Experience with Great Bay Half (Newmarket NH)? (Read 357 times)

I did it last year, but in what was surely better conditions than this year will be. My first surprise was that it was hillier than expected. If I remember right, the first 7-8 miles were largely uphill with a lot of up and down. The other thing was that there was (as you mention) about 2 miles or so (I may not remember right) of unpaved road. It was actually quite nice last year, as it was dry and the road was in decent shape (but there were obviously some ruts). I remember thinking at the time, though, that in bad weather this road could be a problem. It would be muddy, with more ruts and you might not be able to see them that well. Also, there is a larger potential crowd this year, which could make that part harder to negotiate. All in all last year it was a fun race. I'm not doing it this year, not because I didn't like it (I did) but I haven't trained well enough through this brutal winter.

Hey GravelRd... I actually run on the course about 3 to 4 times a day, though I have never run the actual race. I live in Newmarket on the corner of said Dirt Rd (Dame Rd) by where the coffee hut is. I spent the entire winter running down this road. In winter it was pretty much a dirt road with a HARD layer of packed ice on top of it. If I was lucky i could run on gravel chunks for a bit. No big deal though and never really slid around. Hell... Even had Karl Meltzer over once for a run on it in the snow. Good times. Currently the road is hard dirt... TONS.... TONS! of potholes and ruts. You have NO problem making them out but in a crowd I could see where you might have an issue. I ran on it last Tuesday in the rain and the road was muddy and FULL of ponds and puddles but negotiable. Anyway... as of today.. the snow is GONE and the road is 100% thawed! Here in town we have MAYBE 4" of snow on the ground which should be all gone by weeks end.