[Race Report] Buffalo Creek Half Marathon (Cabot, PA)

Race information

• What? Buffalo Creek Half Marathon
• When? October 15 2016
• How far? 13.1 miles
• Website? http://www.butlerfreeporttrail.org/buffalo-creek-half/

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	~2 hours	Yes
B	<2:15	Yes
C	Finish without walking	Yes

So, I'll preface this by saying I never actually intended to run a half this year, because I only just started running properly about a year ago. This time last year I was recovering from too much, too soon (posterior tibial tendonitis) so I greatly lowered my expectations of myself as I built my base and trained for my first race, a 10K in May of this year. Once I'd completed the 10K, I realized I was probably capable of progressing quicker than planned as long as I was careful not to get injured again. I continued to do lots of easy running until I decided to sign up for the Buffalo Creek Half Marathon, which is a fairly small rail trail race (entry capped at 1250 runners).

Training

My training plan of choice was Hal Higdon's Intermediate 1 Half Marathon, which I chose because I liked the mileage numbers but didn't want to dive into a ton of speedwork yet. I based my predicted race pace on my one and only other race, optimistically trying for a 9:45 min/mi pace. The further I got into my training, however, I realized I could easily drop that to 9:30 or 9:15/mi. The race calculators kept telling me I could do it in about 2 hours, which I had a hard time believing.

Training didn't 100% go as planned because I shuffled around the schedule. I wanted to keep my Monday rest day, so I moved cross training to Friday, which was occasionally biking but usually just more running. Huge mistake when the hard runs got harder and I wasn't properly recovered for some of my Saturday race pace runs. I also missed more runs than I would have liked.

Pre-race

As usual, I insisted on showing up to the race way too early. Start time was at 9:00 AM so we got up around 5:00 and I had a breakfast of scrambled eggs and leftover apple cake. Brought my own water bottle and one Gu with me. We got to the starting line ie the parking lot of Cabot Methodist Church, by 7:30. Definitely way too early and I spent the next hour and 15 mins sitting around and getting anxious. But at least I could sit in a normal chair and have access to a normal restroom! Thanks, nice church people.

Lining up to start was kind of a mess, tbh. There was no signage of any kind indicating where we were supposed to line up and eventually people just started to hover in groups around the timing mat. My fiance and I ended up near the front even though we wanted to be polite and just cram ourselves into the middle so others wouldn't have to pass us. I mean, there was no middle to line up at. Everyone just kind of spilled out towards the right or left of the timing mat since there wasn't enough room to form a line. Whatever!

Miles [1] to [3]

The first couple of miles were on closed roads, which was great because with only ~1000 runners, there was tons of room to spread out and for faster people to pass. My fiance stuck with me because I'm better at regulating pace and we both didn't want to go out too fast. Didn't matter because my first and second miles were 8:39/mi and 9:16/mi. Definitely faster than I was planning. Somewhere around mile 3, we turned onto the trail itself and my anxiety started to ease up. I ran the trail a bunch of times in preparation, so I knew exactly what to expect and it started to feel really fun. I love you, slightly downhill flat trail!

Miles [4] to [6]

Somewhere around mile 4, my fiance took off at his own pace and left me behind. I was still feeling good, still holding about 9:00/mi. I settled into a good rhythm, enjoying the trail and eavesdropping on other people's conversations. Started to consider consuming my Gu but I felt good enough that I figured I may not need it at all. Around mile 6, I told myself I had made it halfway, and then had to remind myself that I was thinking of my 12 mile training run from last week. No, you're not halfway yet, idiot. Probably should have taken that Gu?

Miles [7] to [9]

I started to get super bored and a little tired. I wished my fiance wasn't faster than me so I could have had someone to talk to occasionally. I tried to focus on the sights of the changing leaves, the creek alongside the trail, people cheering at the road crossings. Still hung on to 9:00/mi.

Miles [10] to [13.1]

So, mile 10 is around where I could start to feel the fatigue. I regretted not using my Gu but figured it was too late to make a difference. I tried to push harder since it was only another 3 miles, but as hard as I felt like I was running, I kept going the same pace. In the last half mile, we left the trail again for an uphill road section with only a narrow lane blocked off by cones for the runners. I train on hills daily so I got my second wind and charged up the road, having to duck out into the traffic lane briefly to pass. I heard the finish line announcer call my fiance's name and tried to give it one last kick down the hill and to the finish, knowing he only ended up about a minute ahead.

So, I really wanted that 2 hour time, being mildly satisfied if I finished under 2:15 at least. Chip time: 1:56:38. Yay! I hadn't even bothered to make <2 hours my A goal because I figured I couldn't do it.

Post-race

As soon as I stopped running and started walking through the finish area, my calves were on fire. I guess the hill paid me back for my hubris. I had my complimentary pizza and Smiley cookie. Unfortunately it was a bit too warm to have the hot apple cider I'd been looking forward to for months. Caught a shuttle bus back to the start and that was it. Very anti-climactic, I know. It was a chill little race and I'm looking forward to doing it again in the future.

This report was generated using race reportr, a tool built by /u/BBQLays for making great looking and informative race reports.