One of the runners is a professional opera singer, so she sang the National Anthem, and then we were off!
Miles 1-4(7:18, 7:19, 7:40, 7:22) Down the hill, onto the farm, down a dirt road, across a pasture(theyd moved most of the cowpies for us!), backwards through the finish line, and back onto the roads we went. I giggled a little, thinking, "this isnt a trail race!" but settled in really quickly- pushing the pace felt a little tougher than the last few(maybe cause my crazy self did 21 miles the day before?), but it was definitely more humid today, the warmest race so far this year. Up some rolling hills, then the road converged with the Danbury HM course(danbury's mile 8ish) for about a mile, and then onto the rolling hills of Redding. The course wasnt really flat at all, pretty much constantly either uphill or downhill- nothing major, just constant undulation. Redding is a more rural town, so lots of properties, lots of woods, definitely a very pleasant run. Bottom of my foot felt like it might be rubbing a little, but no biggie, figured my sock was bunched a little. I ran with a group of guys that were similarly paced for a bit, one jokingly asked if I had beer in my camelbak, and I responded "I wish, it would make these hills seem easier!"
Miles 5-8(7:36, 7:42, 7:54, 7:27) The rolling hills continued, definitely a challenging thing! I never realized how much you change your stride length and body lean until having to go constantly back and forth between the two. Lots more woods, pretty houses, not large crowds, but definitely a lot of people came out of their houses to watch, so there was people cheering the whole way, which made it seem not bads, a lot of enthusiastic little ones. Lots more rolling hills, following this was an INSANE downhill, it was so steep I thought I was going to fall- I normally do well running downhill, but you really couldnt let go of your pace here at all(mile 7.6 elevation 707ft, 7.7 elevation 470ft). Mile 8-9 was some crazy big changes- 8.4 436ft to 8.5 623 ft; 8.5 623ft to 8.6 420 ft, etc etc. My foot continued to rub, nothing overly awful, so didnt bother to stop and fix it, it was bearable.
Miles 9-13.1(7:44, 7:53, 7:40, 7:17, 7:34, .16 at 6:44 pace) the crazy rolling continues: 9.5 540ft, 9.6 385ft, still in 9.6 jump back up to 535ft. But somehow it was ok- my energy was definitely flagging, and silly negative thoughts of "how are you gonna handle MDM, its gonna be like this" and "warm weather running is not your thing, you really shouldnt have signed up for Fairfield," but I stomped on them and just pushed them back into my head. My foot was continuing to rub, it occurred to me at this point that I might be getting the makings of a blister(its on the bottom, the crease between the bigtoe pad on the ball of my foot and the one next to it), but didnt bother to stop at this point, since it didnt feel too terrible, nor did it feel overly wet, so if it was a blister, it hadnt popped yet- I know I know, stupid reason to ignore it). Little flatter through this section, but still some rises. After mile 12 theres a sign "½ mile left, can you smell it??" and then a 100 ft later "No. Really. Can you smell it?" Starts going uphill here, boy, is it tough. Briefly stop and walk cause I just literally cant go uphill any faster. I hit the crest of the hill, turn right onto the farm road, and then a right onto the farm- theyre routing us THROUGH the horsebarn down the main aisle(theres a volunteer on the road side of things radioing bib numbers to the announcer), so as you come busting out the barn and across the yard, past the runner/food/expo tent, they announce you, and theres tons of people cheering! Totally jazzed me up, and I went tearing across the pasture, through the cow and goose poo, onto the dirt road, and over to the finish line! There are people handing out medals, and all the ladies are given flowers- that was a fun little touch! Stumbled around for a minute, chatting with a few other delerious runners about how tough the course actually was(made me feel better I wasnt the only one expecting it to be this tough!!!), and then hobbled my way to the foot tent. Just to give you an idea, overall the race had 3338ft of ascent and 3449ft of descent- Colchester was 1665 of ascent and 1798 of descent, but I would consider it a tougher course. For some reason savin rock and danbury dont have elevation stuff on the garmin.
As soon as I stopped running I realized how much my foot was bothering me. I grabbed bagels and cookies, chatting with the president of new Pond Farm, who happened to be the baker extraordinaire of the cookies, and complimented her on a great event- it went so very smoothly for an inaugural event- if there were glitches, they were well behind the scenes! Ate food and cheered a bunch of runners in- they had had early start times 60 and 30 minutes ahead, so there were a lot of runners coming in all at once, it was really fun. In the mix was the top rated 60 year old in CT right now, with a blistering 1:56(i hope im that fast when im 60!!!), then walked back to the car, changed to flip flops. Yep, big old blister- long skinny one that started between the big toe and one next to it, all the way down the crease in the ball of my foot. Hurt to walk on it because it was a lot of pressure- it hadnt burst, so all the fluid was in there(felt much better once I got home and aspirated it). Ran into the runner I knew from the other races- she was really really happy with her 2:04, and even more thrilled she hadnt had GI issues(ah, what we runners cherish most....), her husband was having a grand old time cheering all the runners in- hes been going stircrazy because he hadnt been running cause of recent knee surgery, so he was letting ALL the pent up energy out!
I loved loved loved loved this race- I love a challenging course, I loved the organization, I loved the shirt, I love the medal, it was just such a fabulous day, it was everything that comes from a well oiled machine, and this was their first time. This is definitely on my do again list, hopefully future vacations cooperate with this- we are usually away this time of year, so its by stroke of luck that I was able to even do this one!
1:39:32, 29/351 overall, 8/256 females, and 7/59 AG(30-39)
