Marshall University Half Marathon
Finishers: 1,103
November 9, 2013
I must say this was a very last minute unexpected trip. Most of my races are planned out almost years in advance but every now and then I am feeling wild and crazy and decide to plan a trip to West Virginia. I had some Delta points laying around so I booked a "free" flight up to Charleston, WV at the end of September and knew it would be a quick 24 hour trip - my favorite! A few weeks before the race, something kind of cool happened! One of my wonderful Kirkwood friends, Alex Ricke, has a girlfriend who works for Gatorade. He told her about my running and she sent me a box of Gatorade chews with a note saying good luck on your races! So basically from then on I pretended that I was sponsored by Gatorade and sent Alex a SnapChat of me before every race with my Gatorade Chew so he could show Katrina.
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| Y'all.... I'm totally sponsored...but not really |
So back to the race - so I basically got a flight on points after realizing there was no better time to run in West Virginia. I took a midday flight up to Charleston, WV and then drove the hour to Huntington, WV where the race was taking place. I didn't quite know what to expect of the state but the drive was actually very pretty through some rolling hills and changing leaves.
I arrived in the town and Marshall University was having a football game. I cruised around the city for a little, possibly because I was a little lost, but finally found the building where the expo was taking place. You would have thought the race was a lot larger because the line to pick up your packet was crazy, After picking up my swag, I didn't have much more to do in West Virginia alone so I just went back to the hotel (the very fancy Red Roof Inn might I add) to watch the Auburn v. Tennessee game.
When it started getting late, I hunted down another fancy establishment called Fazzoli's for some high class drive thru Italian and on top of that I may or may not have gotten a #2 Double Cheeseburger Meal from McDonald's right outside my hotel. I thought about going up to Wal-Mart just to people watch and see if all the crazy things you hear about people in West Virginia are true, but then decided to just play it safe and stay in bed.
November 10, 2013
The chance of rain had been on and off all weekend, but I just did my best to stay positive. The temperatures were low since it was November but I wore long rights and long sleeves and had snagged a blanket from my Delta flight to keep me warm. As always, I went up to the race start far too early but wanted to make sure I had somewhere to park. After hanging out in my car for a bit and catching a little tiger snooze, I decided to wander around and look at all of the Marshall Memorials and go inside the stadium. I haven't seen "We Are Marshall" but you can tell what a huge impact that plane crash had on this town.
After some time, the sun came up and we all went to line up at the start. With a belly full of cheeseburgers and spaghetti, I didn't know what the outcome would be. The first part of the course made a huge loop around the stadium and then came back on to campus. It was through part of town but it was pretty dead and I was hoping I would get a little more scenery. We finally came up on campus and then cut over to a trail along the Ohio River which was very pretty. I was still feeling okay I was just a bit chilly and my tights kept falling down in the butt...nothing worse than some saggy tights, am I right?
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| First Gatorade pic sent to Alex and Katrina |
Once we got off the trail and back onto the normal streets, I was feeling good and noticed a pace group ahead of me the leader was dressed like a banana. I tried my best to pick up the pace and stay with them and was surprised to see it was the 2:00 pace team. I hadn't gotten anywhere near a 2:00 time since Atlanta in 2011. The pace team seemed faster than my little legs cold go, but I did my best to hang with them. We started back towards the way we came along the Ohio River and to the University. As hard as I was trying, the pace team just slipped away from me and the possibility of hitting a 2:00 seemed farther away but I was proud to be running a good race regardless.
As we reached the stadium, the full marathoners broke off to the right (bye suckers) and we continued straight to down 3rd Avenue and into the Marshall University Stadium. This was by FAR one of the coolest finishes. After entering the stadium, you run down the sideline of the football field to opposite 20 yard line. As you cut to the center of the field, volunteers are there to pitch you a football. I knew it was coming but I was so nervous that i wasn't going to catch the ball. Putting my nerves aside, I made a effortless catch (Gregg and Phil would be so proud) and took off down the field with the ball tucked under my arm to the goal line/finish line. Not only was it so awesome to run across the line, but I looked up at the official race clock and I had come in under 2 HOURS and I had broken my person record with a time of 1:59:21! I couldn't believe it! I guess the banana had been running faster than he should have been.
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| The shock on my face is priceless - under 2 hours! |
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| Official Race Pic - 20 states down, 30 more to go! #DREAMBIG |
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| Here is the stadium in the back |
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| Snapchat check-in - being so humble as always |
After my meal of chocolate milk and bananas, I hopped in the car and head back to the Red Roof to shower. I didn't feel the need to dry my hair and just head back to the airport. After turning in the car, it was about 11:00am and I realized there was a 11:20am flight which would be a whole lot better than my original 4:00pm flight. The check-in lady told me it wasn't available but I went through security anyways and ran to the gate agent who didn't even think twice before letting me get on the plane (thank you Delta status). I hadn't even been in West Virginia for 24 hours when I took off from the airport and I was home in time to grill out and enjoy the nice Atlanta fall weather with Jonathan, Snel and Beard while they built a table out of beer caps. It was a weird feeling to be sitting in their driveway and knowing I had been in West Virginia running a race not even three hours ago. I swear - time travel is no joke.
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| 20 medals...almost 20 bibs and still counting! |
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| Snel and Beard making a super cool table |
20 states down, 30 more to go! #DREAMBIG
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