Nabbing a BQ, foray into marathon racing

                                                                        Swamp Rabbit Half Marathon, Greenville, SC 

                                                                 A race… A real live race!

My friends and I had anxiously been eyeing the southeastern US race calendar for months looking for something that 1- probably would happen admist Covid 2- be somewhat decent weather in February 3- have a decent course at the half marathon distance. After all, the intention of this race was to prep ultimately for the Carmel Marathon in April 2021. We settled along the Swamp Rabbit half in Greenville, SC, a city within about a 5h driving distance from Lexington. Greenville is an awesome city. If you haven’t been, it really is a cool place to check out. The downtown is so cute, the atmosphere a little hipster-ish and progressive but in a very lovable way. My husband lived in Greenville for years while attending Furman University, and he still has very fond memories of the place. 

Because we had some work flexibility and my husband still having friends live in Greenville, we ultimately elected to go up for the race early on Thursday (Saturday race). We hauled our road bikes and made the easy drive early Thursday morning. My husband Kit and I ended up tooling around a bit on our bikes that afternoon, down the Swamp Rabbit Trail (which we would be running on), and he surprised me with a little jaunt up Paris Mountain. Paris Mountain is a nice little state park that features hiking trails, beautiful views, but the mountain itself is about a 3 mile climb with some STEEP passages. I didn’t know exactly what I was getting myself into, but I figured I would keep the effort easy as my plan was to race in just 48h. In hindsight, this probably wasn’t the most advisable things to do pre-race, it ultimately was about a 15 min hard effort for me. It was beautiful at the top though, and a fun experience to share with my husband. It was also good to check out the trail on a bike and to see what kind of course we would be dealing with. We ended up getting back to the hotel for a quick shower just before heading out to eat with some of my husband’s old college buddies. Really good to see some old friends and catch up. 

Friday featured terrible weather in Greenville. While the previous day had been about 75 and sunny, which was amazing for February, Friday featured cold rain with a high about 50. I had a short shake out run so I headed back out to the Swamp Rabbit which was just a few blocks from our hotel. It was a gross and wet run, and unfortunately my great navigational skills forced me to run about 5 miles instead of my scheduled 3. Again not ideal, but I knew I wasn’t feeling in PR shape for this race anyway. Just the fact alone that this was smack dab in the middle of a marathon build had me feeling fatigued, but I was also battling a bit of overtraining and not feeling like I was recovering super well. 

The remainder of Friday was fairly lazy, Kit and I tooled around town, picked up packets and shirts for many of my friends prior to meeting up with a few of my teammates at a local restaurant. Kit and I later on met up with another college friend for a drink, which was fun but kept me out a bit past my bedtime. 

Saturday morning came quick, I was anxious about the weather given rain was a legitimate concern. Weather was forecasted in the 40s for the start, a little cool but not too bad. My friend Shannon offered to drive a bunch of us up to the start line, as this was a point to point race with the start actually in a neighboring town called Traveler’s Rest. The Swamp Rabbit trail is a wide multi-use path that runs for many miles- through Traveler’s Rest and Greenville. The race would essentially take place on the trail almost entirely, hence the name. 

Parking was easy and we walked to the start and found a nice side road for some warm up jogging. It was odd to see a race start given the pandemic world we’ve lived in for months. Seeing the starting line, the medals and herds of people, definitely brought back a wave of excitement. The race was broken into corrals, and I was starting in the second wave with my friends and teammates Shannon and Cheryl, we were all aiming around a 1:40ish half. My PR for the half distance is 1:34, and in the back of my mind I desperately wanted to get that given this was a net downhill event, but knew my body and mind weren’t in PR condition. 

The start became very chaotic and before we knew it the first corral went off with many of my friends. I looked around for Shannon and Cheryl and realized they were no where to be seen. My race was starting, so I ended up lining up and taking off (it was not until later I found out they had bathroom emergencies and they started in the next corral). The start was quick. The first four miles were an out and back on pavement (not trail) and the “hilliest” of the whole course. Honestly, I was expecting more hills, as compared to Kentucky farm lands this felt pretty flat. The first few miles were actually quicker than expected for me, hitting 7:20ish miles. Before I knew it, we entered the Swamp Rabbit Trail, which again was a multi-use path. I had been worried after biking on the trail that it was going to be narrow with difficulty in a big race. While there were a few sections that were a bit difficult to get around people, I would say 95% of this was totally fine and I felt I had tons of room. The course was well marked, and the views were nice. The trail is mostly shaded and goes through various terrain, from new construction to wooded areas to near highways. The net downhill was nice, but I’ll be honest I thought it overall felt more flat than downhill. 

My body was overall feeling ok, I kept the pace steady but as there were no pace groups and I had lost my friends, I was running alone for much of it. I kept my pace even until losing a bit of time around the halfway point, but still feeling good. I remember seeing my husband on his bike around the 10 mile mark, I think I was looking and feeling pretty rough at that point. By then, I just wanted to finish, and while I was having a good race, it wasn’t a PR day. 

The finish was filled with spectators and luckily the weather had held out to be mostly dry with occasional mist. I crossed the line at almost exactly 1:40:00 and was honestly just pretty happy to be done. I met up with several of my friends at the finish, many of them had had very strong races. My friends Erin and Shannon actually placed in their age group/masters awards so that was very exciting. 

We chilled out post-race and ended up getting pizza and beers later on as a team. Everyone was happy and it was definitely a fun way to get a taste of racing again. Not having to travel the day of the race and staying the weekend was a nice perk as well. Overall, very fun race in a very fun city, one I would definitely recommend. While it wasn’t for me a PR day, I’m still very glad I did this race and had the experience with my team.