Meet-U in 5 and a Half - Half Marathon, Titusville, PA
Not long after signing up for the Oil Creek 100 Ultramarathon in October, received an email from the RD about a chance to preview part of the course. The Oil Creek 100 runs on a 31 mile loop split up into four sections. This half marathon would run on sections 4 and 1 (in that order). My brother also wanted to run this since he has volunteered for some pacing in the fall and it was also a good chance for brother time.
Titusville is birthplace of the Oil Industry with the Drake well. Race started in the parking lot of the Drake well museum. Cool and cloudy, we were fortunate that it wasn't raining at the start. We started with a one mile loop run across a grass dike, then back through the parking lot before we turned onto the trail. Trail started climbing right away. There would be over 1700' of climbing (the 100 mile race has 17,000 total feet of climbing).
Jim and I stuck together with me running behind him. He was right behind a woman named Julie who we passed after about 10 minutes. Jim caught his hydration pack and I was thinking about how he misjudged the clearance from the pack to the tree I slammed my shoulder into the same tree so hard I was soon thankful I didn't actually break it (nice sized bruise later).
After the big climb the trail was up and down, in and out of small ravines crossing streams which fed into the bigger creek down below. Some streams we went through and some had very small wooden bridges. I went down one pretty steep and muddy section which slowed me down a lot. Jim was far ahead and Julie caught up and passed me. Caught back up to Jim and Julie. A couple of times a guy dressed in black and green was just a few feet behind me.
Rain had started after a couple of miles but it was light and had to filter through the trees, so stayed dry for the most part. The race had a 5 hour time limit and I had no idea how much time I'd actually need, worried that it might be death race hard. The trail was challenging at points but never brutal.
At about 7 miles we came to a road where a bridge would take us over the river. The four of us were there - Jim, Julie, the guy in black and green. After a brief stop I got going along with the others. Julie asked the volunteers how many women were ahead of her - they said 3. Then she said to us "Ok, take us home boys". So, I went out in front and thought I'd pick things up and see if I could catch female #3 (but had no idea how far ahead). Julie was soon shouting "turn, turn!" - I had overshoot the turn from the road to the trail. Back on track, more climbing and I was feeling good. I was thinking Jim would catch up and pass me again on own of the downhills but I was getting farther out front than I thought. I soon passed up one guy. A few miles later while going in and out of a ravine, passed one more guy.
Trail was getting muddier and muddier - could no longer go around the muddy sections had to start going through them. I also kept on hearing over and over again the words of the race director "assume that every root, rock, and bridge is slippery". I had a few near misses with slipping but overall kept a good footing.
With less than a mile to go the trail ended onto a paved bike trail. Passed one more guy as I approached the bridge back over to the park.
3rd place female and gone through the finish about 30 seconds ahead of me.
Took off my race bib and jogged back to go find Jim. Soon, saw the green/black clothed guy and a little later saw Julie. Ran to almost where the trail met the bike trail, saw a couple more people and then Jim and ran with him back to the finish.
Splits: 9:45, 13:55, 11:30, 12:34, 13:29, 12:24, 14:57, 13:26, 10:17, 11:51, 13:48, 12:08, 8:41, 0.11@6:20
Stuck around for the awards ceremony and some refreshments before getting into some warmer dry clothes - temperature was dropping, so we kind of lucked out for the race.
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