Allstate Half-Marathon Recap

On Friday, as I was perusing Twitter, I came across tweets about the Allstate 13.1 in Flushing Meadow Park Saturday morning. I figured I 1) I had no plans on Saturday, 2) may be moving to the hood soon, and 3) had to get in a 13 mile run anyway, so I got myself a last minute bib and decided to run it. 

On race day, my dad drove me the start but we couldn't find the entrance so he said to me, "you like to run so run around and find it." Once I found it, I still had about an hour to kill so I went inside the Tennis Center and bought Welch's Fruit Snacks (my fave) as mid-run fuel. There were a lot of people just roaming around and since it was so cold, I just ran around trying to warm up. The announcer wouldn't stop rubbing the weather in our face. That was super annoying. 

Once the race began, I started with a 1:50 pace group but about 6 miles in I decided to toss aside any thoughts of a decent race time and run the course,  just to run. That and my Garmin died on me sooo....it was a pretty clear sign. I had never done that before and it felt so good!

The course: Flat with about 4-5 repeats on the same bridge. It wasn't very long/steep but do it at mile 12 and you want to kill yourself. There were also a few puddles that we had to jump over several times because the course repeated. It's pretty scenic at times and pretty not scenic at other times, esp when you're running next to the highway and can hear all the traffic. I hate running next to cars. There were spectators and bands scattered throughout so that was nice too. 

The weather: Sunny but WINDY WINDY WINDY. At times I felt like I was running on a treadmill. The winds were between 20-30 mph. It was like that almost the entire time. Good thing I stole tissue from the porta-potty because I was sniffling the whole time. 

Overall, I would run it again. They had lots of snacks afterward (including OREOS!) and a band playing. People were doing the electric slide to the music. The crowd is great and it's a very nice change from running around Central Park. Good job, Allstate!