The Nittany Half Marathon

Sunday morning I woke up to see a few inches of fresh snow falling outside. I was a little concerned about whether I was going to make it to the race, because not much plowing had been done at that point. But Sue and I bundled up and made our way to campus. I had set a pre-race goal of 105-110 minutes, but that was before I saw the snow. All bets were off; I was just out to finish to say I could.

I expected that with the cold and the snow there would only be a few diehards out there, but I guess there's more diehards than I thought: more than 250 runners were waiting to start. I actually started too far back in the pack and got boxed in for most of the first mile or so.

The first three miles we did laps around the Ag Arena in the snow. It took a while to get warmed up, and there were places where the road had been plowed that were really icy. Since this was a new course, I really didn't know where I was going until we finally made the turn to Fox Hollow Road.

Miles 3-7 were along the interminable Fox Hollow and Fox Hill Roads, out the the airport. I started catching a few of the stragglers who had fallen off the lead pack. This is the part of the course I like least. It's so boring, and it takes forever. But the thing that's good about this course is that even if you were to quit, you'd have to walk back 4-6 miles to get to your car. And when it's cold out, you might as well run! Finally I made the turn onto Rock Road.

Miles 8-10 feature the huge downhill on Rock Road. The road was closed, so we could use the entire surface, which made it much easier to traverse the steep declines. I remember the sharp uphill after we passed under US220/I99, but I forgot the much larger and punishing uphill just after that. Man did that hurt! But I knew it was just a few miles to go, so I kept pressing on.

At roughly mile 11 we made the turn into Houserville itself. I kept trading places with this other guy. He would pass me on the uphills, I would pass him on the downhills. We commented on this as we ran together, and I pointed that that meant the last mile was his.

At mile 12 we started the long climb up Orchard Road. I remember going past the 12-mile marker and thinking, "this is the furthest I've ever run!" as I ground out step after step. My calfs we aching and my hips were getting sore, and I had some chafing on the top of my feet. But there was no freaking way I was quitting then! I powered up the hill, caught my breath on the brief flat section of Park Avenue, and then turned to churn up Porter Road.

I could hear someone coming up behind me. Well, no way was I letting anyone get by me! I fought my way up the hill, and caught sight of my lovely wife cheering me on. I stretched out my stride a little more to the top of that hill, and then made the turn for the homestretch. This was again snow covered, so I couldn't go quite so fast as I wanted, but I keep my pursuer behind me, and finally crossed the line, exhausted.

I finished in 1:50:51, good for 111th place. That's only 33 minutes off the lead. You can see the complete results here.

Next up: probably the Resolution 5K on December 31.