Harrisburg Half Marathon
Registration Fee: $40
Weather: 64° at start, 70° at finish
PR: Priceless
Well, it’s not the race I wanted, but I’ll take the PR. It was warm out there! Running in the direct sun, people were dropping out and almost everyone was off their paces. At the end of the race this is all I heard. In fact, as I was ending my race and coming down the finish chute there was a guy, some poor guy, who was on the ground, literally 10 feet from the finish line. 10 feet! He was struggling to stand, kept falling back to the ground and the paramedics had to help him off the course. Now that sucks.
Going into this race my goal was to finish somewhere between 1:47-1:48. Based on everything I’ve been running so far and using this as a training run, this is where I expected to be.
I was on the edge of heat exhaustion for the entire second half of the race. I had goose bumps, chills and disorientation. I would slow down to counteract the heat exhaustion and then speed up when I felt better. It was a fine line that I was running. There were definitely not enough water stations in this race. I counted three. And no gels. I’m glad I took my own, that’s for sure. I drank water at each station and dumped cups of water on my head as well. It got so bad at one point that when I spotted a water fountain off course in the 11th mile I pulled off and soaked myself really well. I sacrificed time but fluids were much more important at this point.
I was on pace for the first 5 miles and then the sun and heat started affecting me.Then I just tried to keep an even effort and not let anyone pass me. I continued passing runners up until mile 11. Then I was just trying to hold on.
8:07
8:01
8:02
8:04
8:04
8:10
8:06
8:22 – walked the water station
8:02
8:04
8:13 – found a water fountain
8:09
8:14
1:12 (7:15 pace)
Final time: 1:46:59 (Garmin – still awaiting final results) – 8:07 average pace
Official chip time: 1:47:18
Overall: 249/1014 (24.5%)
Age group: 8/73 (11%)
Gender: 60/459 (13%)
I’ll edit the time and placements once they publish the results. At the beginning of the race they announced that there were 1150 racers. Not sure how many of those finished.
So, that is an 7 minute PR for me. (Okay, 6:57 PR but I’m counting it as 8 minutes because I’m not that anal.)
Total climb: 167 feet
Total descent: -180 feet
Fantastic race Jill!!!!
Nice PR! It was hot for my race too – at least one guy I saw was down and an ambulance on the way. People need to readjust expectations when it's hot!Congrats.
Congratulations on setting a PR in those tough conditions. Reading your recap reminded me of the 2007 Chicago marathon. I'm glad that you're okay.
Way to tough it out Jill!!
Congrats! Nice time, especially given the heat.
You ran well despite the conditions — no real dropoff in pace to speak of considering your description of how you felt. Well done!
Beautiful paces! Congratulations!!
Great job! Way to hold on!
You were smokin' fast! I can't believe you ran that time on such a hot day where you battled heat stroke! Amazing! very steady splits too, especially considering the circumstances. You should be very proud! Congrats!!
I'm amazed at how even your splits are, even when you went off track for extra water.I'd settle for the PR too, especially since it wasn't your goal race to peak at.And yeah, always better to bring your own bars and fluids, I'd have everything but the kitchen sink attached to me in a race like that, you never know how disorganized these things are going to get, 3 water stations is BS. For the 46 grand they are taking in not even counting the sponsors, they could hire a unionized crew to hand out water bottles for crying out loud.
WAY TO GO!!!!!!!! TOTALLY agree= priceless. look how strong you were with those splits. 7 minute PR?! wowzaaaaaaaaa you have really dedicated yourself to your training and it must be so nice to have an official result!! :) i agreed with your point that you can't leave all your eggs in the race day basket, but seriously you BROUGHT it!!! so consistent, really great work :) CONGRATS!!
Awesome job… you sure have come a long way from this time last year.Continued sucess this year.
Outstanding PR in tough conditions! Way to gut it out!
great job!!!! that's an incredible pr.
Congratulations on the sweet PR on such tough sitch! :D Not only are you quick, YOU ARE STRONG!!!
WOW – amazing splits!! CONGRATS JILL!!! You had a GREAT race! :) also – way to be a smart runner in that second half. I keep getting a little worried about the heat-exhaustion stuff, mostly because I'm not that familiar with the "signs/symptoms". So, now I'm learning :)
Great job on the half!! Well done! I sometimes get goosebumps during a race but I didn't think it was related to heat exhaustion? I just thought I was weird because usually it would be at the last portion of a race when I was excited and was just inspired by the wonderful-ness of running and all that stuff!
Nice PR, and a nice confidence booster for 11/22!
Congrats on the PR, awesome time!
Nice race! Congrats on the new pr!! Running in the heat is always a challenge but you owned it.