In my quest to catch up on race recaps — I bring you the Santa Hustle – New England version!
One thing I’ve discovered in this #Dopey15 training cycle is that I need extra motivation to get the long runs in. So I registered for this half marathon to help cover part of my mileage for the weekend.
Initially I was going to drive up to Maine on Saturday and stay over but with not having a job I didn’t want to spend the extra money so I woke up super early one Sunday morning to drive to Maine! I arrived at the starting line with plenty of time to spare! Which was lucky since I needed to pick up my race packet – which included a Santa hat and beard along with the dri-fit sweatshirt.
There was a small problem with the shirts though 😦 Due to sizing issues, all of the larger sizes were gone. So, the race directors would be mailing them out shortly after the race. We were given green elf t-shirts instead (which I loved!) I had been planning to wear my sweatshirt for the wintery race in Maine.
Turns out I lucked out not getting one since it turned out to be pretty a pretty toasty day – not at all wintery!
There were actual reindeer at the start for petting purposes. And picture purposes.
Time for breakfast!!
We ended up waiting a bit for the race to start, they wanted to get us “LIVE” on the morning news!
Lots of red at this one!!!
Once we took off I decided to keep to my intervals as best as I could. But as you know, I tend to walk up hills…and this was a pretty hilly course! There were a lot of out and back sections – some really pretty areas and some not so great ones.
Along the course there were candy stations and cookie stations! Mini-M&M’s and chocolate chip cookies! The cookies were very helpful the last few miles for me!! And I managed to chop a minute or so off of my time which is always awesome!
And, a medal is nice too!
I got one of these!!
There was an after party mentioned both on the website and at the event itself, but when I went over there didn’t seem to be any “perks” for the runners. So I headed back south and stopped for a burger on my way home (free Birthday burger from Red Robin!!
I would definitely consider doing this one again — cause I love anything Santa related!! I’ll just have to see where my year takes me in 2015
outrunningthefork 