Tuckfest – Day 2 Recap - 1/2 Marathon

My Tuckfest quest moved to day 2 with the noontime start of the ½ marathon. The temperature was in the low 80s. I am not use to this type of warmth yet. Also, I was kept my warm up to a minimum since I did not want to add any unneeded miles on my legs.

So what happen?

Well, I was sluggish out of the gate. My legs felt a bit sore and stiff, and they were heavy from the racing the 5k last night.

By the time, we turned on to the Academy Trail, I was feeling the heat. Sweat was getting in to my eyes and burning. A big group took off setting a hot pace. In fact, they going so fast that ½ mile into the race, they took off running the Figure 8 backwards. No idea what they were thinking but they quickly realized their mistake and bushwacked their way back on to the right trail.

About 5 miles, my legs started to feel loose, and my pace picked up. I was slowly running down some of those that couldn’t handle the hot early pace. I felt even better once we go out along the river because the wind was blowing. This cooled me off even more.

I finished off the Wedge Trail, and headed for home. They still had us running around the backside of the parking lot to keep us away from the traffic.

I finished in 1 hour 50 minutes and 51 seconds placing me 7 overall and first among the 50 to 54 age group.

Big congrats to Chris on winning the race. He ran the distance in an hour and 41 minutes or about 7:41 pace. That’s amazing. Also saw Daniel E who came in 1:45 to finish 3rd. He passed me on the Academy Loop and continued to move up.

Shortly, after I finished, a storm front rolled through, and the rain poured. Two women were telling me about their experience since they were caught in the storm at about 8 miles.  I was standing under a tent, and I thought it was going to be blown away.

After the race, it was time to eat and catch some of the events. They had this Mtn. biker who can do some pretty awesome balancing. Then, I caught the Deepwater climbing. Those men and women made it look easy, but it has to be super hard. It was definitely something that I am not putting my bucket list.

Tails from the Trail

The Cool Down Runner