Race Recap of the 2020 Buckeye Half Marathon and 10K

I ran the 2020 Buckeye Half Marathon and 10K this past weekend. It made me remember why I like to run races.

Running the Buckeye Half Marathon and 10K is turning into a tradition of sorts. I ran the same race last year in 2019. Reading last year’s recap is bittersweet because I said I wanted to train over the winter for the 2020 race season and as we know, that didn’t happen.

I ran the 10K again. Two years ago I trained for the half marathon and somehow injured myself and missed the race. I’ve stuck with the shorter distance for now.

2020 Buckeye Half Marathon and 10K

This course for this race is a run through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It’s a large loop almost completely on roads. One of the roads was closed. The others had at least one lane open but fortunately there wasn’t much traffic.

The weather was pretty miserable. You can see in the photos what the sky looked like. It rained at the beginning of the race. The rain was hard enough that everything got soaked. I discovered that my right shoe leaks. Eventually my left shoe also leaked. Running on wet feet isn’t the best. Fortunately, the rain stopped and we ran under threatening skies but no more rain. Also, the temperature dropped later in the day but it stayed steady at close to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Wet and warm was bearable. Wet and cold would have been dreadful so I felt like this could have been a lot worse.

There were 120  participants in the 10K and two in my age group of women. Due to Covid 19 precautions, each race was limited this year to 150 participants, whereas in 2019 there were almost a total of 600 participants.

My results were 1:15:08 with a pace of 12:05. In 2019, my results were 1:17:29 with a pace of 24:57. So I was about a minute and a half faster this year. Interesting. There’s something wrong with last year’s results because my pace couldn’t have been that slow but I think the total time is correct.

This year I came in first in my age group (out of two) and last year I came in second (out of two.) We really need to get more women over 50 running!

Covid 19 Precautions

Last year there was lots of activity post-race with plenty of snacks and drinks. This year was limited to water and we were encouraged to move out of the area quickly. I know there were people I knew running but I didn’t see them because there was no socializing going on.

Results were provided later in the day so we wouldn’t hang about waiting for them.

We were told to run 6 feet apart from other runners and to ensure a 6 foot distance when passing someone. That worked about as well as you might expect. Some paid attention to that and others did not. We did not have to wear masks, even at the starting line.

 

Post Race

I felt great after running the race: I felt energized, though also very wet. Next time, I will make sure to bring dry shoes and socks to wear on my drive home. Peeling off the wet clothes  and taking a warm shower felt great. No ice baths for this race recovery.

We got a nice medal and a performance sweat shirt for running the race. I can go pick up a mask as my prize for winning my age group. Given how many masks I go through, I’ll be happy to get a new one.

The race organizers did a great job with putting on this race. Given the circumstances, it was amazing we got to run it at all.

I sure hope there are races next year. It was fun to run this one!