Stuf Yur Face

This morning, I ran in the Stuf Yur Face Half Marathon.  The running group we sometimes run with randomly decided to hold this unsanctioned event...and it kind of took on a life of its own.  Normally, there are twenty or so runners on Sunday.  Today, there were sixty five that ran in the half marathon and a few more that ran shorter distances or provided support.  The group even got my favorite quirky running store to time the race.

Start & finish of the race.

Although it's basically a trail through the swamp, the greenway is quite nice to run on.  The trails are either asphalt, boardwalk or gravel and mostly shaded.  It's a pretty popular place for a lot of runners, walkers and cyclists.  I have to think that this morning most of them were wondering why sixty-five people had on these budget racing bibs.

The race bibs had "Stuf Yur Face" Half Marathon written on them in sharpie.

I ran most of the first four miles with someone, first a girl only running partway and then snagged the husband on his return (he wasn't running the race) and made him run with me for a half mile.  It wasn't too long after that before I started seeing the runners coming back from the turnaround and would wave or shout encouragement back and forth.

At the turnaround, runners had the option of eating donuts for a two minute time reduction each.  There was also an extra two minute deduction for eating three at once (full-size donuts, by the way).  I'm not exactly crazy about donuts at any time and mid-race sounded particularly unappetizing, so I chose to pass on that race element.

The worst part of the race was the last mile.  Since the greenway is only six miles long, the course extended onto the sidewalk on a nearby road.  However, the husband ran that part with me since he'd only done eight miles.  We run better together when it's only part of the time.

I crossed the finish line at 2:14:43, less than two minutes off my PR, in fifty-ninth place (which sounds a lot better if you don't know how many runners there were).  Considering I'd only decided to join this run a few days ago, I consider that not too shabby.  However, I may have pushed it a little hard, as my body is now extremely pissed.  At least it's got a couple of weeks to recover before marathon training starts.

In keeping with the name of the race, a plethora of goodies were waiting at the finish line.  I mostly sampled the cupcakes, but there were also cookies, cakes, brownies, etc.  Now that's the way to end a race!

One of three tables of goodies at the end of the race.