Mad Half

Oh what a race!!!  First off, major kudos to the team that put on this incredible event!  As an inaugrual race I expected MUCH less; but the wonderful folks of Waitsfield had other ideas.  The organization, preparation, and attention to detail were evident everywhere; and the friendly volunteers gave their absolute all to ensure we had a great experience because they genuinely wanted us to!  The course indeed lived up to the title of "World's Most Beautiful Marathon"...so much so that it actually made the crazy hills bareable!  And I do mean crazy hills!  I intentionally do not preview race courses prior to race day as I like to be surprised along the way and have plenty of new stimuli while running.  Standing at the start line Sunday listening to other racers that don't share that mindset actually scared me a bit!  I overheard 2 folks discussing the crazy hills and the fact that everyone should anticipate finishing approximately 30 minutes later than their usual time!  First thought was glad I hadn't set this as a goal race for time! 

The course started out in town near the village green and proceded down main street where it turned off onto some gorgeous country roads. 

Within the first mile we crossed a covered bridge circa 1833...beautiful and what an experience!  As we passed the first mile marker I quickly began to wonder what the heck I was thinking by not at least viewing the elevation profile of the course before running.  From Mile .81 all the way through Mile 2.28 was completely uphill with the exception of 1/10th of a mile that dropped 6 feet before starting to climb again; for a total elevation gain of 387 feet.  Making it to the top of that hill things looked up as the course dropped as far as the eye could see.  I briefly enjoyed the downhill stint to recover, but dread quickly set in as I remembered it was an out and back course which meant I'd have to climb this hill too!  I pushed that aside and used the downhill to recover and make up a little of the time I'd likely lost climbing (I wasn't checking my splits as I wasn't running for time).  The downhill started at Mile 2.28 and with the exception of a short climb between Mile 2.67 and Mile 2.73 was entirely downhill until Mile 3.94, losing 419 feet in elevation.  (I'm so glad I didn't know these stats while running!  I may have just said forget there without attempting to climb that hill later!)  Now, while that downhill may sound lovely, to someone that has had issues with her knees it was pretty killer...that's a lot of pounding to run downhill.  Just as I was beginning to think I should probably walk to save the knees I saw a cross road and realized we were nearing the point where the second covered bridge (circa 1879) was...I KNEW there'd be plenty of people there to cheer us on and likely photographers...now was not the time to slack off. 

The bridge gave a much needed reprieve and the course then went through some gorgeous farm lands with incredible vistas.  The evening before I'd had dinner at an incredible farm to table restaurant that listed the names of the farms everything in your meal came from...I passed the farm my beef had come from at this point, recognized the name and thought it was really neat to see.  We reached the turn around point fairly quickly and started making our way back.  That portion had climb of 20 feet followed by a drop of 60 feet...not bad except the turn around point meant we then got to climb the 60 feet then drop the 20 feet before crossing the bridge again, knowing that climb laid on the other side. 

Another quick pick me up from the crowd at the bridge...

and we set off on a 451 foot climb from Mile 5.16 to Mile 7.13 with only a 1/10th of a mile break just before the end.  If you're keeping track the climb was actually 40 foot longer than the descent had been...because we took a  side road and made a bit of a loop before returning to the original path.  And lucky for us the added loop had another BIG hill!  From Mile 7.6 to Mile 9.14 we climbed an additional 242 feet.  From there we lost 575 feet over the next 3.19 miles, but the views were so incredible I didn't even notice it (not even in my knees).   And to make matters more interesting, during all of the climbing and descending we passed several more farms who's names I recognized from the previous evening's menu...by the time we completed this portion of the course I'd seen where each piece of my dinner came from, including the meat, veggies, herbs, and even the wheat from the dinner rolls!  As someone who enjoys Eating Clean I LOVE this place! 

At the end of the desent we again crossed the first covered bridge...

and came into town to photographers and cheering crowds for the final .8 miles...but I totally didn't remember that first .8 miles being so downhill!  A final climb of 80 feet...

and we were running across the green and through the finish area.  I was thrilled to see I'd crossed the line in 2:17:41!

Absolutely nothing to sneeze at given the crazy hills.  I finished with my kinees in tact and no pains, just a little tightness in my calves and glutes.  Yep...training is paying off!