Caesar Rodney Half Marathon - DE (Read 889 times)

This will be my fourth running..

Very Easy...right off I95. Parking is OK if you get there early...typical of an event in a city.

I ran it last year as my first HM and first run of more than 9 miles. I had a great time. I drove there with friends so really didn't pay too much attention to the area. Parking was easy though, we were right by the YMCA where we were allowed to use the restrooms and keep our things.

Those who are running CR, are you getting nervous yet? This is the part I hate about racing. I get much too nervous way before race day.

only about the weather

I think the rain is supposed to stop but it'll be chilly and windy. That ought to be fun.

Good luck you guys!

Thank you! I'm excited, this is my second time racing CR, and is my second road HM. I'm not sure what to expect for my time, I just want to do better than last year. A friend of mine will be pacing me, so I'm hoping that will really help since I'm horrible at pacing myself. My family has told me that if I can't figure out how to control my pre-race nerves they are going to forbid me from racing!! Apparently I've been talking non-stop all day long and have had a case of the giggles.

Nice race ttmalek! Congratulations on an awesome time. I think that I will make this race be a tradition for me. Last year this race was the very first time I ran over 9 miles ever in my life. I think that adrenaline kept me moving last year and I finished in 1:58:12. The hills on the course were more than my body was prepared for and I was in so much pain crossing the finish line, but I did it. One year later I was very excited about going back to this race. I wanted to see how/if I've improved over the months. Of course I kept thinking of how I had all year long to work on hills and still managed to avoid doing that. Last week my youngest son came down with a nasty virus, and I ended up getting sick too. Wednesday is when I realized that I was heading right into being ill. Fortunately I only had a mild version of what my son had. So I wasn't upset about taking the few days off from running before the race, my body needed the rest. Sunday I woke up feeling "okay"...so off I went. I rode to the race with four other people, three who have run CR many times and one newcomer to the course. The one woman in our group has run CR over 20 times! She used to be with the top finishers but it's been quite some years since those days. One of the guys in the group is about to turn 60, he didn't start running till he was 51! On his 60th birthday in May he'll be running his 25th marathon. It was a windy day, pretty chilly but not unbearable. I didn't wear my underarmour and during the race I was glad about that since the sun did a great job of warming things up. The course changed a little bit this year, but they were "kind" enough to keep those wonderful hills in the course. I went into the race running along side of one of my friends, Dan. He and I wanted to keep a 8:00-8:20 pace for the first few miles at least. We did okay with that. It wasn't until mile 7 when we hit the hills and suddenly I felt all my energy go away, I want to blame being sick but I also know that I'm not good with hills. Dan is not great on hills either. We both slowed down for three miles. Near the end of the first stretch of hills along came Jody. This was her first time running CR. She and I decided we were finishing together, so that meant I had to speed up and somehow I did. My legs were tired, but I pushed and found some strength. We did well with the last two miles...and then...we hit the final hill. The hill that everyone talked about, the hill that had people saying "be sure to save energy for that last hill to the finish line". Jody turned to me and said "is this the hill?". I simply said "yeah, that's the one". Just as we were heading up the "Hill from Hell" the wind picked up to the strongest it had been the whole race. It took my breath away and I literally walked for about three steps. At that point we could SEE the finish line, we could hear people cheering. Jody had energy so she went ahead, I wanted to stop but I didn't, but I also had nothing left to "finish strong" with, so I plodded along. I crossed the finish line in 1:51:04. My friend Ira came up and put his arm around me and said "you did it, you beat last year's time!!!". I smiled. Happy with my time, although I was hoping for better I know I'm not quite there yet with my training, but it'll happen. An interesting thing about the people I ran with...one person runs strictly by monitoring heart rate, the other tracks cadence and strides, one goes by feel, one goes by pace, and then there's me who goes by following others. One major difference about this year's race is that today I'm not in pain. Last year I could barely walk after crossing the finish line and the days that followed were extremely painful. Today I'm a little stiff but nothing more. To me that's a good sign that I'm doing something right.