On Saturday May 10 I ran the New Hampshire Big Lake Half Marathon. This was the 2nd race in the Tri-state half marathon series which I'm running in.
Official Time 1:38:46, chip time 1:38:23. Finished 137 out of 1200. A bit slower than last race of 1:37:10, but not too shabby considering this one was pretty hilly and I got a pretty bad cramp at mile 5, which flared up again around mile 10. Also, I've been a lazy ass lately about running training, so considering these factors I think I did pretty well.
This was definitely the most fun half marathon I have ever run, and probably the most fun race as well. Despite having to fight a cramp for some of the race, the entertainment and sites were definitely worth it.
The scenery was really beautiful including views of Lake Wininnipesaukee and the surrounding woods, including some streams and ponds. There were locals playing great music at various points along the course including a Barbershop Quartet, a banjoe playing family, a fiddler, crazy 'party women', guitars and singing. Despite this race being in relatively rural New Hampshire with banjoes playing, it wasn't creepy at all like something out of Deliverance, it was just really neat. There were also amusing signs posted along the route that were meant to elitic a smile I guess- "Why is the word 'abbreviation' so long", "Should vegetarians eat animal crackers?", "When you lose weight- where does it go?", "Did Adam and Eve have bellybuttons?", and some other amusing signs.
There were a lot of people running for charity, the Leukemia and Lymphoma folks really had a strong presence. I should really do a race for charity one of these days.
I wore my 'Powered by Veggies' shirt again, this time without the cape though. I only got one comment on my shirt, by a volunteer as I was getting some post race food. She didn't seem to get it. She just commented that it was an amusing shirt.
One little personal thing I have been doing the past couple of months is avoiding all bottled water, as I think bottle water is wasteful. I kept that up for this race and didn't take any bottles of water at any point during the race including afterwards when they were handing them out like crazy. I did take some paper cups of water and gatorade, but not as wasteful as plastic bottles in my opinion.
This race was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to doing it next year!
Next long race is Portland, ME Half Marathon in October. That is a pretty easy, relatively flat race so my goal right now for that race will be to break 1:35. That would be a PR for me, one that I believe is reachable if I keep up training. Time to hit the bricks! (I'm actually not sure what the expression means, I think it means better get to work?!)
5 comments:
Wow! Awesome race report (and in my home state, too!) That's really great that you avoided using any bottled water. I find that it's pretty easy to do about 90% of the time, but there are situations when I do it (and a race would've probably been one where I thought it unavoidable, but I'm rethinking that now--so thanks!)
Go veggies!
Congratulations on doing so well in the race! I linked here from the Happy Herbivore. I'm a vegan athlete too. I bookmarked this blog, and I just wanted to say hi!
Good plan to avoid bottled water. And it sounds like a cool race, with musicians around and everything. Though, when I first read it, I thought you said "part women" instead of party women... and I got a little confused. Makes much more sense with that extra Y!
Sorry I'm just getting to this! Sounds like a great race. Excellent job!
rock on! good job!
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