Race #567 - Koala Bottle Harbison Half Marathon - Columbia, SC

Race #567 - Koala Bottle Harbison Half Marathon - Columbia, SC - 07/07/24

July 11, 2024

Well, that was interesting. In my zeal to run at least 20 half marathons this year, I found this one at the last minute and signed up. It was only about 100 miles away, so I could click off another half marathon with just a couple hours of driving.

I signed up right away, not bothering to read the race description. The next day (the day before the race), I found out it was a singletrack trail complete with plenty of roots, rocks, and obstacles that a roadrunner like myself is not used to running.

It was hot and muggy, with a dew point of 75, although being a warm-weather runner, I'd prefer that over 40 degrees any day. Before hitting the actual trail, the race began on a dirt road, and I could have stopped to walk but decided to try to keep running until I saw someone else walking. The green lines on the graph below represent walk breaks, so you can see that I didn't take a walk break until I was more than 2 miles into the race. By about 5 miles into the race, I was done. I was not used to watching every step I took, plus I had to be sure to pick up my feet so I didn't trip over one of the million obstacles. It took its toll on me, and I spent the last half of the race walking more than running.

Complicating matters for my ultimate demise, the race was over a mile too long. Oddly, just after my watch measured 13 miles, there was a sign sending 5k runners to the left and half-marathoners to the right. The 5k runners were going to the finish line, and the half-marathon runners were heading around another 1+ mile loop. Good soldier that I am, I dutifully marched to the right, not knowing how much longer I had to suffer but being pretty sure there would be some extra mileage involved. When the smoke cleared, the distance measured 14.43 miles on my watch.

I finished 109th overall out of 140 runners, which is nothing to brag about, but I felt okay with it since it was my first trail half marathon, and I was the oldest person in the race. Only 6 runners finished in less than 2 hours, and 13 runners came in at over 4 hours, including 2 who were over 5 hours. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who had a hard time.

Forget running through the water stops. Whenever I encountered an aid station, I would make myself at home for a few minutes. The aid stations were excellent, with cold water, Gatorade, plenty of fruit (watermelon, grapes, etc.), and other goodies. I didn't have the nerve to try the pickle juice, but I've heard it's great for cramps.