The Running Thread - 2019

[flav]

today's run situation:
It was 40 °F and dark. I could not find gloves. I could not find a hat or ear band. I could not find anything but shorts. It was dark and foggy under the street lights. I could not find motivation and decided to regroup for a shorter lunch run instead.

What do you all use for dark runs?

I run on sidewalks that are lit, but still cross at some darker intersections where I can see but I wonder how many early, sleepy drivers can see me. I dislike carrying a water bottle so I do not see knuckle lights as a great option. I am not sure if shoe lights or a head lamp increase visibility OF me vs. of the street. NOx gear seems overkill, but maybe not?

I have a reflective vest and a lighted armband for visibility. I try to run where there are street lights or slowdown if it is too dark.

 

[Bree]

today's run situation:
It was 40 °F and dark. I could not find gloves. I could not find a hat or ear band. I could not find anything but shorts. It was dark and foggy under the street lights. I could not find motivation and decided to regroup for a shorter lunch run instead.

What do you all use for dark runs?


I run on sidewalks that are lit, but still cross at some darker intersections where I can see but I wonder how many early, sleepy drivers can see me. I dislike carrying a water bottle so I do not see knuckle lights as a great option. I am not sure if shoe lights or a head lamp increase visibility OF me vs. of the street. NOx gear seems overkill, but maybe not?

Right now I live in a small gated community with street lamps. I wear shoe lights for visibility. They throw out enough light for me. I can’t believe how many people back out of their driveways or drive around here in the dark looking at their phones.

When we move next month I will be on dark country roads with a street light here and there. I’ll be wearing my noxgear vest and shoe lights.

 

[Bree]

@Bree I don't, but you are in my thoughts. I know some folks who have fibromyalgia and it seems to me that each person has to find their own way with the disease. Anti-inflammatory diet seems to be something I've heard works for more than one of my friends. If I hear of anything specific I will certainly share it with you. You are one tough lady and I know that you'll find a way to deal with this.

Thank you! I’ll get through it. I hashed some ideas out with a doctor friend today so hopefully these flare ups will become less common.

 

[FFigawi]

So what’s your favorite half in your state or one that you’ve done.

I vote for ones with free beer

Maine - Old Port Half
Texas - Shiner Half

 

[PrincessMickey]

I vote for ones with free beer

Maine - Old Port Half
Texas - Shiner Half

Beer is definitely a plus!

 

[rteetz]

Beer is definitely a plus!

Brewers Mini in WI gives two free beers

 

[bovie]

I think I remember someone asking for podcast recs a few pages back. I really like Trail Running Women (tons of info about learning to run on trails) and Decades of Strength (convo with four personal trainers about general fitness-y stuff, but it's just so positive that I always feel encouraged at the end.

 

[OldSlowGoofyGuy]

So what’s your favorite half in your state or one that you’ve done.

I vote for ones with free beer

Georgia - Tear Drop Half, Chatsworth, Ga. End of April

USATF certified course
Almost 2000 foot drop (you read that right: 2000! nice POT course)
Small, less than 300 runners
Nice after-party in the park with live music, free barbecue, hot dogs and beer (at least when the event was on Saturday. now that it's on Sunday, not sure about the beer).

http://www.teardrophalf.com/

 

[MissLiss279]

So this is a list of a few that I would recommend (granted I’ve mainly ran their marathons, but the halves should be similar):

OK - Route 66 or OKC Memorial
ND - Fargo
NE - Good Life Halfsy
KS - this is my home state, but I’m not sure I would recommend the one I’ve probably ran the most. I’m going to recommend one that I’ve heard a lot of people like: Bill Snyder Half. Also, I’ve ran Garmin Marathon before. Enjoyed the race, but lots of steep hills! Wizard of Oz themed.

 

[Waiting2goback]

Here’s an example of their entry level suit. Built for people like us with no flotation in our legs.

https://huubdesign.com/collections/...-5-triathlon-wetsuit-mens?variant=51326351636

Thanks John, I will start collecting all this info for when I need to start buying stuff.

today's run situation:
It was 40 °F and dark. I could not find gloves. I could not find a hat or ear band. I could not find anything but shorts. It was dark and foggy under the street lights. I could not find motivation and decided to regroup for a shorter lunch run instead.

What do you all use for dark runs?

I run on sidewalks that are lit, but still cross at some darker intersections where I can see but I wonder how many early, sleepy drivers can see me. I dislike carrying a water bottle so I do not see knuckle lights as a great option. I am not sure if shoe lights or a head lamp increase visibility OF me vs. of the street. NOx gear seems overkill, but maybe not?

I have a head lamp. It’s like daylight it is so bright. I have a Noxgear as well. I had a cop stop next to me during my run last week and tell me he loved the vest, he said he wished all runners would get one.

My brother has an ambitious goal of a half in every state. He wants to run 4-5 a year or so. I might join him for a few, I’m sure once I get started I’ll end up making it my goal too. Anyway, he was looking for input on the best half’s in every state so I thought this would be a good place to get ideas and get a list started.

So what’s your favorite half in your state or one that you’ve done.

for Colorado I would say for scenery the Colorado marathon/half marathon or Rocky Mountain half. For closeness to Denver, colfax half because it goes through the zoo and a fire station.

I have done the Race to the Rock. It was a hilly course but it finishes at the Plymouth Rock and Mayflower so that was cool. But my favorite local 1/2 is Smuttynose in NH. It’s a great race.

 

[Kerry1957]

I have not run it, but the mini-marathon in Indianapolis is said to be the best half in Indiana. Downtown to the Indianapolis Speedway and back. Two and a half miles of the race are running one lap on the Indianapolis 500 race track. There are over 100 live bands and 35,000 runners.

I think I just talked myself into it.

 

[run.minnie.miles]

So what’s your favorite half in your state or one that you’ve done.

For Nebraska (which I'm sure is at the top of everyone's list...ha!), I would recommend the Goodlife Halfsy in the fall. Fun race, great organization. The "marquee" (and biggest) race is the Lincoln Marathon (and half) in May, but I have yet to run it.

 

[baxter24]

Ran the Tobacco Trail 10 miler this morning. I didn't have a time goal headed into it. I woke up with a cold on Tuesday morning and have been dealing with it since. In all honesty, I preferred being sick for this race compared to being sick next week for Wine and Dine. Decided to just play it by feel and slow down if I needed to because I just felt sluggish this morning.

The race is an out and back on an over 22 mile trail (mostly packed gravel) that stretches over three towns. Because parking at the start of the race is limited, we were asked to park over at the USA baseball stadium and rode buses over. They let the women start at 8:50 then let the men start 8 minutes after. I'm assuming its to spread out the people on the course plus they have an extra competition that the overall winner gets a gift card. I was pretty close to the second mile when the lead guy passed me while I was at a water stop. I heard a volunteer say quietly "good grief that dude is flying!"

I ended up running the first six miles and felt strong through 5. It was in the 6th mile that I started to feel tired. I had told myself to just start doing intervals if I felt like I needed to since I was still getting over my cold. I slowed to a walk at the water stop at mile 6 and all of a sudden my body basically said "you are done!" so I switched to intervals from there. At the finish line, they handed out gloves instead of medals and had chick fil a sandwiches and other snacks for us. The thing that bums me out the most was that my watch couldn't manage to find a GPS signal until a little over 5.5 miles into the race. I know its because of the tree cover over the entire race and I didn't give it enough time before the start. I know before that someone had posed the question of would you rather run without a watch or music. I will always go without music before not wearing a watch. It felt frustrating not being able to see my pace while I was running those first six miles.

Overall its a good local race. I think there were a little over 400 people that ran the 10 miler or 4 miler so the trail never felt crowded at all. The trails are always open to the public so we would see the occasional person or group out for a run. Pretty sure both Duke and NC State's cross country teams were out for a run this morning. I'm amazed at how easy that all made it look running the fast for that long.

 

[Smilelea]

A little behind but I had to share:

The first one is mine. I don’t run a lot of races and some of the ones I run don’t give metals. I love my custom-made holder with Hogwarts and Disney. It fits me perfectly


The next one is my 7yo DS. He only likes to run for the bling and he complains pretty much the entire run. So he doesn’t race much

 

[flav]

My favourite half in the area is Ottawa (Tamarack Race Weekend). Impeccably organized and amazing crowd support.

I also like the Courses Gourmandes series organized by Just Run for their all inclusive feeling and nice country setting but they are a much smaller field.

 

[michigandergirl]

So what’s your favorite half in your state or one that you’ve done.

Favorite half marathons in Michigan:

Trail: North Country Trail 13.1 - Finisher Medal as big as your head, but you need to sign up almost a year in advance.

Road: Freep Detroit Half - Run to Canada and back (you'll need a passport).

 

[geaux_half]

My brother has an ambitious goal of a half in every state. He wants to run 4-5 a year or so. I might join him for a few, I’m sure once I get started I’ll end up making it my goal too. Anyway, he was looking for input on the best half’s in every state so I thought this would be a good place to get ideas and get a list started.

So what’s your favorite half in your state or one that you’ve done.

for Colorado I would say for scenery the Colorado marathon/half marathon or Rocky Mountain half. For closeness to Denver, colfax half because it goes through the zoo and a fire station.

I shared the same goal as your brother. I actually ran a half marathon in my 50th state on my 50th birthday. Leading up to the last state, I recapped all 50 states weekly in my blog. The blog entry indexing the 50 states is here.

A great tool for finding races in different states on the same weekend is here. Its a great way to knock out a couple of states in one trip!

Most (all?) local races in the New Orleans area have beer trucks post race. It was a rude awakening when I started running in different parts of the country!

 

[apdebord]

My brother has an ambitious goal of a half in every state. He wants to run 4-5 a year or so. I might join him for a few, I’m sure once I get started I’ll end up making it my goal too. Anyway, he was looking for input on the best half’s in every state so I thought this would be a good place to get ideas and get a list started.

So what’s your favorite half in your state or one that you’ve done.

for Colorado I would say for scenery the Colorado marathon/half marathon or Rocky Mountain half. For closeness to Denver, colfax half because it goes through the zoo and a fire station.

Virginia:
Richmond Half- pretty scenery, early November so it’s not terribly cold yet, great downhill into the finish line
or
Shamrock Half Marathon- fast and flat in Virginia Beach, weather is unpredictable and it can get incredibly windy during certain parts, 4 beer tickets

 

[The Expert]

So what’s your favorite half in your state or one that you’ve done.

The Salt Lake City Half is in April so the weather is usually perfect, and it's a downhill course from the bench to downtown. If you want a more extreme downhill run, there's the Revel Big Cottonwood Half that literally runs down Cottonwood Canyon at a pretty steep grade. That one's in September.

If you prefer red rock scenery, I've heard great things about the Zion Half when it happens, but they had to cancel this year due to muddy conditions and it's not unheard of for them to alter the course. It's in February so weather is a total crapshoot, and if you're traveling in for it you may want more of a guarantee it'll happen.

Best bang for your buck would be the Bear Lake Trifecta (https://runsignup.com/Race/UT/GardenCity/bltrifecta), which would tick off Idaho, Wyoming and Utah all in one weekend. I haven't done it but have heard positive things.

 

[gjramsey]

Houston Half Marathon Race report - Today was the 4th time running this race, and, for some reason, I usually have better than expected results. That was the case again today. The weather was decent, T+D was around 110 or so. The race starts off in downtown by Sam Houston Park, where most races start/finish. The park is nice for pre and post race activities, lots of room for port-a-potties, tents food, etc. The start of the race goes into downtown and then heads south for about a mile, before heading back to the start line area and then out Allen Parkway/Memorial drive and back to finish. When heading back into town, you are running into the rising sun, which is not fun.

This year, the race had corrals, which was needed. The last several years, many people were not lined up by pace, and the first couple of miles were interesting. This race is probably the 2nd largest half in Houston, and there were a decent number of people running with the pace groups, which were numerous, basically every 5 minutes starting with 1:30. I started out with the 1:45 group, and after about 1.75 miles, decided to get past them and speed up a little, or maybe a lot....

Mile 1 - 8:01, Mile 2 - 8:00, Mile 3 - 7:15 (oops)

Realized I was catching up to the 1:40 group, which I did not expect. I told some friends pre-race, I figured I would be between 1:40 and 1:45. So I dialed back my pace a touch.

Mile 4 - 7:42. 5 - 7:38, 6 - 7:45.

I was about the same distance behind the 1:40 group at this point, so decided to try and catch them around the 11 mile mark.

Mile 7 - 7:18 (oops again), Mile 8 - 7:27, Mile 9 - 7:31.

Making up ground on the pacers, and passing a number of folks that started with that group that were dropping off

Mile 10 - 7:10, Mile 11 - 7:05, Mile 12 - 7:21, Mile 13 - 6:50

I ended up catching the 1:40 pacer just past mile 10, and tried to fly the last several miles, which I didn't think I was going to be able to hold on to, but somehow did.

I fininshed with a 1:38:10. Overall 368/4078, Male 304/2170, Age 17/165. Very very happy with the results.

When I saved my run, my Garmin told me I had 4 records. 1 mile in 32 seconds, a 10 minute 5k, a 22 minute 10k, and a 1:22 half! This was the worst the Garmin recorded through downtown, and bounced me all over the place, and recorded the half at over 15 miles.