Race Review - Maple Leaf Half Marathon

It's been over a week since this half marathon. Life has just been crazy busy since last weekend! This race was AWESOME!!! It was hard, but it was awesome. I absolutely LOVED Manchester Vermont and will go back up to VT for many more races! It's not that far from Mom's - at least the south eastern parts of VT, so i will definitely plan more races up that way. I camped at Dorset RV park. I was the ONLY camper in the tent area. Had the whole back section to myself. It was only $20 a night and $5 for the fire wood. Such a bargain! I had some issues with camping - mostly the air mattress had a slow leak, so i was basically sleeping on the ground. NOT the best night sleep for the night before a half. Live and learn! The morning was chilly but was thrilled that it was blazing hot! I had camped close to the race, so I was able to get up at 6 and shower and take down camp before hand. I will definitely camp for other races. It was not hard to set up the tent and had the air mattress held up, things would have been great! I am camping before Newport Rhode Island, but will be in a little cabin. I will bring TWO sleeping bags since it was chilly last weekend so next month will be much cooler! the Maple Leaf didn't have an expo. They had packet pick up in a restaurant parking lot. I didn't want to spend the money for dinner there since it looked more expensive than i wanted to spend. I had dinner at Friendly's and then got icecream at mcdonalds next door. All in all a VERY thrifty weekend.. :) the race was absolutely gorgeous!!!!

we didn't run hills, we ran MOUNTAINS!! i realllly wanted to see a moose just grazing out in the vistas, but didn't see one...:( i walked the mountains and the water stations. At one point a guy asked me if I was doing Galloway. I said yes!! sigh.. i'm not, but seriously thinking that i should start the program. My right leg seems to be in pain much of the time. I didn't have my ipod, since the website kept saying their insurance didn't cover headphones. LOTS of people had them though, so from now on, i'm bringing mine even when they say no. i don't have to listen to it if they enforce it, but if they don't, then at least i have the distraction for two hours! the course was seriously so beautiful that it was ok, but it would have been nice to have the added motivation. I did decide during this race that I do not want to repeat races. There are just waaay too many others that i want to do and with the cost and the limited time that they can have them, i don't want to run anything twice or really even that isn't all that cool anymore. I kept thinking all the while that if i hadn't come up to run this race I would have never ever have gone to this beautiful little town! My time was actually awesome considering how much I walked! I guess running down the mountains made up for the time walking up the mountain! Musings while on the race course. This place is beautiful! I would love to have a place up here! Wonder how much these houses cost? There are LOTS of great restaurants. This place is beautiful! I hope I see a moose! I need a new air mattress. Wish I had my ipod..:( Another freakin mountain? I need to bring Jeff back here. This place is so beautiful! It was an awesome run. I loved every second of it. Can't wait to find another vermont race! two halfs down - Next week Philadelphia Rock n Roll half marathon!