Signed up for this race to check my progress leading up to the Boston Marathon just over a month away. I was fairly happy with the result.
Initially, I was excited about this USATF race. It wasn’t quite a half marathon as 20K is about 12.42 miles. Something about that gave me false confidence about it being a “short” race. Anyway, as the day of the race approached, I started getting my usual extreme race nerves wondering what was I thinking that this was going to be “short and sweet”?! Still, it would be a nice quick get away to the old town where Yale University is located.
We arrived late afternoon on Saturday to the Omni Hotel across the park from the start and finish of the race. Turned out there was a stage set up in the park for an art and music weekend. Bands played late into the night both Saturday and Sunday. We could see the stage and most certainly hear the music from our room.
We walked around town to see parts of the university but everything was gated and we were unable to enter. That was a bit of a disappointment but we had a nice day and it was fun just looking around. We stopped at a college store to buy sweatshirts and sweats with the Yale logo…”wanna-b’s”. Ha Ha!
I had made reservations at 116 Crown since the hotel still seemed to be in COVID lockdown and no restaurant was open.
Shared a salad and enjoyed my own entre’
Sunday morning, I ran a 35 minute shake out run up part of the course and around the parks. It looked like there would be no issue with big inclines, fairly flat but with a few turns which is fine because I get so bored on long straight aways.
Fountain in the park
We found a wonderful place for breakfast that had a tofu scramble. Shared a plate of sliced banana. Perfect!
We walked to the Corsair apartments where packet pick up was held right at 10 am. Not crowded, a nice hike seeing more of the course.
Took a drive to the water front although it was a damp and dreary day, we found a nice spot for a late lunch, Shell and Bones. I enjoyed a brussel sprout salad.
We went back to the room for a couple of hours to just relax. I read my latest obsession the Virgin River series books.
Following a nice light dinner just up the road at the Iron Chef Chop House, we walked back, listened to the music from our room (whether we wanted to or not) but didn’t get to sleep until after 10:30 when the bands stopped playing. This wasn’t so bad as the race didn’t start until 8:30 am Monday (Labor Day) morning.
I was up at 5:30 am and took a 5 hour energy to help with getting my system moving. At 6 am I ate a Clif Bar. I took a SIS energy gel with me and had this at mile 5 during the race. They did offer UCAN energy on the course which was great as that is what I have been training with.
I did about a 20 minute warm up run at 7 am. Ted took off on his bike at 7:30 for a ride to the athletic fields of Yale. I would see him just after we started the race and one more time at mile 7 1/2 along the course.
As usual, my stomach was quite upset with pre race nerves so I stayed in the room until 7:55 am and left for the start. I was in the park by 8:05 to watch the kids run. The porto potties were disgusting and unfortunately I felt I had to use one just before lining up. It was somewhat of a crowded start and my initial mile was slow at an 8 min pace. The 20K and Half all started together.
It wasn’t easy but it felt like I was working. At about 7 1/2 mile point when I saw Ted I was getting tired but kept pushing. From 9 to 10 mile point was a bit of an incline then I knew the 20K turned off from the half marathoners at 10 1/2 mile point so I was holding on for that. Since Ted and I walked the end 2 miles of the course the day before, it was motivation for me to keep pushing. I looked for the mile markers and was able to finish with a respectable 7.50 average net pace. The results posted were for USATF and they took clock time. I still placed 2nd in my age .
The finish
Would I recommend this race? Sure would! Great race for Labor Day and everyone was pleasant, the venue perfect. Lets just get out of this pandemic crisis so we can fully enjoy the places we have never seen and appreciate all they have to offer without restriction.
Joanne
