I meant to do this last weekend, but I forgot. I have been away from the blog for a few months now, mainly because I have been ridiculously busy. I have started school again, and I got married! Yay! So, yes, things were crazy for a while.
Anyways, last weekend I ran the Whistlestop Half Marathon in Ashland, WI, and I have to say, I really enjoyed the course. The course was on a trail that used to be railway tracks. It was basically very packed dirt. I was worried about it being a trail run because I don't really run on trails, but it turned out to be quite a nice run. I could tell I wasn't on pavement, but it wasn't more difficult to run on. The course was quiet flat which was nice. It was mostly wooded, and the leaves would have been very beautiful if the wind hadn't blown most of them off the trees. There was still a fair amount of pretty colors though, even though most of the leaves were on the ground rather than on the trees. The rest stops were all at reasonable distances, and there was a large amount of volunteers to help with everything. It was a very well run race, and you could tell that it had been done many times before. The setting was beautiful, so that just added to race.
I did fairly well for virtually no training. My knee was bothering me, so I cut way back on my running a couple months before the race. I had one seven mile run and one four mile run in the two months preceding the race. I told myself that I was allowed to walk at mile eight if I really wanted to. I was really ready to be done after about six mile, but in the end I ended up running the whole thing! I finished in 2:09, and was pretty happy with that time.
Overall, I would highly recommend this course if you are in the area. There is a full and half marathon, as well as a 5K. Everything was well run, and the course was beautiful. I will definitely run this race again!
