Bolivia-2011: 10/10/10

Run for the Hills Half Marathon on Spruce Knob

Langston and I ran the Run for the Hills Half Marathon on Spruce Knob last weekend. It was very hilly and almost entirely on trails. I had a little problem with some bad gel that I took right before the race but, other than constant nausea and two pauses to empty my stomach at mile one and mile seven, the race went ok.

It was held at the Mountain Institute's Spruce Knob Mountain Center:

It's a pretty place:

The Mountain Institute does good work and the proceeds of this race were donated to it. You should check them out.

The Run for the Hills Half Marathon was the third and final leg of the WV Trilogy which involved runs of 50 km, 50 miles and the half marathon on consecutive days. It was put on by the WV Mountain Trail Runners Club. They put on a great race.

Here is the start of the half marathon:

Here is an example of the local trails. Nice for biking too.

Great day for a running race:

Langston and I lounging after the race. I'm sitting on the rock and he is laying in the grass.

Here I am finishing. I am almost entirely hidden behind the 3rd place woman. I was 4th in my age group (40-49) out of 12 and 21st overall out of 60. Not bad for my first running race considering I was laid up with a bad back at the beginning of August after only four weeks of training and couldn't run at all for three weeks and then had to start over with a one mile run. Langston was the youngest finisher and 11th overall.