Covered Bridges Half Marathon

You may recall that I ran my "10th and final half marathon" 9 months ago and posted about it here, but then last fall I heard about the Covered Bridges Half Marathon in Vermont and how it sells out in minutes!  So when registration opened last December 5th at 7pm I decided to take a chance...and I made it in!

Then I had to break the news to the family that not only was I going to run another half, but that we were traveling to Vermont to do so.  After some eye rolling, everyone was on board.  Unfortunately my IT Band was apparently not on board with this decision and started giving me trouble about three weeks ago so I went into Sunday's race with very little distance training.

The hotel was booked, the race was paid for, this was happening!  The course was point to point versus a loop so my plan was to run as much as I could, then walk and worst case scenario, call Mr. PS to be rescued! I heard that despite it being in Vermont the hills weren't too bad, except for mile 8!!

So here it goes, Mr. PS dropped me at the start just after 7am on Sunday where we finally received our bibs.

 Runners everywhere staying warm with temps hovering right around 50 degrees.

At 8am we made our way to the starting line and patiently waited, my nerves were running high.  I prayed that the 14 strips of KT Tape I had applied to my body (feet, knees and hip) would work their magic and support my body.  No National Anthem, just a gun shot and we were off...

I was chugging along at a good pace waiting for my body to object.  Just after mile 4 we ran through the Woodstock Covered Bridge...

past an orchard...

 down beautiful winding roads...

 past barns...

past bands, large and small...

past two more covered bridges...

and finally the finish line!  I was still running, okay my right glute did object at mile 8, but with a quick stretch I was good to go!

 I finished in 2 hours 13 minutes and 47 seconds with a pace of 10:13 per mile, I'll take it!

So that was half marathon #11 and I have two more scheduled.  I think it's appropriate to end off with #13, right?