Thursday, September 13, 2012

VIA Half Marathon

 

 


On Sunday I ran the VIA half marathon in Bethlehem.  It was one of the prettiest courses I have ever run.  We got rolling around 5 am as the start was 7:15.  This was a point to point run on the Deleware Canal path.  It would have probably helped if I had read a little more about this course before I signed up...lesson learned.




The weather was awesome and we got off to a great start with a short downhill.  The course was a little tight in the beginning as we made our way to the canal trail.  The weather was perfect and I love knowing that we were only running one way.

What I did not realize was how narrow the course was for the first 4 to 5 miles.  We had huge storms the night before which was great because the humidity broke but not so great for running on the trail.  The first miles were so tight and on single track you really had to pay attention and surge ahead when you could. 

After mile 5 or so....it did open up a bit onto some birdges.  I was feeling okay.  My legs were moving but I did not feel super.  The course was mostly flat with some minor inclines up until mile 10 or so.  Around mile 10 we left the canal path and went up over the water. Ouch that one hurt...and my legs were starting to lose their steam...hang on for 3 more miles.  I thought we would get a nice downhill but instead we climbed again to another bridge and back over the water and back onto the path.   I knew we were getting close to the end..you can hear the annoucers.  I managed to negitave split the run which was great.  Overall I ended up with a 6 min PR!!!! WAHOO!!!!!

So we found out that PEEPS and Mike and Ikes are made locally here in PA...Ryan was excited that I brought him home some gifts for being gone all morning!



Next up is the marathon!

1 comment:

Lisa said...

Congrats on your PR! That path would be great to run on a weekend run, but would be a bit stressful in a race. You would definitely have to start with people at your pace. If you got stuck in the back, it would be tough to weave through slower runners.