The Oak Tree Half-Marathon

NOTE: This post, too, was first shared on my other blog, but has been revised for inclusion here. I hope you don't mind my reuse of these posts, but I find them to be the seeds by which this blog sprouted. I',m not sure hoe Blood Blisters will turn out but the blogosphere is an ever groeing and changing thing, so the fact that this blog grows and changes seems to me to make sense...

Yesterday morning (Sunday), I ran in the ,Oak Tree Half Marathon. This was a pair of races (the half marathon and a 5k) that were sponsored by a not-for-profit organization dedicated to protecting western New York's open space resources, the Genessee Valley Conservancy (GVC).

Thier cause seems to me an excellent one, and the spirit and energy of the lands I observed during the race only reinforced its value. The half-marathon course ran through the hills along unpaved, gravel roads. A gentleman dressed in true Scottish attire (kilt and all) played the bagpipes for the runners at two different points in the race (which ran in a loop). The music and the scenery made for a pleasant country morning run.

This particular road race was especailly enjoyable as my step-son and wife came to support and cheer me on. I hadn't been training for the week prior to the race due to an inflamed achilles tendon. I decided to give it a go anyway, thanks to heavy icing and rest. In the end I ran pretty well, nearly matching my time from a half-marathon I ran in the spring on a much flatter course (in Buffalo, New York), finishing in 1:37:05 and in 27th place out of 170 finsihers. I just missed "medalling" in my age group by coming in fourth. My split times ended up being 7:24:56 per mile.

This was a great warm-up for the upcoming Rochester Marathon, coming up in less than two weeks!