Liberty Half Marathon

New Year's Day is about the only day in January in Ohio when you can find a race, any race.  For years I always wanted to run a January race but had always been sick on New Year's Day so January was always the month I missed.  Last year, 2016, I decided that I would run the World Race for Hope 5k in Troy no matter what.  I did end up getting to that race and placed 3rd in my age group, which awarded me a cookie "medal", it was a snicker-doodle.  I was slightly disappointed (hey, I like bling I can keep, not eat) so I decided to try to find a new race for 2017.

My cookie "medal"
Traded for a chocolate chip

At first I looked into the Pancakes and Resolutions Run Beast Challenge (1 mile, 5k, and 10k) in Miamisburg but it was beyond my budget at the time.  I wanted an affordable different race.  That is when my husband found the Liberty Half Marathon.  It was $30, a half instead of a 5k, came with a shirt and a finisher medal, plus it was about an hour away from home.  I signed up and joined the ~35 other people signed up for the race.  This was going to be a small race.

Here's the nuts and bolts.  The race is a point-to-point run starting at Marie's Candies in West Liberty, OH near Urbana.  The packet pick-up and race day registration was at the local Subway, which had about 12 parking places, on the morning of the race.  The route followed Route 5 to Zanesfield where it turned onto Route 10 and took us to finish in East Liberty, OH.  It supports the West Liberty-Salem Cross County Team.  It is a hilly course, which seems to be the norm for cheap races in Ohio.  The highest point in Ohio is in the area of this race.

I arrived at the packet pick-up shortly after it opened and I was one of the first to get my shirt and bib.  I don't like running late just in case I get lost.  Despite the low number or preregistered runners many people came out to the race that day and signed up there.  The temperatures were to be near 40 degrees, there was no snow, and the day was supposed to be sunny.  It seems that many people were waiting and watching the weather before deciding to come to the race.  The Subway became very full.  I was happy I got a spot right by the door by coming early.  None of my running buddies were coming to run this race with me, but that didn't stop me from chatting things up with the other runners that were there.

Pre-Race photo of the 4 runners, taken by the dad.

I ended up talking to a brother and sister from Cincinnati (sister was home from college in Texas), their dad, and a woman who runs with Bob Roncker's (out of Cincinnati) and trains people for the Flying Pig.  We were all hoping to keep around the same pace and we all had connections to Cincinnati so we found things to talk about easily.

When the race was about to start everyone walked about half a mile to the race start at Marie's Candies.  The race started on the road, but the roads weren't closed for the race so we had to wait for the traffic to clear before we could start.  The race directer claimed that this was the most traffic they ever had on that road.  We kept trying to start the race but we had to clear the road for a few cars.  The race was gun timed so they didn't have any structures on the road to discourage drivers from running us over.  Finally we were able to begin and the race started straight up a steep but short hill.  Most of our group started way too fast even though there were hills.  Apparently we wanted to attack those hills and get them done.

My first few miles felt great, but I knew that I could not keep that pace.  I had only run one 10 mile training run since my New Orleans Half in November.  I knew that I was not well trained for this race.  I wasn't running it to try to break my PR or to finish in a certain time.  I just wanted to run a January race.  It also turned out that I was very overdressed.  Since I arrived to the race so early I had to dress based on the predicted temperatures and conditions.  According to my weather app it was going to be below 30 degrees until after the race so I dressed for that.  It turns out that it was going to be sunny and warm for January and I had shed my jacket, gloves, and ear-warming part of my headband by mile 3.  A few other people who were running had a friend or family member driving along the course and they would veer to the car to drop off their layers as they shed them.  I was a little jealous.  The roads of the course were open but the traffic was very polite.  Everyone took a wide route around the runners even though we were very spread out and there weren't a lot of us to intimidate the drivers.  Most of the traffic included people involved in the race: spectators, volunteers, race staff.  Even if we couldn't see another runner on the course, we knew we weren't alone out there.  They also had volunteers at practically every turn in the course.  There was only 1 fork where I wasn't sure about the direction.

Elevation

We entered Zanesfield around mile 7.  This was the switch to route 10 and the only water stop along the course.  I was glad I brought a handheld bottle.  They had mini bottles of water and the students working the stop were very energetic and encouraging.  This is also where we started the hill.  We had been told at Subway that the big hill started at 10.  My mind kept converting that to mile 10 when what they meant was route 10.  So when I started climbing this monster my main thought was that this was not the bad hill, the bad hill was yet to come, so I needed to push through this one if I had any chance of getting up the other hill.  By this point I had passed the sister and left the Bob Roncker's runner behind (nicknames are weird when you never learn their names) but the brother was still ahead of me.  I caught him on the hill.  I was struggling, he was struggling, it was a tough hill.  I wanted to drop to a walk, so I did.  I was going to make it up the hill but I didn't have to run up it.  The brother and I were side-by-side when I started walking.  Even though he was struggling and probably wanted to walk too, he encouraged me, told me to keep going, said I couldn't walk now, and so I picked it up to a run again.  We struggled up that hill together, toggling back and forth, but we made it.  Miles 8 and 9 through those hills were my slowest and toughest.

After that we finally had some downhills and even though I was too tired to get a major boost from them I still enjoyed them and used them to speed up some.  At 10.5 miles they really got started, rolled up for a little, then back down at 11.5.  I ran my best through the rest of the race.  I could tell that my training was not good enough to run a half, even though this was a difficult course it was my lack of training that made it a hard race.  Finally, around mile 12 we could see East Liberty.  This was the only turn that needed some volunteers.  I couldn't see a runner in front of me and I came to a fork in the road when I first entered town.  I had no idea which way to go, but at the last second I saw an arrow painted on the ground.  I followed it.  After that there were about 3 more turns, each was manned by a volunteer.  One volunteer even told me when it was safe to cross the road as well as where to turn.

Finisher Picture

We finished just slightly off the road near a factory just outside East Liberty.  I got my medal and headed inside the factory where they had donuts, coffee, water, chocolate milk, Gatorade, muffins, and apparently mimosas.  The overall winners were announced and won prize money, one was pushing a stroller!

I was the first in our group of 4 to cross the finish line so I eagerly watched for the other 3 to come in.  First was Bob Roncker's lady, then the brother, followed by the sister.  We were all exited to finish and none of us were the last to come in.  Everyone enjoyed the post-race goodies and chatted about the race.  This is when I found out that this was the first half marathon for the brother and sister.  We loudly celebrated their accomplishment.  They did great for their first half and it was a tough one for their first.  We also found out that the sister didn't get a finisher medal, they ran out right before she finished.  That was not OK.  I know that they weren't expecting that many runners, but for her first half she needed a medal.  Bob Roncker's lady immediately gave hers to the sister so that they could celebrate their accomplishment.  I really hope that the race sent medals to all the finishers who didn't get one at the race.  There were about 10 runners that did not get medals and I hope they ended up getting one.

Since this was a point-to-point race many of us needed to catch the shuttle back the start.  The shuttle was basically volunteers and staff giving people a ride back to their cars.  Since the dad of the brother and sister followed along the course to take pictures, he also offered to give runners a ride back to their cars.  You can guess who ended up in that can Bob Roncker's lady and I.  We rode the course in reverse, couldn't believe we made it up the monster hill, and chatted some more and learned more about each other.  We never did exchange names, but I think I found their names on the results.  Since they didn't tell me their names I didn't feel it was right to publish them.  Though if they find this and dislike their nicknames they can let me know and I will change it.

Race Goodies

Overall, I really enjoyed this race.  It was well supported for a small race, great company along the course, great value for the price, and it was just a nice run.  I will run it again next year, it will motivate me to train and do hill work in the months were there are few races and lots of distractions from running.  Now that I know what to expect with the monster hill I can train for it.  The only things I would change would be the number of water stops, one is not enough for a half (even a half in January), the one unmanned turn near the end, and the fact that they ran out of medals.  This time the open roads didn't bother me, since all the drivers were so polite, and the hill wasn't so bad, since I only had to run it once.  I enjoyed this small, local half-marathon and will encourage my friends to run it with me in the future.  I think I've found my January race from now on.