**If you're looking for a quick summary, check out the tl;dr at the end of the post. Otherwise, read on!**
Saturday, May 27, 2017
Delaware, Ohio
Overall grade: B-
I registered for this half marathon on December 2, 2016. At the time, it sounded like an amazing deal. It was on sale, after all. I got half off the earliest registration fee, so I wound up paying around $35 for a fully supported half marathon. This included a t-shirt, a finisher's medal, and refreshments after the race. When I signed up, there was one big piece of information that I overlooked. The race started at 6:00pm. My bedtime is normally around 10:00pm, which was when I figured I'd be driving home after the event. It was a bit of a shock, but totally my fault. While it caused me some concern, it was absolutely no fault of the race or its organizers.
By the time I arrived at the start area, I was already tired, but packet pick-up was super easy, with almost no line, and I was left with about 45 minutes to waste before race start. I drank some water, hung out with friends, and then lined up in the start corrals. The corrals were a bit odd. Corral A was the entirety of the 5k field. Behind them, in order of estimated finish time, were the Half and Quarter Marathoners. The field for this race was small, I'd say no more than a few hundred people. Even with the corrals starting in waves, we crossed the start line in about 5-10 minutes.
I will say here that I am a slow runner. On a good day, I'll average 12min/mile. This was not a good day. It was late, hot, muggy, and there were hills. Ugh. Plus, most of the folks I knew who were running at my pace were doing the quarter marathon, so I was a bit worried. Fortunately, my concerns were unfounded. Not only did I find a running buddy my pace who was doing the half, but the course support was flat-out awesome. Folks weren't lining the streets, but I will say that coming up on three hours into my race, there were still folks sitting out on their porches with hoses (in case anyone wanted to get misted), handing out pretzels and other candy, and cheering us on. The aid stations were well stocked with water and TWO FLAVORS of Gatorade. Usually you just get yellow Gatorade, which I really cannot stand. But here, you could get yellow or blue. I adore blue Gatorade! This was a pleasant surprise throughout the course.
As a slower runner, I'm very used to empty streets and things being shut down on me. But having folks out on the course the entire time, never losing their smile and cheering the whole way, was a huge plus factor for this race. I was really truly enjoying it. Then I got to the finish.
The description for the race indicated that finishers would receive a finisher's medal and a New Moon mug. I either don't take, toss, or give away my race medals, so I was particularly excited about the mug. And when I say mug, let's be clear that I was picturing the kind of ceramic thing with a handle that I can use to drink my morning tea. What I got was not a mug, but a cheap-y plastic cup that was obviously designed simply to hold the free beer we received at the finish. That was my first disappointment.
I will say that the medal, although not specific to the half-marathon, is very nice. It is also a bottle opener, so if you drink anything that comes out of bottles without twist-off caps (this is not a thing I do), then it is also functional. So, although it is cute, it is not a helpful tool for me.
After getting my medal and "mug", I went to grab some food. Here was my second, and probably biggest, disappointment. They had burgers, which were mediocre but tasted amazing since I'd just run a half, pretzels, and chips, which were great since I needed the salt. They were out of the following items:
- cheese for the burgers
- chocolate milk
- cookies
- yogurt (some brand was giving away cases of organic whole milk yogurt, just not when I got there)
- Gatorade (they were out of both the yellow AND blue varieties)
I would note that the course has a 3.5 hour limit. I finished under that by about 20 minutes, and yet it felt like the party had wound down ages ago. While I am used to things closing on me (like finish line parties), it doesn't make it any less crummy when it happens. It was a real bummer that things were just gone by the time I got done and I wasn't even at the course limit! One other thing about the finish line area that really bugged me was that there were no bottles of water. If you wanted a drink, you filled your cup. But for folks like me, who had a drive of 20-30 minutes to get home, it would have been nice to take something for the road. The only portable food item was some small pretzels, which were almost impossible to swallow without some water.
Speaking of things that were missing, there are a couple other things that I wasn't able to get. The first is a race shirt that fits me. The shirts were sized SUPER small, so my large is like a second skin. I'm not a slender person, but I don't think I need an extra-large just to have some room between my lungs and my t-shirt. We were supposed to be able to exchange at the finish line, but larger shirts were just another thing they were out of by the time I finished.
The last thing that is missing is my results. I just checked the page, and the results say I finished in 1:29:23.3. At best, that's a joke. In fact, when I went to check it again right now, the results for the half had been taken down (Quarter and 5K are still up), so maybe they're fixing it? Either way, it's over 24 hours since the race and results are just another thing I don't have.
tl;dr -
If you're interested in a moderately challenging course on paved streets with lovely views, this is a great race. The evening start can be rough for folks, like me, who are morning runners, but they try to make up for it with an after party. If a large part of the reason you race is for the swag/party, then this race is NOT for slower runners. Given how many things were flat out gone by the time I finished, I felt pretty certain that the organizers and vendors either didn't care about me, or figured I wouldn't make it. It was an incredibly disappointing way to finish what was otherwise a grade-A race.
Have you run New Moon? What did you think? Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! Until next time, friends!
