Hyannis Half Marathon Recap

Last weekend we went home for the Hyannis Half Marathon.  I'll be honest - I was kind of dreading it.  I knew I hadn't trained as much as I should have, and was really worried about my IT Band and hip acting up.  It started snowing lightly on Saturday night and they were forecasting snow for the area where my parents live as well as Hyannis, so a little part of me was hoping that maybe it'd be snowing too bad to make the drive down, but the roads were fine, and in the end I was glad we went, because I would have felt really bad if I didn't go just because of the weather.

The event itself was a little bit disorganized.  Due to the nature of the Cape, there's not huge places with tons and tons of parking, and the organizers didn't let you know that if you were coming down the morning of that there was going to be nowhere to park.  Marek and I first tried to get to the conference center, but it was blocked off, so we ended up parking on the grass wherever we could find room.

Getting to the bib pick-up was a nightmare.  There were no signs or anything, and because of the weather, it was just mobbed inside.  Everywhere there were lines for the bathroom, and we had to push and shove our way through crowds to get to the other side of the conference center to get our bibs.  They hung up an Excel printout on the wall and you had to look up your own number, but they put the  numbers high up (thanks a lot!) and in the corner, so it was a huge mess.

Once we had our numbers (and our t-shirts!!!), it was time to wait in line for the bathroom.  There were huge lines inside as I've already said, and huge lines outside for the Port-a-Potties.  I decided to try waiting, but then I heard them saying that there were only 10 minutes until the start.  What to do, what to do.  I saw a bunch of guys running over to some bushes, so I figured what the heck.  I ran over to the bushes too.  Another girl saw me (she was heading to the bushes too), and said, "Great idea, right?"  Of course I had to hunt around for an area that was kind of hidden from view, and Marek blocked the rest of me.  It was good to go beforehand though.  There were still people standing in line when we started.

The race was promoted as a "mostly flat, gently rolling" course.  The "mostly flat" part was a big lie, but the Cape scenery by the beaches was very pretty.  There were stretches where it was flat, but enough hills to qualify it as NOT "mostly flat".  Good for the butt, but not good for IT Bands that slacked on training!  My hip started acting up around mile 8, and my IT band reared its ugly head around mile 10, which resulted in my walking-running the last couple of miles.  

That being said, according to my watch, I finished just under my Boston time (so new PR), but the official results say otherwise.  So even though I didn't make my goal time, I think I would have been very close without the leg issues, so that's good enough for me!  I'll have to readjust my goal times for my races this year, but I think I will be able to hit my Hyannis goal in Indy!  

Marek finished in under 2 hours, which was his goal, and he was very happy about that.  He met me at the finish line and we grabbed a bunch of free protein drinks and then drove home!  We were glad we went in the end, because I would have been pretty disappointed in myself if I had wimped out and not gone.