Wineglass Half Marathon

Of all of my races I signed up for, this was the one I was looking forward to the most. A glass medal is so unique. In addition, you get a free wine glass and mini champagne bottle! Definitely my kind of race. 

Expo/packet pickup
The expo this year was at the Corning Glass Museum. I overheard another person saying how much nicer it is now that it is at the Museum this year. It gave me the impression that it was elsewhere before. 

There was a sign to go downstairs into the shop; however, there weren't any other signs letting us know where to go from there. I found the expo, but not the packet pickup. Eventually I just asked someone and was directed to the far end of the building. 

Behind the escalators there was a table set up for the bibs then a table for the shirt/wine glass. You receive a long sleeve tech shirt (pink for girls, blue for boys, ugh really?), wine glass, and mini bottle of sparkling wine from a local winery. 

You walk down the hall to double check your timing chip then enter into the expo. 

It is in a meeting room which could be a touch bigger. There were local running shops along with local vendors (honey, wine, etc). There was a large store with lots of branded Wineglass Half and Marathon gear. I picked up ear warmers since the temperature just kept dropping. All I had were caps and I just wanted something to cover my ears. 

Early to bed since the race was scheduled to start at 7:45 with the last bus leaving at 7 am. 

Race day:
A balmy 35 degrees at the start which means it was slightly less (I think 33/34) when I was waiting for the bus. All racers had to meet at the finish line in order to catch a bus to their respective starts. My parents were up with me so my dad was able to drop me off close to the finish line around 6:40. It is definitely not a good sign when you have to scrape ice off of the car before you leave so I was freezing waiting in line. It was not obviously clear which line was for the half marathon and which was for the marathon. I went to the first line I saw and hoped I picked the right one. I made friends quickly since it was a decent wait until we finally got on the very warm bus. It was a quick (15 minutes?) ride to the starting line near a school. We got off of the bus and were greeted with a huge line of porta potties (yea!). My advice: look around at the different lines. Some lines were for only a couple of bathrooms while others used 5 or 6. I picked a quick moving one and got to the start with plenty of time. 

walking to the start

The sun was finally coming up so I was starting to warm up. Unfortunately the race started at 8 and not 7:45 am.

view from the starting line

My race:
I felt much better for this race vs the one I did two weeks prior. For one, it was cooler. Cold is always better than hot! My muscles weren't too sore and my knees didn't bother me. The first couple of miles were just me trying to warm up. Once I hit mile 4 I started striping off layers. The next few miles really just flew by. The scenery was gorgeous with rolling hills and fields.

One road was closed off and just for runners, but then you turn onto a semi-busy road and you are stuck on the shoulder. There are cones and policeman, but I still was not a fan of this. At one point there was a guy who really had to go pee and just ran into the cornfield. Between mile 8 and 9 is when you turn off the roads and into the park/school. 

Around mile 9 I noticed I was doing really well and could possibly PR. I tried to start picking up the pace, but this is where it became tricky getting around people. The path narrows considerably in the park. This is also where a water stop was so people were stopping or walking in the path. You couldn't go around them on the outside so you were stuck slowing down or even stopping yourself. I can tell it did slow me down since I was doing negatives split since mile 9 except for the water break mile. The time between mile 11 and 12 seemed to take forever. I was really pushing myself trying to get that PR.

Soooo close. My Garmin clocked in at 2:14:43. My previous PR was 2:14:20. I did this at the Hershey Half Marathon in 2013. It was my first half and not knowing what to expect, I took it easy. Afterwards I felt great and could have keep running. This go around that was not the case. I definitely was beat. The back of my knee finally started to hurt and I physically felt drained. In order to find our your official time, you scan the QR code on your bib. Annoyingly this meant I had to download an app to see what I did it in. I crossed the finish line at 2:17 and change, but I also knew I started around 8:02. The results were a little behind and stopped around 2:10 time, 2:12 gun time. The website then did not publish an update for another hour and a half UGH! I was dying to know my time. When they finally did update it, it only gave the overall gun time, not your net time. At this point I thought I'd never know my real time. Later that *night* they finally updated it properly with the gun and net times. 22 seconds off my PR :(

best part- finally enjoying the sparkling wine!

My slowest mile: Mile 1- 10:47. My fastest mile: Mile 13- 8:38. Really pleased with my timing. I kept it steady in the mid 10s until mile 9 when I was hitting around 10 minute mile. By mile 12 and 13 I was at 9:14 and 8:38.

The course:
Flat. Technically I think it is considered a downhill course but it really is just a flat course. You definitely cannot tell you are going downhill. There was a minor hill at the beginning of the race and another "hill" to go up to a railroad track. It manages to stay flat while going through the rolling hills of Southern New York. 

The half marathon begins 13 miles from Corning while the full marathon  is 26 miles away. 

It was my first point-to-point race. Parts of the course were very scenic especially the start, but parts were eh. For awhile we ran on a road which was alongside a highway. There were not too many spectators along the course. You go through a couple of small towns which would have a few. Since it was a point-to-point I anticipated fewer fans. The finish line for both the half and full marathon went through the center of the town and had fans lined on both sides of the streets.

Final thoughts:
I would definitely recommend this race. In fact, I hope to come back here someday and do the full marathon. The race would be a touch better if it was a week or two later to coincide with the changing leaves. To me this is the perfect size race- just big enough to get all the goodies and perks of an expo, but not too big that you are overwhelmed and just a number. Best part- the food! Hello pizza mmm. Yes, they were handing out slices of pizza after the race. The rest was fairly typical post-race munchies. Circling this one to do again in the next couple of years. 


Next race: Runner's World 10k