NANCY SPENCE's Staging Area

I got in line for the port-a-johns at 6:40 am, which should have been plenty of time, except for the fact that there were only 6 port-a-johns, an inadequate number for a race of 800+ participants. So when the gun went off and I was still in line, I tried not to stress about it, figuring my actual time didn’t start until I crossed the START line and then I would make up the time and pass people who were at the back of the race. There was only one problem with that. Since I had never run this before I did not know that I would reach an impassable bottle neck once we hit the trail. I crossed the START line at 04:24, something that can be verified. After one mile of asphalt running I hit the bottleneck. I was now stuck on a single file trail behind the slowest moving participants in the race. All the people who are at the back of the pack because they cannot run fast, choose to walk due to injuries, and the technical terrain which forces people to slow down, etc. Even though I wanted to go faster, there was not enough space to get around anyone (there was bush on both sides of trail) and this went on for 2.5 miles until we hit the first aid station. That first aid station needs to be pushed away a little further back because when we exit that single file trail, we spill right into a wall of people in line at the aid station. I was able to make up some time after that due to the wider trail, however, it was impossible to make up the time I had lost from that single file trail for 2.5 miles.

But I wasn’t stressing too much as I didn’t expect to medal and was there for the scenery (which did not disappoint). I came in 4th place and I was ok with that, until I got to the results page and discovered I was only 3 seconds behind the 3rd place finisher and only 3 minutes behind the 2nd place finisher. And that’s when, (I’m going to be honest) I got pretty ticked off. If not for the inadequate number of port-a-johns, I would have absolutely been in 3rd place and quite likely even been in second place. But that bottleneck of people on that single file trail eliminated me this opportunity and that is due entirely to the port-a-johns shortage. So future runners beware, make sure you are at the start line when the gun goes off. And train for hills, big ones. This was my 47th state and I’ve run over 75 half marathons. This was the toughest I’ve done. Also finish line food was mediocre and pizza arrived 3.5 hours after race started. If not for the scenery, this race would have been terrible.