Thank God for popsicles: Riley's Rumble half-marathon.

I am currently freeloading off my roommate's family and their all-inclusive Jersey Shore beach vacation, so this will be brief. I am definitely still recovering from yesterday's adventure in insanity: the Riley's Rumble half-marathon, put on by the Montgomery County Road Runners. I've run several races with MCRR, and they are usually a great club. They do a low-key race series, which is free for their members and dirt cheap for non-members. This race was part of that series, which is why it only cost $15 to enter (that's about 1/3 the cost of the average half).

This race was a mixed bag: the course was absolutely beautiful- a series of rolling hills through farm land and some kind of agricultural preserve. Its a testament to the beauty of the course that I could even notice it through the crushing heat and humidity. On the other hand, the organization was not up to MCRR's usual standards. They (wisely, I think) decided to downgrade the event from a race to a fun run, in order to discourage people from overdoing it in the heat. Less wisely, they didn't take advantage of their website and hotline to announce this decicision before people arrived to register. This resulted in a few dissapointed, angry runners. To make matters worse, the registration area was a total disorganized mess, which meant that people waited in line 30-45 minutes just to sign in. The entire time, an announcer rambled on and on about how brutal the heat would be and the fact that the second half of the course was 80% uphill and 80% in the sun. All of this made the title "fun run" seem a little ironic.

But on to the race itself! I was pretty wary going into this race. Not only was the heat intense, but (thanks to injuries), I hadn't run more than 7 miles in over 3 weeks. My last strong, long (10-mile) run was way back on July 3rd. I promised myself I would take it easy and not worry about time, but I find that easier said than done. The first 5-6 miles weren't too bad. We started at 7am, so the heat wasn't too bad yet, and there was a lot of downhill in the first part of the course. I was taking 3 minute walk breaks every couple miles and feeling pretty strong. Then, somewhere around mile 6.5, I just ran out of gas. The course took an uphill, sunny detour around some farms just as the heat really picked up. I started feeling a little light-headed and getting goosebumps on my arms- both warning signs of heat issues. So, I started walking and drinking.

At the 8.5 mile-mark (the turnaround for the farm detour), a lovely family was handing out popsicles. Aside from being the best popsicle I ever tased, the popsicle was enough to cool me down and let me get going again. I was able to run most of the way to the 10-mile mark. At that point, the course became almost entirely uphill in the sun. I felt like I was running on fumes, so I decided that I would run all of the flat and downhill sections and walk when I needed to on the uphill. I think a lot of people had the same idea. I became part of a genial, supportive group of about 12-15 people gradually slogging toward the finish line. Miles 10 and 11 felt like they took forever. Then, at mile 12, we came around a corner and could see the finish line. That was enough motivation for almost everyone to pick it up and run to the end. In the end, I finished in 2:43, about 20 minutes off the 2:25 half I ran in March. As I crossed the finish line, the announcer yelled "Here's Alicia from Annapolis! The A10 will feel easy after this!" I hope he's right!

The last couple days, I've been really feeling the effects of having run in that heat and not having been adequately prepared. Every muscle in my body is stiff, and I don't feel like doing much other than eating and sleeping. In other words: ideal conditions for a vacation. So, thank you Katie for making that happen!