Haunted Forest Marathon

The shirt was the hook that got me to look at the race. Last year’s results had me thinking “I can make the podium!” I think that everyone else must have caught wind of that notion, too! The thought of making the podium is why I signed up.
👊🏼 The race directors had the best Race Information packet I’ve ever received. No BS – just straightforward, succinct information. No fluff. No flowery language just “this is where you go for this. This is the time it starts. You can park here. Water will be here, here, and here. Spectators can see you here, here, and here. This is what the course is like…” spot-on.
👊🏼 The production company had another race that same weekend nearby so they had a dual packet pickup. It made sense. They also had a 4-mile race on Saturday (that gave a bonus medal if you did both races in the same weekend) so it made logistic sense to host the packet pick-ups in the same venue. Simple enough – produce ID, get your packet. (gear-check bags available on request and they had safety pins at the table if you wanted to grab them.) The shirt did not disappoint. I don’t regret flying from Florida to Ohio for a shirt. 😊 Since I came directly from the Cleveland Airport and wanted to check out how gravelly the course was, we got the the expo as they were packing things up. I didn’t see a lot of vendors (a guy selling event Merch (I bought a beanie. It was irresistible to me. I love in Florida– I don’t often need a beanie but it was cute.) There was also a guy selling some really nice medal displays that looked more like home décor than medal displays. If I can give a shout-out — prestigemedaldisplays.com — never would have thought of displaying my medals like that. Check them out.
👊🏼 Something clever I think that they did was they had a local school design the mile markers (so every mile had a marker, which was nice). They were all Halloween-themed and after the race, they sold them. The money went back to the school’s art department. I like that a lot. It gets the community involved. (and – hopefully – will get some kids hooked on running 😜)
👊🏼I didn’t pay for preferred parking. I parked at the field where they suggested and – like they suggested – I wrapped my feet in plastic shopping bags (shower caps will do, too) because it was a grassy field and dew was settled on the grass — keep your feet dry, my friends. No one likes cold, soggy socks. 💡 I liked that suggestion and will put it in my mental notes for future races. The bus ride was – maybe 5 minutes away. They dropped us off and we walked across the street to the park where the preferred parking, finish line, portapotties, and bag-drop area was. It is by no means a busy street so it was not a big deal to cross the street from the bus.
♥ Sometimes when I run, there are images that just stick in my mind forever (the sun rising over a field of wheat at Disneyland Paris half was one of them — gorgeous.) Well, I had one of those moments at this race, too. Now, picture this: it’s autumn. The leaves are changing. Dew has settled on the grass. You’re running along the Ohio/Erie Canal. It’s 40ºF. Steam is rising off the water. There’s a little fog. The sun has barely peaked over the horizon. Along the trail (probably every 25 feet or so) there is a tiki torch lit. It is perfectly quiet except the sound of your feet and – every once in a while – a crackle from one of those tiki torches. I wish I had gotten a video. It was beautiful. 🍁🍁🍁
🚽 They had 49 portapotties on course and at the start line — Neither at the beginning nor after the race did I have to wait. They were clean and stocked with both plenty of TP and hand sanitizer.
🛍 bag drop was not particular. If you had a bag (any bag) that you wanted to drop to have after the race, they had a covered picnic area with tables where the DJ was. you could drop your bag. Someone was there watching it but the race was so small, there may have been 25 people who actually dropped a bag. Everyone else probably just used their cars. I had a while to drive back to my parents’ house so I wanted to change before I left.
🛣 THE COURSE – the course is a mixture of blacktop and a finely-packed gravel. (kind of like running on kitty litter that had been run on for a few years.) there were enough little stones where I could see something may get into my shoes so when I did my recon mission the day before, I decided that I was going to wear my gaiters over my shoes. I’m glad that I did — they were quite dusty when I finished the race. There’s one hill about .25-miles into the race that may last for a 10th of a mile. That’s pretty much it until a few small rises where the trails meet the cross roads and a “boardwalk bridge” around mile 17.8 or so that you cross out and on the way back (at about mile 20-ish). That bridge is nothing compared to the first hill – you barely notice it.
1️⃣ The mile markers were a little haphazard. I mean, we WERE running in the woods. If there was a fallen tree, a log, a drop-off, etc., they had to put the sign as close as they could without putting it on the actual trail itself. Some were a little long. Some were a little short. In the end, I was sad that I crossed the finish line, stopped by watch and saved the data. When I loaded up my Garmin, I went to add my MARATHON BADGE — no marathon badge. 😟 It only recorded 26.17 miles. I think that the GPS was a little spotty in places as there were some places were my watch beeped “SLOW DOWN” and 1/2-second later it was beeping “HURRY UP!”
🚨🚨🚨 LOOK AT YOUR WATCH WHEN YOU CROSS THE FINISH LINE AND STOP IT AT 26.2 IF YOU WANT YOUR GARMIN MARATHON BADGE 🚨🚨🚨
💧Other than the course being a little short and me not getting another Marathon badge, I have only one gripe: I love volunteers. I love that they come out and support the race but water station volunteers should be handing out water. I always carry a bottle with me as supplemental water. I use what is on course but I carry a 0.5L bottle with me, too. Water stops can only be placed along this course where road intersections are and -if you read the race guide/instructions- you know that there are 2 stretches on the course where there are about 3 miles between water stops. 13.5 – about 16.5 and (on the way back) 22.5 – 25.5. As I approached the one at 22.5, I called out “water, water! I need water!” They were jumping up and down, cheering but no one grabbed a water to hand to me. I tried to grab one from the table, I missed it and knocked over a few more in the process. My throat got a huge lump in it. I was choking up. I wanted to cry I was on a mission — I had been counting the female marathoners on the turn-arounds – I had a chance to make the podium. I’m not stopping at water tables. So fighting back tears, I moved on with my life — about 5 miles without water since I missed that one. I was throwing blessings and kisses to the volunteers at 25.5. I didn’t care that I could have all the water in the world .7 miles from there. I took 2 cups at that station. 🌟Great volunteers at that table. 🌟 Mad props to the life-savers at mile 25 water stop! 🤜🏼🤛🏻
While I gave it everything I had, I didn’t make my goal that day. I can’t blame it on anything other than the fact that I didn’t train hard enough this summer. I managed to snag 3rd place in my age group. It was my first trophy that I ever thought I was fast enough to get (at 2 other races, I placed but didn’t think I was fast enough to warrant anything and didn’t find out until well after I got home 🤷🏻‍♀️) but I checked in at this one and she said “3rd place!” 😃😄😄😄 I GOT A TROPHY! (The medal was great, too. I was impressed that each distance got a unique design, too.)
❔❔Would I run it again ?? I always say I’d only ever run a race once but then – you know – sometimes they have a way of pulling you back in. Maybe I will. All-in-all, I loved it! (a little salty about not getting my Garmin badge but I have a trophy!)
Run this race! It’s fun! 😊