Our Scarlett ran the Silver Comet Half Marathon on a chilly Halloween morning. She provided this race review. Note Rhett & Ashley are not the real names of Scarlett's running companions but the real gals are just as dashing....
For starters, I would
do this race again. I liked that you knew there were no hills to anticipate, so
you could run as fast as you wanted without worrying a hill was around the
corner. I love running to music during a race and my phone’s battery has
been draining very quickly after a full charge. So, when Rhett picked me
up, I had 100%, when we arrived at the start, I as at 20%. I wasn’t going
run carrying a dead phone. No music for Scarlett. I was really bummed about
this because I was looking forwarding to listening the music and watching the
trees go by. The weather was fantastic for the race, 50 or so degrees, so
cool at the start but excellent for when you started running.
Since I had no music, the miles did drag a little. I tried
to listen to conversation around me (Rhett and Ashley were ahead of me from
mile 1, they are fast) and go into the zone. The best part was when you were
able to watch the runners coming back after the turn around. Very good people
watching. After I turned to head back (it is an out and back), there was
more people watching until I passed everyone behind me. Then it was a bit
boring again, but since I was close to the end, I was very motivated to
finish. I crossed the line at 2:01, which is 9 minutes off my last half
time. I just went to the site to see my bib time, and it is all wrong. Others
commented that their results are published incorrectly too, so hopefully this
will get fixed. (They had me at 3 hours on the site!).
The worst part of the race is getting back to your
car. You are 1 mile from your car when you are done, and after you were
done racing it was SO cold! It is amazing how much your body generates heat
when you are running and you don’t notice the cold as much. There was a
long line for the shuttle (ONLY ONE!), so after waiting in line and watching 2
shuttles pass without room for us to get on (we were next and they had just
filled up). We decided to walk back. We should have done this from
the beginning.
Additional positives:
- No expo where you have to pick up your number, you get it when you show up.
- No corrals, you start wherever you want. There weren’t a ton of people so I never felt like I was in a big sea of people.
Additional negatives:
- I finally e-mailed the race people to ask if they can find my correct time, since the one on the site is way off. I threw away my race number (didn’t think I would need it!), so I can’t use this for reference. I may never see my correct time.
- Never heard a peep from them as to if they had received my registration (I registered by US mail because the online registration was challenging). You have to check the site to get the race information. They didn’t send anyone information prior to the race (Rhett and Ashley did it on line and didn’t receive anything).
I would look forward to doing this race again with music and walking back to the car as soon as I completed the race.
Scarlett
