@LSUlakes
14 - avondale - Summer Pocahontas Half Marathon (2:07:00 / 2:43:18)
Thanks!
Pocahontas HM - July 14, 2019
It was very hot and humid, with T+D 142 to start and 156 when I finished. I don't run well in the heat, and today the T+D beat me almost before I got started. You can read my full race report
here. Given my probably too ambitious aim for this race, my finish was very disappointing. But at least I did finish it.
The course was in Pocahontas State Park in Virginia, a little south of Richmond. The trail was packed dirt/gravel/sand - not paved, but certainly not what our trail-running friends would consider to be technical. There was a 5K, 10K, and HM. The HM did the 10K out-and-back twice, with an extra bit to get to the HM distance. The course was mostly forested and shady, but absolutely no breeze. I carried my own fluids but there were quite a few aid stations, since you ran by everything multiple times. No mile-markers on the course. There were only 61 runners in the HM and somewhat fewer in the 10K and 5K.
I wouldn't do this race again because it's in the SUMMER, ha ha, and I have learned my lesson. They do host races in the park at cooler times of year. The race organization has a series of races where you can accumulate points by participating, and there is some sort of series for "back of the pack" runners, which sounds like a nicely-inclusive idea. They did support the HM through the last runner at something like 3:40 finish - and in the heat we had, that must have been some effort for her!
I have a HIIT app installed on it and use it during class. I really like the watch though, especially that I can flip it around and wear it so the button is facing up my arm rather than towards my wrist. IT's mostly a problem during OTF, I would pause the watch when doing wrist bending things like pushups, but I used to pause my other Garmin on occasion just running, as well, if I tilted my wrist back too far.
