Little Cow Harbor Run for Hope Review

L picked me up at 7:30am and we headed north to Greenlawn.  As we neared the start, we took notice of the rolling hills we were driving on.  They weren't steep, but they definitely were there.  We got to the middle school and parked along the street because the parking lot was full.  We picked up our numbers inside the gym.  There were hundreds of people milling about inside and out.  I had cereal earlier so I used the girls' bathroom to prevent any race emergencies, then we headed to the starting line.

L and A

The start.  

There were pace signs and a timing mat at the start which indicated a large field.  I estimated about 1000 runners.  The Peanuts announcer muffled some information into the microphone that probably only he understood.  A couple of minutes past 9am and we were off.

We immediately ran downhill and then it leveled off.  The first mile was through the residential neighborhood with some gradual ups and down.  I hit the first clock at 7:25.  The second mile took us through the little downtown area.  Pretty flat.  The second clock read 14:45.  There were a lot of young kids running, ages 8-12ish.  Thankfully, I passed most of them.  Although, there was a trio of young high school girls ahead of me with whom I never caught up.  Mile 3 brought us back around the school in 22:xx.  I was hoping to finish under 30 minutes.   The last quarter mile was uphill.  It was slight, but not something you hope for at the end of a race.  My watch read 29:xx when the school came into sight again.  I think I subconsciously slowed down assuming I wouldn't make it sub-30.  Even though the school was right in front of us, we had to turn left down the street a couple of hundred yards and then come back around to the finish.  I crossed the finish line with the official clock reading 30:26.  My net time was only 6 seconds faster.

There was water, bagels, bananas, and homemade soup at the finish.  Although the soup smelled delicious, it felt too early for a hearty snack like that.  I just grabbed some water and met L back inside.  We both agreed it was a fun race, but the last quarter mile was not fun.  We checked the Start2Finish timing truck on the way back to the car.  I finished 2nd in my age group and 64th overall.  Apparently, there were only 484 runners total.  I could have sworn it was at least double!  Anyway, I placed in the top 13%.  A little disappointing since I had been placing in the top 10% this past year.  Hmmf.

One race down, three (or four) to go...