Harrisburg Marathon

The Harrisburg YMCA puts on several races throughout the year. This year was the second time I was set to pace the marathon. It's a very small field (both for the marathon and relay, and the half marathon), but for those who want to get an early shot in the season at a BQ, this really is a great race to do so -- the course is mostly flat (the few hills are relatively brief -- basically on/off-ramps as far as some bridges are concerned being the "worst" of them) and, at least for the past two years, the weather has been great -- nice cool day, and the start line so close to the parking lot that if you really wanted to, you could keep warm inside your car until about 10 minutes before race start.

I arrived early afternoon on Saturday to packet pickup in the Y itself -- a painlessly fast process. I took a chance at not bothering to pay for the on-street parking as I figured I'd be in an out in less than 5 minutes. It was even faster than that -- maybe 2 minutes total. Later in the evening, I went to an Italian restaurant (and piano bar), but unfortunately the pianist wasn't set to start performing until about 7pm (and I was finished with dinner before 6pm).

The morning arrived quickly enough and I "caravanned" down to City Island with one of the other pacers who was also staying at the same hotel. It was perfect weather -- in the upper 40s, mostly cloudy, and barely any wind. We pacers picked up our pace signs and gathered for our obligatory group photo.

(The time on the clock on the right was how long the walkers, who set out first, were already underway. They get a full extra hour.)

We all lined up in our respective spots and awaited the start. I warned the few people who self-identified to me as running for 4:30 a couple of the places on the course where they would need to be extra careful -- which I repeated each time we approached them on the 2-loop course; spots that are easily visible but that if one is "in the zone" might not be paying sufficient attention to recognize.

While it's a somewhat awkward/tight start at the beginning, and a little precarious given the condition of the asphalt in the parking lot we start/finish in, quickly enough we were spread out and coalesced into our respective groups. This year my pace group was pretty small -- from what I could tell, I didn't even have a dozen people at the start.

It was a little difficult to determine just how many people were in my group, because most of them weren't all that responsive when I engaged with questions and goaded them to shout "Oorah!" (a habit I maintain from Marine Corps Marathon -- I think it's a great cheer usually). Only the two or three people who were directly next to me engaged, and even prompted their own questions to me every now and then.

Once we finally made I way down directly along the river (around Mile 2 for several miles), the river was a gorgeous clam sheet of glass. Pacer Patrick shared a photo (not sure if he took it or someone else did) which gives a good indication of the sorts of views that we had along the river.

Given how small a field runs this marathon and half marathon, there are relatively few people who come out and cheer. While there are a few pockets of loud cheers, many of the miles are quiet. I attempted to break up that silence with some of my usual questions and prompts, but didn't get much responsiveness, which made it all the more difficult (I think) for some of the people in the group to keep on task.

To me, the water stops on this route are pretty awkward. They are *very* brief  (basically a single table), and the water (more often than not, from what I could tell) is in sealed large (16 oz) bottles -- lots of waste, as people aren't generally going to take and hold onto the bottle for many miles. And picking up the various snack items (candy/chocolates, goldfish/other salty snacks, bananas) very much required a full stop to find what you wanted to take and head back out -- it didn't seem like there were sufficient volunteers to assist with the snacks, just enough to assist with the drinks.

(One of very few unique signs found on course. When you've run as many marathons as I have -- with this having been #91 -- it's hard to find a sign you haven't seen many times before.)

While I did see a couple of photographers on the course, and it looked like they were taking photos of our group, it seems the only ones that were taken of me and those around me were at the start/half/finish line of the 2-loop course.

One of the people in my group was using this race as a qualifying race for his entry to the Comrades Marathon in South Africa next year. For those who are unaware, the name is a misnomer, as the race is approximately 85 km long, not "just" 26.2 miles. While he eventually fell off our initial pace, he ultimately beat the time that he needed (5 hours). (Thanks, Robert, for the correction on the distance being about 56 miles. Going to the website, they say 88-90km. Oops!)

Another person in my group was running her very first marathon, with her 40th birthday being next month. 

The one person from my initial group who stayed with me the entire time was a 17-year old running his first marathon (on the right side of the above photo). He took me up on my insistence that he charge ahead of me as strongly as possible by the time we hit the Mile 26 marker. While I was nearly exactly on pace for my 4:29:30 target, he had enough gas in his tank to finish in under 4:29:00. (Congrats, Esteban!)

I stuck around after the race for a little while cheering on some more runners making their way around the last turn before the finish line gets in sight and then headed on out for my regular post-race lunch: a good cheeseburger at a local joint. That it was barely out of the way on my return trip home was a bonus.