Holiday Half

In early December, a friend told me about a ½ marathon that is practically in my backyard.   Half-marathon is my favorite distance.  It is long enough to be a challenge, but short enough I don’t have to spend 4 months training for it. 

The Holiday Half is put on by a local Mom&Pop shoe store (yes, there are still a few left) called Metro Run & Walk.   They did an amazing job with this race.  There were decorations and themes throughout the course, lots of good food, great support and no surprises.   Overall, an extremely well run race that I will definitely add to my staple of annual runs.

The course follows parts of the Fairfax Cross County Connector trail through Wakefield and Accotink Park.   I know the course very well, since most of my training runs are on the same trails.  The race starts near the softball fields in the front of the park. By mile 2, people begin to settle into their respective paces, meaning there was a significant drop in people passing me.   The first steep, but thankfully short, hill was at mile 2.5 and served to really thin out crowd.  We then headed back the way we just ran before following the trail towards Accotink.  Miles 5 – 7 passed quickly as the gravel trail wound around the East side of the Lake. Miles 7 – 10 are a mostly flat out  and back loop on a paved path.  I fell in with a group of runners here, making small talk to help pass the miles.

It was also along this stretch that I passed (or more accurately, was passed by) my son and several of his XC teammates.  They had already completed the turn-around loop and were at least 2 – 3 miles ahead of me.  Nothing more motivating / disheartening then a half dozen teens, all smiling and looking fresh saying ‘Hi Mr. French” while I could only nod in response, not having the breath to spare.  

Miles 11 – 12 start with short but very steep uphill, followed by a long section of gradual uphill over rocky/rooted trail.  There is a brief respite at mile 12 when I turned off the trail onto a road, then one last uphill before long slow downhill to finish the race.   As I came out of the woods for the final tenth of a mile, I saw a parent of one of the XC kids that passed me earlier.  They told me to my son had “only been waiting for me at the finish for around 20 minutes.”  Thanks, but not the motivation I was going for at mile 13. 

Overall, I was very happy with my 9:07 pace / 1:46 finish which was good enough for 7^th in my age group, 46^th overall.   The big winner was my son, who came in 4^th overall and 1^st in his age group at 1:24 finish time (6:28 pace).  He won a $50 gift certificate to the sponsor, which he shared with me.