On April 21st, I ran the Parkinson's Half Marathon in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin on the Glacial Drumlin Trail. I had heard of this race from a friend and decided it was a good reason to run. Proceeds went towards the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Parkinson's Disease Association. Also, I needed to run a race! Most of the races I've ran have been large events with well over 10,000 participants. This one was quite small with about 225 people running the half marathon and 150 running the 5k, but no one shouldn't discount a race just because of its size. This race was very well organized and everyone was friendly and hospitable.
As I crossed the finish line, I discovered another advantage to running a smaller race: the opportunity to PR!! With less people running, there was less of a crowd to fight through at the start giving me a room to stretch my legs and get my race pace started earlier. This being my first trail race, I didn't know what to expect, but the course was straight and flat on a crushed limestone trail so there wasn't anything technical to prey on my inexperience on the trail. The weather was very cool and sunny, but while I managed to save time by not stopping for water, I lost about 30 seconds stopping to shake a few rocks out of my shoe. So, with only 2 hours of sleep and driving 2.5 hours to Wisconsin, I finished with a personal best time of 2:01:43!
My rewards at the finish line included a bottle opener/ finisher medal, a whole lot of food (some homemade), and just about all the beer I could drink for free. The lesson: be on the look out for smaller, local races that promote good causes, offer great hospitality, and give you the chance to run a good race.
