Half Marathon #10: Mad Marathon Half

Disclaimer:  I received free entry to the Mad Marathon Half as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews! 

This past weekend I headed north to Waitsfield, VT to run the Mad Marathon Half and state number 4 in pursuit of my 50 States 50 Half’s goal. This run is dubbed the “Worlds Most Beautiful Marathon” due to all of the sights and sounds along the course. And it did not disappoint.

The race was held in the Mad River Valley in Waitsfield, VT. Because the town was so small I had to do my research on this. The population of Waitsfield is 1,719. Just for context the last race I ran in Philly (Broad Street Run) had 40,000 runners. So needless to say I knew this race would be small. When I got to the bib pick up I believe the person told me there were 700 runners registered. That may have been cutting it short a bit, but yes it was indeed small.

Half Marathon #9: 2017 Love Run Half

This year was my 2nd Love Run Half Marathon. As an ambassador for them I am always excited to run this race, as it is the one race that truly kicks off running season in Philadelphia. The city has their major races, and with Love Run only being 4 years old, it has skyrocketed to one of the best races Philly has to offer.

Half Marathon #8: 2017 Shamrock Portland Half Marathon

This past weekend I completed Half Marathon number 8 in my life as well as 50 States Half number 3 at the Shamrock Half in Portland. A quick backstory to this race: I am an ambassador for the Love Run Philadelphia Half and won their grand prize of an all expenses paid trip to this run. So needless to say it was a very exciting weekend for sure!

Half Marathon #7: Runner’s World Half Marathon

Disclaimer:  I received free entry to the Runner’s World Half and Festival grand slam of races as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews! 

The half marathon was the fourth and final race of the Runners World Half and Festival weekend. Since I had run the grand slam of races (all four runs) I had my bib from running the the races prior to this (all races used the same bib). So there was no need for me to pick up a bib for the half marathon.

Half Marathon #6: The Atlanta Craft Classic Half

Disclaimer:  I received free entry to the Atlanta Craft Classic Half Marathon  as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews! 

Finally having run a half marathon outside of my home state I can now officially say I am on my way to my 50 Half’s in 50 States goal. This weekend was the Road Runners Sports Craft Classic Half Marathon in Atlanta. A race that celebrates craft beer and running. If you follow me on social media you know these are my 2 main passions. So when a race combines the two, you can bet I will fly hundreds of miles to get to the start line.

Half Marathon #5: The Philly Love Run

The 2016 Love Run Half Marathon has come and gone, and what an exciting blur it was! If you’re not familiar with the Love Run (and at this point I have to imagine you are) it is the premier spring Half Marathon for Philadelphia. And premier is the perfect way to describe this race.

The race is organized by CGI Racing who also runs the United Half Marathon at Rutgers University and New Jersey State Triathlon. CGI knows what they are doing when it comes to organizing a race. With 10,000 runners (yes they get into the 5 digit number for this race) logistics can get messy. However the Love Run couldn’t have been run any smoother.

Half Marathon #4: 1/2 Sauer 1/2 Kraut Half Marathon

Half Marathon #4 in the books!

This past weekend was the 1/2 Sauer 1/2 Kraut Half Marathon. If I had to put a title on this half marathon it would be called Hills, Heat and Hell. That’s exactly what this half marathon was. It was full of hills, 75 degrees around the 7:30 AM start time and pure hell. However still tons of fun! The race was at Pennypack Park in the Northeast section of Philadelphia. I had never run in this park before so I was interested to see how it went. And foolishly I didn’t read the course description until after I signed up.

From the website regarding the course:

The course utilizes the paved bike path along Pennypack Creek. No traffic at all. You get to run miles and miles within the city limits of Philadelphia without seeing a house or a car at all. The midsection of the course features a bunch of short but steep rolling hills along with a trail section (Mount cuckoo). Some have referred to our course as an Achterbahn (“rollercoaster”). It’s certainly not an easy race, but do-able, a good challenge for the experienced runner.  
Is this a Boston Qualifier? Hell no!!!!! !!!This is a summer race, there is a good chance that high temps will make this harder than you anticipate!!! I recommend running the marathon only if you are an experienced runner, who can handle all kinds of  adversity. You have been warned :-). No whining on race day.

Half Marathon #3- My Philly Half Marathon Recap

It seems like just yesterday (July 2013 to be specific) that I made the decision, with no running experience, to run a half marathon. Trained for 2 months and went out there and finished. 1 year and 4 months after making that decision I have now completed #3!

This past weekend was the Philadelphia Marathon. The premier marathon for the city of Philadelphia. They offer both the marathon and half marathon options during the same time of day. Before I get into my review of the race I first want to discuss my training. Mainly because I felt like I under-trained for this but got my best results to date.

Training:

I followed the same training plan I always have for halves. 8 week training; 5 days per week, 3 days running, 2 days cross training. You run 1 long run a week and increase the distance 1 mile every week. Well my long runs stopped somewhere around week 4 (7 mile long run). For the remaining 4 weeks I only really ran 2-3 days per week. Usually about 4-6 miles per run. Overall I never ran over 7 miles.

Half Marathon #2: I’m a 2x Half Marathon Runner!

So this past weekend was the ODDyssey Half Marathon in Philadelphia. It was definitely by far the hardest run I have run to date (that didn’t involve some sort of cycling portion, just run). The run was the traditional Half Marathon course in Philadelphia. Which is running around the Schuylkill river (a pretty site for running). Although this one was a little different in the sense that you ran a portion through Fairmount Park. One of the largest parks the city of Philadelphia has to offer.

What made this one so difficult were the hills. There were 3 hills in particular. One right before mile 5, the second was about a minute after that one ended and the 3rd (probably the steepest) was at mile 13. The first two hills weren’t awful. They were steep for sure, but a lot of my training has been uphill so I ran up them without a problem. The problems started after the first 2 hills. I was worn out so I was still running, but at a much slower pace. The 3rd hill was a monster and at the very end of the race. If there were 40 people within my line of site at that hill, maybe 2 were actually running it (not this guy). So I walked that hill for the most part. It was very steep and after running 12 miles it just wasn’t in the cards to be running up that monster.

Half Marathon #1: First Half Under The Belt!

Well I can officially say I’ve run a half marathon! It’s still somewhat surreal. I’ve always looked at completing this as something meant for runners and not someone like me. But here I am.

This journey has been a lot of fun. And really eye opening at the same time. When I started this, someone very close to me told me that it would be almost impossible to complete. It was 2 months ago that I just up and decided to do this. 2 months to get ready to run 13.1 miles. And part of me believed they were right. That I couldn’t do this and I should just give up.

But I didn’t.