I was supposed to run the Berry Half Marathon today. This would have been my first half marathon, and I've been training for the past two months to run it.
Unfortunately, the event was cancelled due to lightning and poor course conditions after several hours of thunderstorms. So all I got out of it was a very expensive t-shirt.
It was a stormy two-and-a-half-hour drive each way. I awoke around 4 AM. I arrived at Berry College before 7 AM, prepared for a start time of 8 AM, but that was pushed back to 9 AM due to the weather. Then it was delayed to 9:30, then to 10:00, but at 9:45 they announced the race was cancelled. I got back home at around 1:00 PM.
Even though I had not run, my body was sore because I had been standing out in the rain for a few hours and drove home with cold wet socks and shoes.
I took a nap, then decided to go to the park and run 13.1 miles all by myself, because dammit, I was gonna run a half marathon today and nobody was gonna stop me. I only made it six miles before calling it quits.
I really want to get a half marathon behind me. I am getting bored with running, so I want to get that goal achieved so that I can move on to some new interest. I won't quit running entirely, but I would rather focus on improving my 10K times than on doing longer runs.
I found a half marathon event in Blairsville that will run two weeks from now, so I'm planning to enter that. However, that is the day after our fifth wedding anniversary, so I won't run if it would interfere with an appropriate celebration of that milestone. Maybe we can rent a cabin up in Blairsville for a couple of days.
Lessons I learned:
- Don't register for a running event too far in advance. I registered for this event back in January, having set it as my goal for training, but it has been obvious for the past week that the weather would be terrible. It's cheaper to register farther in advance, but I'd rather pay more to know what the weather will be.
- Don't register for a running event that is more than an hour-and-a-half away.
- I need better rain gear. I have a couple of water-resistant jackets, but they are not waterproof, so they get soaked through after 30 minutes or so. I want something light but waterproof.
- Always take an extra pair of dry socks, an extra pair of shoes, and a towel.
- Tapering for two weeks before the race doesn't seem to have helped me prepare. I ran 12 miles three weeks ago, but then 9 miles and 8 miles the past two weekends, and now I have trouble running more than six miles. In the future, I'll keep my long runs long, and take it easy for only 3-4 days before the race.