McLeod ½ Marathon Race Recap

After debating for more than 2 weeks about running the McLeod ½ Marathon in Florence, SC, I finally signed up just a few days before the event.

The drive down from my house to Florence is about 2 ½ hours and I arrived about 6:45 AM. That meant that I left around 4 AM. Ugh, early morning races are rough.

When I started my warm up the temperature was 24 degrees and when I checked the temperature just before the start it was 22 degrees with a light breeze. This made selecting the appropriate clothing difficult. I ended up running using my compress shorts, calf sleeves, long sleeve short, my TrySports shirt, gloves, and a band that covered my ears. Oh yeah, I used my Brooks running gloves.

Being that it was extremely cold and not knowing anyone else in the race, I didn't set any real great goals other than the obvious one, I wanted a good hard effort.

Standing at the starting line, I am pretty sure that this was the coldest race that I have ever attempted and maybe the first time that I ever crossed my fingers that the temperature went up doing the race.

The 5k and ½ started at the same time with these 4 high school runners going hard the first mile. One of the runners was a female runner. She would pull away from the other two by two miles.

At the mile, I was third in the race overall and by two miles; I was running 2^nd in the race. I would catch the lead runner before the 5k and ½ courses would split.

Just before the split between the races, one thought crossed my mind why didn't I sign up for the 5k race. But that thought got pushed aside and I headed off down the trail on the ½ marathon course.

As I was about to enter the rails to trails section of the course, I heard some foot steps behind me.

Yep, there was someone about 25 yards behind.

For the next mile, I kept hearing footsteps. By 4 and ½ miles, I took a quick peek out of the corner of my eye on a turn, and had maybe a 40 yard lead.

For the next 3 miles, the footsteps continued but when I got the next chance to peek over my shoulder there was no one in sight. I guess the footsteps echoing in my ears were my own.

So I concentrated on chasing the lead bike for the remaining miles.

Danny White of RMS commented that he been measuring a lot of courses recently, and this was one of the best that he had done.

I cannot speak for the scenery, but I would consider the course more rolling than flat and it has good two miles of trails in it.

From about 11 and ½ to 13+ miles, the trail is mostly single track which was lots of twist and turns. Some were even 90 degree turns.

The race provided water at 3 locations during the race, but I passed them by. I did take one Gel just after the mile, but I didn't take any more Gels. My hands were so cold that I couldn't bend my fingers.

After the race, I warmed down by myself along the course and encouraged the other runners coming into the finish.

I checked the temperature again after my warm down, and it was 35 degrees. It really didn't feel like it. The wind chilled me right to the bone.

For snacks, they had cookies, Snapple, coffee, and hot chocolate. The race shirt was long sleeve running shirt with the event logo on the front.

They didn't really have an awards ceremony. They just called everyone up and handed out the wards when you told them your name.

Setting here now, I was pretty happy with the race. I walked away believing that I left a lot on the table. Running alone for the majority of the race, in such a cold temperature and wind, and with the tough single track trail section, a 1:16 time would not be out of the question for me.

I have 5 more weeks to go before Myrtle Beach Marathon and plenty of work to do, but the outlook looks promising.

As my Chinese fortune cookie said "I have to stay the course if I want to reach my goal"

 

Tales from a cold and tired Cool Down Runner.

 

 

 

 

Mile	Mile Split	Total Time
1	5:49
2	5:51	11:41
3	5:47	17:29
4	5:46	23:15
5	5:39	28:55
6	5:43	34:39
7	5:46	40:25
8	5:42	46:08
9	5:46	51:55
10	5:49	57:44
11	5:56	1:03:41
12	5:50	1:09:32
13	6:23	1:15:55
13.1 (actual distance 13.25)	1.25	1:17:20