Last Sunday (Nov. 8th) I ran yet another long-distance race - the Colt State Park Half Marathon in Bristol, RI! This race was put on by the same company that runs the Wolf Hollow Half Marathon which I ran last November - 3C Race Productions - and I've come to the conclusion that they do the most beautiful courses and have the most amazing medals. I definitely was not disappointed with my experience with this race.
The course itself is beautiful and right on the water for the majority of the race. The one thing that disappoints me about both of the 3C races that I've run so far is that the courses cause you to run multiple laps of the same area. I suppose that's why they choose places such beautiful scenery because you have to see the courses more than one time! This course was not an exception - you started out with two 1.5-mile laps and two 5-mile laps to make up the 13.1 miles of the race. Again, it was beautiful enough that I didn't mind all that much, but I do prefer to have a course that I don't have to see over and over again - it keeps my mind off the pain!
Speaking of pain, I was in lots of it during this race. The first two miles my chest was feeling super tight and my breathing was so out of whack that I felt like I was gasping for air which has never really happened to me before (super scary) so I took things very slowly, but once that subsided and I could finally pick up the pace, my left hip and knee started to really bother me and continued to do so until the end of the race. Needless to say, I didn't PR on this race (my final time was 2:34:46 and finished 269th out of 293... yikes) but I managed to finish through all of the pain which I am proud of myself for. I've been taking a bit of a break from running this last week and am going to try and make yoga a regularity in my life again while slowly building up my running strength again. My legs need the break!
One cool thing that did happen was I actually ended up making a friend on the course who happened to be an alum of Mount Holyoke! I was wearing an MHC Rugby shirt during the race and she approached me to ask if I was a student at MHC, and we got to talking for a solid 5 miles! It was really great to make a friend and have someone to talk to throughout the race as it took my mind off the pain in my leg.
Overall, the race was really great. Had I not been in pain, I could have enjoyed it much more, but bad races happen every now and then and it's okay! I think that 3C does a great job with their races despite being a small running company and they travel all over New England, so if you live in the northeast you'll likely be able to find a race by this company that you could participate in!
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