Ran the Helen Holiday Half again at Unicoi park up in Helen GA on December 15th. This was my second time and this time Robyn joined me. I've been having some back problems the last few months so I decided to take it easy this year and not try to PR or anything. The weather was pretty nasty. It was cold and rainy at the start of the race and we had a lot of rain the last few days so the trails were really muddy and slippery. You really had to be careful especially on the downhills. But the creek crossing is where it really got fun. You run through a creek about about mile 9 which is normally abut calf deep but this year it was almost up to me knee and moving fast! There was a volunteer at the creek to tell runners the safest path across (i.e., the shallowest). I took the optimal route and still almost fell down. But what a rush when I made it to the otherside! I asked the volunteer if anybody had fallen and they say "oh yes." I bet a lot of people did :)
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| Trying to stay out of the rain before the start |
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| Cold and wet....but still happy |
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| Costume contest judging before the start |
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At least I brought a complete set of dry clothes this year for after the race. I finished the race 44th with a time of 2:11:09. I was pretty happy with that. I think I did about 2 hours flat last year. Robyn was already back at the start when I got there which was not what I expected. Evidently she twisted her ankle at about mile 4 so she had to stop running and walked the rest of the 10K route instead. She was pretty bummed out. Creature Comforts was there again and we had a couple of their Tropicalia pints. Delicious as always.
It is a difficlult race for me since I don't train in the mountains and I don't run long distance anymore. I am exhausted the last few miles and just want to be finished after the creek crossing. But it does always feel great to finish it. I bet I'll do it again. Robyn isn't so eager since this was the 2nd time she twisted her ankle on trail runs. We'll see....
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