Independence Half Marathon Series day 2: Elkton, Maryland

After finishing state 25 and visiting Winterthur I got a fantastic vegetarian burger and settled into my hotel room to put my feet up and relax. 

And at 10:00pm my phone pinged VERY LOUDLY with this: 

Ummmm. My knowledge of tornadoes comes from A) The Wizard of Oz, B) Twister, and C) the trailer for Twisters. I turned on the television ("check media") and saw this: 

and then this -- note that I was in a top floor, corner hotel room with essentially a large glass wall next to the bed. 

I could hear the storm raging outside, so I got my wallet, my phone and a charger, and a bottle of water and walked down to the lobby. There were three teenagers there excitedly standing in the door looking outside. And no one else. I didn't know what to do. In the end, I waited in a windowless conference room on the ground floor until 11 COMPLETELY ALONE and then I went back upstairs and obsessively watched the news and weather channels. 

I wondered if the race would happen -- their site said that they had rarely cancelled races due to weather because they are small and on loop courses and they can usually shelter people if needed. Then I wondered if I would be able to get to the race location. News was reporting trees down and widespread flooding. 

After a very fitful night with little sleep I got up early and decided to drive to the starting area. Turns out roads were fine, and completely empty, so I got there about 5:15 (oops). Rather than cool my heels until the 6am start, I decided to just jump in late to the early start and get started. 

This is what it looks like when you start a small race late:

No one. 

No one at all... wait, are those people in the mist???

This course had some paved stretches, then a very well groomed stretch through the trees. It was so humid -- yes, even at 5:30am -- that there was a heavy mist. 

Then the course headed uphill and the paths had been really damaged by the storm -- lots of ruts and big rocks. I heard that the blind runner pulled out during his first lap because it was too dangerous for him. 

After the uphill there were some ups and downs, all on a wide but damaged path. I finally started seeing some of the other runners.

Then, happily, RED CONE. 

This course had 6 laps for the half marathon -- my FAVORITE. Why? Because I'm a math nerd and you get a lot of excellent fractions throughout the race. 1/12, 1/6, 1/4, 1/3, 5/12, 1/2, 7/12, 2/3, 3/4, 5/6, 11/12, DONE!

The day got nicer, but stayed hot. The stretch through the trees was my favorite. 

The long uphill less so. 

But I just kept plodding along, even though I knew that my feet were wet from the puddles and swollen a bit from the running... and I knew that I would lose a toenail. Ewww. 

Run a lap, get a rubber band...

...say hello to the volunteers...

...and get some snacks and a drink...

Finally, I was done and rang the Looney Bell: 

With my late start I was recorded as extra slow, but that's okay. I was extra slow myself during this race. When I was done I went back to the hotel, had a quick shower, and then checked out and drove west to Gettysburg. Later that night I would update my jacket because I had just run in state #46!

Independence Race Series day 2: Elkton, Maryland

3:40:33 (yikes!)

State 46