race report: covered bridges half marathon

Date/Time: June 6, 2010, 10:15 a.m.
Weather: 60ish and raining hard
Distance: 13.1 miles
Net Time: 2:05:55
Pace: 9:37/mile
Gun Time: 2:07:45 <- Got stuck behind hordes of people and a *car* at the start
Age Group: 118/186
Overall: 1121/1771

Just realized that my watch didn't save my mile splits. All I remember are:

Mile 1: 10:23
Mile 8: 10:15 (because of the big hill)
Mile 13.1: 9:20

My fastest mile split was 9:01. There were a few close to 9:30 and a few close to 9:45 as well.

What a gorgeous race course! In spite of the pouring rain, I enjoyed scooting around the Vermont countryside, through covered bridges and past little children in galoshes. I highly recommend making a weekend of it, and would love to see more of Vermont next time I run the race. I also ended up a walking cartoon, as I was freezing after the finish, shirt procurement, food procurement, beer procurement, and walk to the car (all in the rain). I put on the footie pajamas that were in the back of my car along with my rainboots. The Cabot Creamery store customers must have thought they were hallucinating.

Krista, who graciously came up to cheer for me, explored Woodstock, Quechee, and Hanover with me yesterday. We unintentionally drove most of the race course, which made me laugh when I ran it today. We also bought lots of local goods (wooden spoons, lavender mint shea butter, cheese, jam, and ice cream), then finished the day with pasta at Salubre Trattoria and a walk around Dartmouth's campus.

What I Thought of the Race:
1) Needs more organization and support with respect to parking / leaving. Not enough volunteers understood what was going on, and it took forever to leave because no one was directing traffic in the parking lot.
2) The crowd support was decent (great where it was, but definitely dispersed).
3) The electrolytes at the water stops tasted funny.
4) Having a clock at every single mile marker was great.
5) The musical accompaniment would be better if they were more "pump you up" songs (think "Eye of the Tiger" or "Panama" instead of "You Are My Sunshine).
6) Post-race Harpoon IPA is delicious.
7) Post-race traffic is the opposite of delicious.

Things to Note for Next Year:
1) Getting a hotel in White River Junction is ok--it's an easy drive to Quechee Gorge Village.
2) Get dropped off at the start, especially if it's raining. Taking the bus at 8:30 a.m. only to wait from 8:45 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. sucked.
3) Realize that the parking lot is a half mile uphill from the finish instead of getting lost and wailing in a hypothermic way.
4) Always pack an extra hat, plastic grocery bags (for shoes) trash bag in your running bag.
5) Make sure your running bag is waterproof.
6) The drive up from Boston takes 2.5 hours (in the sun on a Saturday). The drive back takes about 4 hours (in the rain on a Sunday).