I signed up for this race a week before. I switched running 13 miles on my Birthday, to this race. So then I only had to run 8 miles on my Birthday.

I have been avoiding the heat as much as I can, by running on a treadmill. So far I have done a 10 and 8 mile run on a treadmill. I knew if I didn't sign up for a race, I wouldn't make it up early enough to run 13 miles outside.

So I signed up for this race as my Birthday present to myself. Ha!

It was also nice that it was only $55 a week ahead of time. Of course you have heard the saying... you get what you pay for. Yeah.

So the start line is unrecognizable at the start line. Eh, OK, I don't need all the decorations and what not.

The race started promptly at 7:30 AM. Good. I knew I would be running slow and out there till 10:00 AM.

My goal was to keep a 11:00-11:30 minute mile. And I did pretty good for the first 6 miles. Then it all kind of went to hell after that.

The first 2 aid stations were good. Had water and Gatorade. Warm water, which sucked. At maybe the 3rd aid station I got some water that had two little pieces of melted ice in it. All right that was nice. I had hope for cold water.

Go to another aid station. No water. Hum. Go to another aid station, looking pretty slim and no cold water. Can't recall if there was water or not.

Luckily I had my 10oz water bottle in my hand, and I had not been drinking out of it, and drinking at the aid stations. Thank goodness. Because I had water, when none was on the course.

I took in a gel at miles 4.5 - 5.0 and mile 9.

The last 4-5 miles were miserable. I had to get REALLY HOT water out of a fountain. I was dying for some COLD water. I finally begged some ice water off some spectators. Then I hit an aid station with water- HOT WATER. Nice. I was so happy to get that cold water. I believe that was mile 7 ish.

The last 3 miles were a complete down suffer-fest. Tons of people walking. We were just surviving at that point. No one cared much at this point.

During the last 3 miles, I saw 3 people on the ground. They were overheating it seemed and had crowds of people around them trying to help. I kept moving because they were being helped already.

Of course, I saw an ambulance on the way to help as well, further down the path.

Then I was pissed off. I mean, usually I attribute people passing out to poor training. But come on... it was 95 ish degrees... we have had multiple days of 100+ degrees, and the Mellew race production company didn't stock enough ICE, WATER, and GATORADE to support racers on the course till the END of the race? Give me a freaking break! As far as I'm concerned they were completely irresponsible in the hosting of this race.

Luckily I got to pass my car on the way to the finish line. So I stopped and grabbed cold water out of my ice chest. I then sucked down 10 oz of water quickly. It felt so nice to drink cold water. I finished and went directly back to my car. I wasn't willing to walk around. Even if I did, I was going to find someone in charge and bitch them out for the irresponsibility.

1- 10:55
2- 10:53
3- 11:07
4- 11:12
5- 10:51
6- 11:19
7- 11:16
8- 10:53
9- 12:49
10- 12:13
11- 13:17
12- 12:49
13- 12:17

Mellew Race Productions put on a horrible race today. They are LUCKY someone did not die. As it was, I saw 3 people on the ground the last 3 miles of the 13.1. They didn't have enough water, Gatorade, or ice to support ALL the racers. This race gets a 1. I have never felt so pissed off at a race before in my life. I really wonder how these race productions are given the green light to put something like this on. They should have to show that they will supply a certain amount of water, ice, and Gatorade per x people, before they can take money.

The Mellew Race Production company is irresponsible. Do NOT do any of their races, unless you want a self-supported race, with no water and HOT water in 95 degree heat.