Harper's Ferry Half Marathon

The Hapers Ferry Half Marathon was one of the most challenging runs of my life. Before the race even started, the director told us to treat this as an event, not a race. Ok, then. 

I woke up at half past 5AM with the expressed purpose of running a doggone 13.1 mile race. I was kind of dreading it when I woke up, and I was running it alone so the motivation to cast the covers off was difficult.  I ate an old Think Thin bar that I believe melted at one point in my car. I had no breakfast food in my apartment so things looked pretty grim. The drive up to historic Harpers Ferry, WV, was spectacular with the trees and the rivers. Coming out of DC is like taking of your suit after church on a Sunday.

The race started at River Riders at 8AM. I was running late as usual, but it did result in a better parking spot so I guess I'll never really learn my lesson. I decided not to run in the Kinvaras (minimalist-like shoes) because I hadn't gone more than 6 miles with them, and I thought some of the trail and grass runs might be rough. Therefore, I stuck with my reliable Hurricanes. This ended up being the smartest thing I've done for myself in a while.

It was a good thing that I did because this course was major. It was a mix of blacktop road, trail, grass field, brick, and lots and lots of hills. The first few miles we got to run on a grassy battlefield. It reminded me of summer camp when I was in elementary school. Following that there was more road and then a little bit of trail, but before the halfway point there was a long downhill which was a welcome comfort after some pretty intense hills. 

The only bad part was knowing that I was going to have to eventually go all the way back up. At mile 7 we actually ran though downtown Harpers Ferry, which isn't big, but there is a very long upward hill. I was running behind or along side another runner for a lot of this race and on this uphill I pulled slightly ahead only to have him regain the lead on the way back down. While running back up the hill of death towards the end, I maintained a steady enough pace to pull ahead by the finish.


Afterwards there was a great spread of bananas, oranges, bagels from Panera, pizza and beer. I think the cost was around $55 to run the half, so you really can't beat it. Despite missing my PR by a good seven minutes, but it was one of the most spectacular races that I've run. I never got bored during it because it was a 13.1 EVENT (tm The Race Director). The volunteers really helped as well. Not only did they guide us where to go, but they were all very encouraging and gracious. I can't say enough good things about the people of West Virginia.