Jennifer Sutherland's Staging Area

The internatonal half is difficult. You can actually look up the elevation rates to see how high the bridge is and the tunnel is to see the height that you’re gonna need to do. There are plenty of water stations. For the 1st 3rd of the course, have a water station every 2 miles. The middle of the course, have a water station every mile and a 1/2. For the last 3rd of the course, have a water station every mile. I think that this is one of the best run courses I’ve ever done. Very organized, lots of water, loss of signage, and lots of communication beforehand to make me feel comfortable.

On the negative side, I was disappointed that there weren’t as many people along the marathon route as I thought there would be to cheer people on. For example, I’ve been to some 5 k’s that have a bunch of bands and/or school cheerleaders or marching bands performing to keep people energized along the route. This one, I only saw 1 actual band of 3 guys performing. In general, there weren’t a lot of people outside their houses cheering us on or anything like that. that sort of bummed me out. The other disappointing thing, and my friend Kathy and I both said the same thing, is afterwards the after party was really lame. I was disappointed that there wasn’t some activity going on. There was a beer tent that you have to pay for. But other than that, there were a couple of tents where there were specific sponsors that people had their teams coming in to say Hi. But there wasn’t any music or anything. there wasn’t really a celebration type of feel afterwards.

The marathon and international 1/2 marathon people all start at the same time, but it’s based on your pace that you select and tell them. So on your bib it will give you a letter and that is the corral you need to go to. Although the start was at 7:00 a.m., because I was in the last corral, I didn’t actually go through the start line until almost 7:30 a.m.. They said they would close the race course at 11:00 a.m., which would have been 4 hours. But for me, that only gave me 3 and a 1/2 hours to finish the course. So, that’s why I was nervous about getting swept. I took longer than 3 and a 1/2 hours and I was fine. I honestly think they over estimate the time for the sweepers, to scare people. But there were people that came in an hour after me. So I know that I was safe.

The tunnel was no joke. I legit had to stop and lean against the wall because I was about to pass out. It was stuffy and the exhaust fumes were awful with zero fresh air. I was so relieved when I made it through the tunnel and was out in the open again. There were 0 cars in the tunnel. But it was just the fumes. Keep in mind it’s almost a mile long, underground. So there really isn’t much air. It was that it was stuffy. More so than the actual fumes, for me anyway. I did realize that on the outside of each lane, there was like a vent that had some cool air coming in for part of the way. So I was running right next to those to get as much of that air I could. But I still got very light headed. The bridge however had one lane that was being used sporadically. It looks like they were Letting cars over, escorted, a few cars at a time. I would see an escort Before & After about 5 cars coming from one direction to go across. And then a few minutes later 5 cars coming from the other direction escorted to go across the bridge. I heard that several thousand people started the international half and or full but didn’t finish. I also heard that several quit after the tunnel. So be prepared for the tunnel!

I really appreciated all of the communication for this race. It was very well organized!

I did it anyway. I have the medal and the photo to prove it. And I’m pretty damn proud of myself. For all of you that have considered starting to run, or even walk more frequently, I hope that I was able to provide a little inspiration. No one will ever accuse me of looking fit or having a runner’s body. But, I run. And therefore, I’m a runner and I have a runner’s body. Don’t let anything stop you.