E Murray Todd Half Marathon, 2nd of #14in2014

Yesterday I got up at almost the crack of dawn to run the E Murray Todd Half Marathon for the second year.
Last year, Eileen and I decided to run this race as a sort of "kick into gear" race. No time in mind, no worry about the outcome, just get out there and run! This year, we wanted to beat last year's train wreck of a time. I know, we said we didn't care, but you always want a race PR, right?
This is a very cold, very hilly race, and very low budget as well. It is run by the Parks' System, and it is very scenic, but they don't close the roads, water stops are every three miles, and there is no bling. Did you read that just now? I ran a race with no bling. Twice. For real.
I got there with about 40 minutes to spare, and was second on line to get my bib. Only, they didn't have my bib. Weird, because I am sure that I registered, but they were super nice and issued me a new one.

It was recyclable. I have never had to return my bib, but it is a cool concept. I did notice after the race, that a lot of people kept them anyway. That made me a little sad, but what can you do?
I got my bib and shirt, and was glad that it was cotton and not tech! I had time for a potty break and a Half Fanatic photo op before the race started.

We made our way to the start, and hung all the way back. It was crappy weather, and it seemed like all of the racers were very serious, and we knew we would be in the way if we started up front!
The race was basically a ready, set, go! start, with no chip timer until the end. Like I said, very basic.
It started and ended at Brookdale Community College, and wound all around three or four of the surrounding towns. We passed horse farms, neighborhoods, highways, pretty much a huge variety of scenery.
We were also basically last, and the ambulance was lumbering along beside me for the first three miles. How depressing.
At about mile three, it pulled over and we never saw it again. Whew! There were a few people behind us, it turns out, we just never saw them.
At mile five, the freezing rain started. That was fun.
It lasted about 5 miles, which was super fun. I stopped at one point to take a couple shots of the scenery/hills in case anyone doubted that NJ actually has them.

This wasn't even the biggest hill! Yikes! It seemed there was a bigger one around every corner.
At around mile 10, we entered a park, and the hills basically ended. It was twisty and turn, and we passed Dave the Trumpeter at around mile 11. He took a pic of us, but I don't know how it came out! He then played us on our way, and we continued on. We mostly did a walk/run for the last 3-4 miles, because we were sadly undertrained. The snow has given us a lovely excuse not to run, I guess. I say that, but I don't really mean it. The snow has really put a huge damper on my running. It has been super unsafe more often than not, and I have missed a lot of training runs!
We swore we would no post our time, so I won't tell you how badly we sucked, but I will say that we did not beat last year's time. Oh, well.

I didn't get many more steps after this, but it is still pretty impressive. I was very achey afterwards, and spent some time on the couch!
At the finish, we handed in our bibs, took our water, and left. Pretty unexciting. They had bananas, but I don't eat them, so I hit a Dunkin on my way out for a bagel and

Isn't it beautiful? I am lactose intolerant, and can only drink this after a long race! You can believe I take advantage whenever I can! I guzzled about half of this all at once, and finished the second half with my bagel. YUM!

This was my second half marathon for the year, towards my #14in2014

Did you race this weekend?