14th Annual Harrisburg Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

I always start at the back of the pack and work my way forward (since I'm usually a MOP runner). I try not to use too much energy the first few miles until the pack spreads out and there is more running room. The heavy rain created some obstacles during the first mile on the loop around the Island -- in at least two places the road was flooded curb to curb and runners had to hit the grass or train tracks on either side. There were many more runners ahead of me than I expected and it took a good two miles to get reasonably clear. However, I seemed to have people near me almost the whole race which felt 'crowded' to me.
I took a comfortable pace through the 1st six miles. After 6, I picked it up slightly. Picked it up a little more after the uptown street loop. Once past 10 mile I dug a little deeper. Took a Gu at about 9 miles. Walked to take water at every station except the 1st and last. Sprinted across the bridge towards the finish but slowed towards the line because there was a block of about 6 people and I didn't want to plow through them.
I was really happy with my time. I didn't watch time at all during the race -- I had my Garmin on HR. Looking back at my splits, I think I did 57:25 / 55:14 by halves. Always happy to negative split a race. This is the 1st race all season that I actually felt good about when I was done!?!?!?

Not really sure I'd do anything differently. I wasn't exhausted when I finished so maybe I could have pushed more.

Walked around looking for my sister & brother-in-law. Got cold rather quickly after stopping, so headed for the car & dry clothes, etc.


I haven't been doing long runs. Longest pre-race was just above 9 miles. So some longer runs may have helped. But all in all I was very happy with my performance.


It rained heavily for the hour or so before the race start, so this sort of put a jumble on the pre-race program. Really long lines at the port-a-johns probably because everybody stayed at their cars as long as they could. Didn't really get to mingle too much before race for same reason. Better to stay dry. Otherwise, the YMCA runs a nice event. LOTS of volunteers. Nice course. Plenty of support from residents and seemed to be lots of family & friends, too. One thing I would like to see is the finish moved back down to the old location as the end of the bridge just seems to get really clogged with people. But that's just my opinion.